Hitchcock/Truffaut

That recent documentary (by Kent Jones) on Francois Truffaut's 1962 interview with Alfred Hitchcock turns out to be a real treat. I had assumed it was a filmed record of their week-long conversation - I had the book when it first came out in 1966, and later as a paperback, but of course it was not filmed, just audio recorded, and lots of still photographs taken. 

So, we get a compendium of Hitch clips, from the earliest onwards, and some Truffaut moments too - I really have to see THE 400 BLOWS again now (somehow I never liked JULES ET JIM that much, but love LE PEAU DEUCE, HISTORY OF ADELE H, L'ENFANT SAUVAGE, the Antoine Doinel films, DAY FOR NIGHT, MISSISSIPPI MERMAID etc - as per reviews, Truffaut label), and regulars will know we have done a lot on Hitchcock here, including that "Sight & Sound" list with VERTIGO now at Number One - Hitch label. 

Also fascinating at the talking heads commenting here: only Scorsese, Paul Schrader, David Fincher, Richard Linklater, Wes Anderson, Peter Bogdanovich, Olivier Assayas, and Arnaud Desplechin.

All those clips of the Hitch classics and extended comments and scenes from VERTIGO and PSYCHO only makes one want to see them all again. 

Both directors were at their peak here, Hitch died in 1980, aged 80 after completing his last, FAMILY PLOT, in 1976, hard to believe Truffaut died four years later, aged 52 in 1984. Back to those movies, then.