Hitchcock
Director:
Sacha Gervasi
Year: 2012
Rating: 6.5
First,
let me admit that I have never seen Psycho. Nor the remake. Not sure why
really other than I have heard so much about it and seen so many clips of
it that it can only be anti-climatic. As part of Hitchcock's marketing strategy,
no one was allowed into the theater once it began and the audience was asked
not to divulge the plot. Too late for me. But, I don't think it really matters
very much whether you have seen Psycho or not to appreciate this film. This
is based on Stephen Rebello's book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho
and though it takes place during the making of the film, the film's real
purpose is to explore the relationship between Hitchcock and his wife Alma
Reville.
But Reville (played by Helen Mirren) was
much more than his wife. She was often his scriptwriter, his steady hand,
his organizer, quality control, his final voice. They met while working in
junior positions at a film company and she was there with him as he rose
to become one of the great directors. She was very much a force. By the time
of Psycho, they had been married for 34 years and she understood every tic,
obsession and mood of Hitchcock. Much has been written over the years about
what a perverse and off color person Hitchcock was and this film leans into
all of them in perhaps a heavy handed fanciful manner. He was not a nice
man. A roly-poly man filled with insecurities, resentment and lust contained.
Anthony Hopkins as Hitchcock is rather wonderful giving the audience no reason
to like this man. Enigmatic, moody, cruel, combustible. Mirren is equally
as good and the scene in which she finally lets go at Hitchcock for his selfishness
and obsession with his blonde actresses is magnificent. Hopkins best scene
is when he is trying to get Janet Leigh (Scarlett Johansson) to scream in
the shower scene and finally takes the knife himself and terrifies her.
People expecting a lot of detail about the
actual making of the film may be disappointed. There is some leading up to
the film, fighting the censors, some movie gossip and the stars shown off
screen, but very little about the making of. Hitchcock was coming off of
his huge hit North By Northwest and Paramount wanted another similar film
with big stars and glorious color. Hitchcock though felt he needed to go
in a different direction. To challenge himself and he read Bloch's Psycho.
That was based on the real life killer Ed Gein. Gein was quite the madman
and his series of crimes ("authorities discovered that he stole corpses from
local graveyards and fashioned keepsakes from their bones and skin. He also
confessed to killing two women: tavern owner Mary Hogan in 1954 and hardware
store owner Bernice Worden in 1957") has inspired a number of serial killer
films.
Hitchcock to the shock of everyone wanted
to adapt it to a film. Without any big stars and in black and white. Paramount
thought he was crazy and refused to finance it. He mortgaged his own home
though for a relatively small budget of $800,000. It made $50 million and
is considered by many as his last great film. I think you have to be a film
buff and Hitchcock fan to enjoy this. It is slow going and Hitchcock is portrayed
as such a sad man inside. I loved the ending though as he looks into the
camera and says he is looking for inspiration for his next film and a crow
lands on his shoulder.
