Iconic Director Gets Big Screen Treatment During His Psycho Days!
By ALAN SAMUEL
Cinema buffs ought to warmly embrace Hitchcock, an intimate portrait of a master craftsman from Fox Searchlight Pictures now scaring folks silly at the Fifth Avenue Cinemas and other visual arenas across B.C. Long considered the master of terror this sly movie looks at the eventful year 1959 and a bit thereafter when talented director was arguably at his height.
In a biographical drama casting means everything and to bring this larger than life filmmaker to life producers called on none other than Sir Anthony Hopkins. Depth is added to Mr Hitchcock along with an inclusive backstory related to his wife, Alma Reville. You couldn’t find a better bedmate for Hitch than Helen Mirren (The Queen) who rises to the occasion and is more than able to hold her own as an impressive woman and wife. Sometime it’s not easy being married especially when egos are involved. Through thick and thin this couple navigates the ups and downs of film production and does so with arresting results.
All work and no play makes for boredom and this film wisely hones in on all those added human feelings and failings we all at times succumb too. Well- developed are the pressures of getting a film done. Psycho is the star attraction and Hitchcock reveals in detail all the ups and downs of trying to make this movie. Starlets come and go and do justice is served by the work of Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Biel as screen sirens Janet Leigh and Vera Miles, key players in the filmed version of Psycho. And let us not forget the nice turn given off by James DÁrcy as the maddening mama’s boy so well visualized by actor Anthony Perkins.
Two things are at the core of Hitchcock: the difficulties of making a movie and the hardships of being married in Hollywood. New director Sacha Gervas admirably succeeds in presenting an unaltered look into the public and not so private life of Alfred Hitchcock a truly larger than life character for real.
