Hitchcock (Review)

Director: Sacha Gervasi

Company: The Montecito Picture Company, Cold Spring Pictures, Fox Searchlight Pictures

Year: 2012

Country: USA

Despite the talent involved, this biopic proves to be a mixed bag.

Perhaps no other 20th century filmmaker is as well known as Alferd Hitchcock. Often dubbed 'the master of suspense' Hitchcock is remembered for using twist endings and various macguffins as plot devices. His filmography, spanning from 1925 to 1976, includes Rebecca (1940), Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), and of course, Psycho (1960). Given how famous Alferd Hitchcock is it is not surprising that he would be chosen as the subject of a biographical movie (Indeed, the same year another film about Hitchcock, The Girl, was released by HBO and BBC.) I am sorry to say, however, that there are far better biopics out there than this one.

Director Sacha Gervasi focuses on the filming of Psycho and its troubled production. While narrowing the scope of a film can be beneficial in some cases. Hitchcock's plot feels a bit over stretched. The film opens with Alferd Hitchcock being congratulated for the success of his North by Northwest. However, Hitchcock is concerned that many of his peers are suggesting that he should retire. Not to be deterred, Hitchcock chooses to adapt something rather unsettling and unorthodox in order to prove them wrong. The book is Psycho, a horror novel based upon the crimes of serial killer Ed Gein. The project is an ambitious one, and puts tremendous strain on Hitchcock's already rocky relationship with his wife, Alma Reville. On top of this, Hitchcock must also try to get his controversial film approved by the Motion Picture Production Code, and deal with his own stress related vices (i.e. binge eating, flirting with other women).

Hitchcock the workaholic.

The movie's biggest flaw is that it does not tell us anything that we haven't already heard before. It feels half baked. Hitchcock's intended audience is likely not the casual movie goer, but rather avid film buffs and movie historians. However, Hitchcock spends most of its time explaining minute details, such as the lay out of sets, to fill up spare time. Perhaps, the film would have worked better if it were to encompass more of Alfred Hitchcock's career rather than just the filming of Psycho. Better yet, Hitchcock could have focused more on how the cast's relationships with one another and their obsessive director affected the overall direction of Psycho. Everyone gets some screen time, but a lot of it feels superficial. Certain scenes simply seem to drag on for too long. Other sequences, like Hitchcock's imaginary conversations with Ed Gein, are interesting but are tied into the plot clumsily, disrupting its narrative flow.

Sacha Gervasi took great lengths to recreate Psycho's sets, but didn't spend much time fleshing out all of Hitchcock's characters.

On the plus side, Hitchcock's acting is quite good. Its cast includes Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh (who sadly does not get enough screen time to fully develop her role), and Danny Huston as Whitfield Cook (a writer who tries to persuade Alma Reville to have an extra-material affair). Anthony Hopkin's role as Alfred Hitchcock and Helen Mirren's portrayal of Alma Reville are the best of the lot, which is fortunate since their presence practically holds this film together. The two have many great conversations together, often laden with wit, affectionate banter, and biting irony. Their realistic acting makes Hitchcock's and Mirren's marriage very relatable. Hitchcock and Mirren barely manage to hang onto their marriage, before they realize that they do, in fact, actually need each other.

Anthony Hopkin's and Helen Mirren's performances manage to make this film more enjoyable than it should be.

While not an awful film, Hitchcock is a rather disappointing attempt to explain the history behind one of cinema's most influential movies. The film simply drags on too long. Its focus is not were it should be all of the time, and it lacks insight. The acting is enough to save Hitchcock from being a complete waste of time, but it's not one that I will be pulling off the shelf very often.

Admit it, The Birds reference at the end was kind of clever.

Rating: 3/5

The Influence of German Expressionsim on American Cinema

Sunrise (1927), an example of an American film by a German director.

There is no doubt that the one of the greatest art forms to come out of the 20th century is movie making. Virtually, anybody alive today has a favorite movie or at least seen numerous films throughout their lifetime. But very few know about how, in the early, silent years of cinema, Hollywood was changed forever by the influence of German filmmakers.

Throughout the mid 1910s to 1920s, the American film industry focused mainly on only two main genres, action/adventure films (which were mainly based off historical events or novels) and comedies. Popular Hollywood films  at the time were: D.W. Griffith’s controversial, but highly influential Birth of A Nation (1915); the foreign fantasy, The Sheik (1921);  The Mark of  Zorro (1920) and The Thief of Baghdad (1924). But comedians (like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd) and comedic cartoons (such as Felix the Cat and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit) arguably met the widest success. 

Charlie Chaplin, one of the most famous American silent Stars.

Felix the Cat was to cartoons what Chaplin was to American cinema. 

However, filmmaking in Europe focused less on action-adventure and comedic routines than Hollywood did, and more on experimentation, visuals, emotion, and the flaws of human nature. This is particularly true in the case of German Expressionism- a term used to describe the unique take of  German filmmakers during the era. The movement was characterized by its usage of elaborate sets and exaggerated acting to emphasize mood, abstract scenery, high contrast lighting, and had a tendency to tackle darker subject matter. The plots and stories of the Expressionist films often dealt with madness, insanity, betrayal, and other “intellectual” topics. Some of the most famous expressionist films are: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), The Golem (1920), Nosferatu (1922), Faust (1924) Metropolis (1927), Pandora’s Box (1929), and M (1931).

A typical German Expressionist Film: moody, experimental, elaborately made, and dark.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a bizarre frame story in which a man retells his experience with a creepy carnival overruled by the hypnotist, Caligari, and the sleepwalker Caligari controls in order to carry out murders. It was one of the first movies to feature a twist ending (the narrator is revealed to be mentally insane). This film was hugely influential on many directors, like all expressionist films, but most notably Tim Burton. This can be seen in Burton’s fondness of using outlandish and geometrical sets, the resemblance of Edward Scissorhands to Cesare (the sleepwalker), and the dreamlike atmosphere in his films. 

It's easy to see the influence of this film on Tim Burton's style.

The Golem, Nosferatu, and Faust are arguably the expressionist films most responsible for creating the horror genre. All of three dealt with the supernatural, malicious beings or monsters, and featured dark and/or tragic storylines. The Golem was about rabbi creating a clay warrior to protect the Jews from being prosecuted, but his creation goes out of control. (This is pretty eerie considering that the Holocaust occurred twenty years later.) Nosferatu was one of the  earliest vampire films, heavily borrowed from Dracula, and linked the legend to the spread of the black plague. Faust, which was also adapted from a classic novel, was about an alchemist conflicted by his own selfish ambitions motivated by the Devil and his desire to do good. The effects of these films were felt immediately as Hollywood began releasing films like The Phantom of the Opera, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Frankenstein over the next several years.

Nosferatu is a vampire.  

This thing is not.

Metropolis is the story of a dystopian future were the elite live in luxury at the expense of  the underclass workers who live below surface. When a woman named Maria tries to bring peace between the exploited workers and the elite, a robot duplicate is given her image so it can manipulate the masses and crush any chance of rebellion. It was the most expensive silent film costing over 7 million Reichmarks which would be about $200 million today. Metropolis’s influence was huge. It is widely considered to be the first major (and most significant) science fiction film and featured ground-breaking special affects. Even today it has continued to be used as inspiration where you would least expect. For example, strangely enough, Lady Gaga. The name Lady Gaga actually comes from a music video by Queen entitled “Radio Gaga” which uses footage from Metropolis. Lady Gaga’s outlandish costumes also seem to be sometimes inspired by the Maria robot or the film’s bizarre dance scene. 

Marvel at how the miniatures were made.

Words can not describe how groundbreaking Metropolis was. 

Among the last German expressionist films made were Pandora’s Box and M. Both were less abstract in nature, set in contemporary times with a crime backdrop, and focused more on flawed, tormented characters with questionable motives. Pandora’s Box was about a woman whose selfish, seductive behavior ignites jealously in men causing her to be accused of manslaughter when one of her lovers murders another man. M featured a detective trying to track down a troubled child murderer. 

Pandoras' Box and M are perhaps the most Film Noir-like of German films.

By the end of the 1920s, the German film industry became increasingly regulated as the Nazi Regime rose to power. Many artists and filmmakers fled to Hollywood so they could continue to keep making films (and many of them also happened to be Jewish). They brought with them their unique visions and created a new major movement in Hollywood, Film Noir. Film Noir was also made in response to The Hays Box Office Code, which regulated the film industry causing many 'safe' films to made throughout the 1940s and 50s (i.e. musical romantic comedies). Film Noir movies were crime dramas shot in black and white, featured characters with questionable motives, femme fatales, and dramatic lighting. (Sound familiar?) This in turn eventually changed the whole Hollywood film industry by causing The Hayes Box Office Code to loosen its restrictions and eventually be replaced by the film rating system. Because German Expressionism influenced Film Noir it also influenced countless directors  (ranging from Orson Welles, to Alfred Hitchcock, to Ridley Scott) which made way for the variety of films we experience in modern cinema today.

Typical Film Noir movies. Notice how similar they looks to German Expressionist Films!

Alferd Hitchcock studied film in Germany for a while.

Thus, German Expressionist Films are hugely important to many aspects of film today. The genres Horror and Film Noir owe their origin to it. Expressionism, through influencing Film Noir, eventually resulted in the fall of the Hays Box Office Code. Countless directors also owe some of their success to techniques they picked up from German filmmakers. So next time you watch a movie, check to see if you can spot any traits associated with German Expressionism. You might be surprised.

  Citizen Cane, Sunset Blvd, The Godfather, Blade Runner, and even The Dark Knight are just a few examples of films influenced by the long legacy of German Expressionism.