Hitchcock by Francois Truffaut

Author:Francois Truffaut [Truffaut, Francois]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 978-1-5011-4322-9
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2015-12-04T08:00:00+00:00

A.H.  As a matter of fact, whenever we’re working out a screenplay, we’ll often say, “Now, wouldn’t this be a funny way to kill him off?”

F.T.  That’s why, in your films, the potent elements are neither solemn nor offensive. Of course, to enjoy making terrifying films is bound to suggest a form of intellectual sadism, and yet it can also be quite wholesome.III

A.H.  I think so, too. A mother sometimes demonstrates her love for her baby by playing a game that consists of frightening the infant with gestures and sounds like “Boo, brr . . .” The baby may be scared, but it will laugh and wave, and as soon as it can talk, it will call for more. One English newspaperwoman said that Psycho was the film of a “barbaric sophisticate.” Who knows, she may be right.

F.T.  In any case, it’s an interesting definition.

A.H.  And probably true at that. If Psycho had been intended as a serious picture, it would have been shown as a clinical case with no mystery or suspense. The material would have been used as the documentation of a case history. We’ve already mentioned that total plausibility and authenticity merely add up to a documentary. In the mystery and suspense genre, a tongue-in-cheek approach is indispensable. I feel that both I Confess and The Wrong Man suffer from a lack of humor. The only question then is whether one should always have a sense of humor in dealing with a serious subject. It seems to me that some of my British films were too light and some of my American movies have been too heavy-handed, but it’s the most difficult thing in the world to control that so as to get just the right dosage. It’s only after the picture’s done that one can judge that properly. Do you feel that there’s a connection between my Jesuit upbringing and the heavy-handedness of I Confess?

F.T.  Not necessarily. I attributed that to the austerity of the Canadian climate, which is further weighted down by the Teutonic gravity of Otto Keller and his wife.

A.H.  Yes, there is a certain off balance there, and we run into it every time a story takes place in a mixed ethnic community: Britishers with Americans or else Americans with French Canadians. It’s also true for pictures that are filmed in a foreign country when all the characters are English-speaking; I’ve never been able to get used to that.

Aside from that, I didn’t want Anne Baxter to play the feminine lead; I wanted Anita Bjork, who had played Miss Julie. However, Warner Brothers decided against her, sent Anita Bjork back to her fiords, and I was informed by a phone call that Anne Baxter had been assigned to the picture. I met her for the first time a week before the shooting, in the dining room of Quebec’s Hotel Château Frontenac. When you compare Anita Bjork and Anne Baxter, wouldn’t you say that was a pretty awkward substitution?

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.