Hitchcock

[MacGuffin]

Release date: January 10, 2013

Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson, Danny Huston, Toni Collette, Jessica Biel

Directed by: Sacha Gervasi

Premise: A love story between influential filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock and wife Alma Reville during the filming of "Psycho" in 1959.

[Pubrick]

ha the kids are gonna love this then they'll check out the real psycho and be bored shitless.

hitchcock has punked us again!

[Alexandro]

When the film deals with the making of Psycho, it's great But it's mostly deals with Hitchcock and Alma being assholes to each other so it's not that good.

SPOILERS

It has one great sequence near the end, when Hitch is outside the theater looking in (Norman Bates style) to the audience, waiting for them to react to his movie. Then he conducts them like an orchestra. I wish the film had more moments like that.

[Neil]

Spoils

Watched this the other day, and was not expecting what I saw, didn't see any press or trailers etc.  My girlfriend says, "is that...Anthony Hopkins?"  Needless to say, the performance of Hitch is great. I had no idea him and Alma were such assholes to each other, so I thought that aspect was fine.  Also, I'm glad the film had a few nods to the fact that Peggy and Alma had a lot to do with the whole operation, even though they probably weren't fully recognized in that aspect either.

what the hell was the deal with the Ed Gein stuff? I mean, the degree to which I understand it is that, Hitch somewhat wanted to base Norman Bates off of him. The only reasonable thing I can think of is that it represents a piece of Hitch.  I can't remember the exact line, but as he passes around the photos of of Gein's victims he says something about all of us having this certain thing inside of us that makes us relate to Gein.

SPOILERS
It has one great sequence near the end, when Hitch is outside the theater looking in (Norman Bates style) to the audience, waiting for them to react to his movie. Then he conducts them like an orchestra. I wish the film had more moments like that.

I thought the moment when Hitch was spying on Janet and Vera was great. 

Also, the whole portrait of Hitch not understanding wanting to start a family. not understanding anything other than his own desires is potent. Not only that, it raises some interesting questions about the auteur theory and some intersting questions about the type of person who really encapsulates the character

[Reel]

what the hell was the deal with the Ed Gein stuff? I mean, the degree to which I understand it is that, Hitch somewhat wanted to base Norman Bates off of him.

The character of Bates himself is based off of Ed Gein in the Robert Bloch novel. From the Wikipedia page:

"In November 1957 — two years before Psycho was first published — Ed Gein was arrested in his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin for the murders of two women. When police searched his home, they found furniture, silverware, and even clothing made of human skin and body parts. Psychiatrists examining him theorized that he was trying to make a "woman suit" to wear so he could pretend to be his dead mother, whom neighbors described as a puritan who dominated her son.
At the time of Gein's arrest, Bloch was living 35 miles (56 km) away from Plainfield in Weyauwega. Familiar with the Gein case but not the specific details, Bloch began writing with "the notion that the man next door may be a monster unsuspected even in the gossip-ridden microcosm of small-town life." Bloch was surprised years later when he "discovered how closely the imaginary character I'd created resembled the real Ed Gein both in overt act and apparent motivation."

[ElPandaRoyal]

There was something about this movie (and The Girl, for that matter) that really rubbed me the wrong way. I can't even understand if it's my admiration for Hitch that makes me not like a movie that treats him like this sort of weirdo. Even if he actually was a weirdo, I'd think he would be far more subtle. And what's worse, I don't think that approach makes the movie any more interesting.

Also, I don't think either Hopkins or Toby Jones in The Girl did a very good job playing Hitch. In both cases the actors seemed a bit lost between trying a fresh approach playing the character, but at the same time couldn't really let go of one of the most famous personalities in the XX century. I'm not sure I'm explaining myself very well, but it ended up feeling like half baked caricatures. I dunno, it all felt so bland to me.

[Neil]

have yet to watch, "the girl," but my problems with the film seem share little in common with yours, Panda.  I think there's a good chance he was probably more over the top than even this film suggests. He clearly lived in his own world, and I think this is most accurately depicted through the interviews a la Truffaut and Bogdanovich. Every answer he launches into is as if he's teaching a lesson. I get that he's a MASTER, but the dude has serious doubts about whether or not his shit stank, naw mean? and that's fine I know i certainly enjoy reading what he has to say, but I'm just mentioning that one shouldn't let their crush on Hitch limit the way he may've actually existed, which to me seems very eccentric by most people's standards.

I don't think the portrayal of Hitch in this particular fashion is meant to make it, "more entertaining," as you say, but i think it's meant to shine light on how misguided the man was all while maintaining some form of genius. It humanizes the man and his quirks, to me at least, bringing him down to a more human level.

Reelist, i understand what Ed Gein is to the film 'psycho,' but i was asking if its use as a plot device for the conscious of Hitch seemed out of place to anyone else. I'm sure it parallels his arc in the film just fine, I mean, I wouldn't expect it to be a sloppy metaphor, but I'm wondering if it's effective or just weird, because to me it seems to be the latter. Like they're trying to justify why this man has legitimate troubles or something. I don't know.

Since I'm not really familiar or well versed in how other actors have played these same roles, I'm afraid I can't really comment that, but I'll be on the lookout for, "The Girl," and am up for any other suggestions you folks might have.