Film students should head to the Modern this weekend for Kent Jones’ documentary. The nominal subject of Hitchcock/Truffaut is the series of 1962 interviews of Alfred Hitchcock by fledgling director and former film critic François Truffaut, which were published in a book four years later and mostly covered the nuts and bolts of Hitchcock’s filmmaking craft. Beyond a sidebar on why Hitchcock clashed with a Method actor like Montgomery Clift, Jones doesn’t deliver much insight or film history beyond some platitudes, nor does he give Truffaut much play.
The real reason to see this is the lineup of heavyweight directors like David Fincher and Richard Linklater, who appear in the film to give their professional opinions on Hitchcock’s cinematic techniques. Wes Anderson, a great master of composition and framing himself, shows up to praise the Master of Suspense’s use of cinematic space. The old veteran Paul Schrader recalls his memories of seeing Psycho when it first came out in 1960. The most incisive commentary comes from Martin Scorsese and Clouds of Sils Maria’s Olivier Assayas. You may wish that Jones had lengthened his film and sat down with more directors (Gus Van Sant? François Ozon? The Coen brothers?), but this will still spark plenty of discussion among aspiring filmmakers and fans.
Hitchcock/Truffaut screens Fri-Sun at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, 3200 Darnell St, FW. Tickets are $7-9. Call 817-738-9215.
