Being an Alfred Hitchcock fan, it goes without a doubt to say that I was looking forward to ‘Hitchcock’ – the movie made on the director’s life when he was making his biggest film ‘Psycho’. I don’t remember seeing ‘Psycho’, because I don’t remember the shower scene. I was really young when I started watching Hitchcock’s films. It was at a stage where I found mystery, horror, murder and many more fascinating. Perhaps then, I would have been interested in ‘American Horror Story’!
Hitchcock – The story of Alfred and his wife Alma and how they made Psycho happen
A lot of people have said that ‘Psycho’ is the best of Alfred Hitchcock’s movies, but to me all of his films were great. Perhaps they said this because the success that ‘Psycho’ got, none of Alfred Hitchcock’s other films managed to get. Still, the man is a legend himself when it comes to suspense and horror.
The movie ‘Hitchcock’ takes us back to 1959 when Alfred Hitchcock was the top director when it came to suspense with no retirement in sight despite being 60 at that time. In a midst of anger or to prove that he can still rock it, Alfred decides that he wants to adapt a horror novel titled ‘Psycho’. To his horror, no one wants to support him to make this film except his wife Alma, who has always supported him in everything he has done. Since the famous movie production/distribution studio Paramount refuses to finance ‘Psycho’, Alfred refuses to give and decide to finance the movie himself by putting his house and swimming pool (something Alma mentions in the movie) on the line.
Hitchcock – The actors and characters
Sir Anthony Hopkins plays Alfred Hitchcock in this film while Helen Mirren plays Alma, the wife of Alfred Hitchcock. ‘Hitchcock’ did secure itself with popular actresses like Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Biel for the roles of Janet Leigh and Vera Miles, respectively. Not forgetting TV actress Toni Collette, whom I last saw in ‘United States of Tara’, she plays the secretary of Alfred Hitchcock, Peggy Robertson.
Hitchcock – Interesting moments in the story
The story of ‘Hitchcock’ moves really slow at the beginning. It’s only when the movie approaches the end that it really moves forward (at least, for me!) with a couple of funny jokes and interesting scenes. It’s really the last twenty minutes of the film that created some exciting moments.
The scenes where both Alfred and Alma edit the film to make it into a really interesting movie, there’s one particular moment when Alma saw a little nudity in the shower scene and Alfred’s response to that was hilarious. In fact, that scene and dialogue is in the trailer of ‘Hitchcock’.
How he releases and promotes the film despite Paramount agreeing to release it in just two theaters is pretty clever to begin with. These days, movie promotions like that were unusual, but the man did it anyway.
The moment when he stands outside the theater room just to get a glimpse of the audience’s reaction, he stood outside the door waiting for the shower scene to happen and when it did, Alfred made hand gestures of the stabbing standing right there outside the theater door.
The last moment at the premiere of ‘Psycho’ where Alfred Hitchcock tells his wife how much she means to him.
Prior to these last twenty minutes of ‘Hitchcock’, the most interesting scene would probably be when Alma tells Alfred how she really feels, how everyone sees only the incredible Alfred Hitchcock and how she’s invisible in his life.
Hitchcock – The Shower Scene
Despite the fact that I don’t remember watching ‘Psycho’, I do remember the shower scene or more so, the effects that the shower scene from ‘Psycho’ had on everyone. Since the movie, there had been dozens of similar scenes; some trying to emulate what Alfred Hitchcock had originally created while others trying to make the shower scene appear comedic. In the shower scene in ‘Hitchcock’, Scarlett Johansson acts as the actress in the shower, who gets stabbed repeatedly. In the film ‘Hitchcock’, it is showed that prior to shooting this scene Alfred was very upset at his wife so he got really mad at the original take and he himself took the knife and pretended to stab Scarlett so hard that she got terribly scared. In the editing room for the shower scene in ‘Psycho’, Alfred had originally not wanted the iconic music to accompany the scene, but later he gave in when he saw the scene with the music. He had a hard time convincing the movie censor board that this scene was not horrific to show to audiences and he did win on that argument!
Hitchcock or The Girl – Which one shows the real Alfred Hitchcock
Before I watched ‘Hitchcock’, I saw another TV movie inspired by the life of Alfred Hitchcock and that movie was titled ‘The Girl’. ‘The Girl’ starred Toby Jones as a scary and stern looking Alfred Hitchcock and Sienna Miller as the innocent and vulnerable Tippi Hedren. ‘The Girl’ is based on Alfred Hitchcock’s life after ‘Psycho’ was a huge success and he was looking for something new when it came to a new storyline and a new blonde actress. While ‘Hitchcock’ shows you the man that Alfred Hitchcock was at home and at work subtly, ‘The Girl’ shows you the cruel side of his world at work on the sets of ‘The Bird’. Honestly while watching ‘The Girl’, I was shocked that someone as great as him could be like this. While people close to Alfred Hitchcock has denied that this TV movie reflects the truth, it’s still a very scary picture to paint! I have to say that in ‘The Girl’ was probably the first time I have seen Sienna Miller be so good and flawless. Usually, I see her in the tabloids!
After seeing ‘Hitchcock’, I would be lying to say that I was looking forward to seeing ‘Psycho’! I am not, because if going by what ‘Hitchcock’ showed us on ‘Psycho’, it’s definitely not the kind of horror movie I would look forward watching. Overall, ‘Hitchcock’ is a nice chapter in Alfred Hitchcock’s life that transpired when he was making ‘Psycho’. To see a more gruesome side, ‘The Girl’ would be perfect!