Getting back to that difficult murder...

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's top 50 films of 2023

#33 :  My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock

In this critically agile film from Mark Cousins, Hitchcock supposedly narrates from beyond the grave, using movie clips to reveal techniques and meanings in his work.

Who doesn't love a "critically agile" film, eh?  I am intrigued as to what this involves though - I'm also not as familiar with Mr Hitchcock's films as I should be, so I'll be interested to see what I learn.

Hmmm - this is an odd one.  It's basically "Alfred" (Alastair MacGowan) talking us through some of his movie thinking and skill, accompanied by clips from his films - a LOT of clips. And many of the things that are pointed out are definitely very skilful and you definitely think "oh - that's clever" - I also suspect I'd miss most of them if I just watched the film. The whole thing is incredibly well researched - the film is broken down into six separate sections considering different themes and it makes some quite convincing arguments.

However, the constant treadmill of narration and clips does get pretty tiresome and it all feels very "oooh - look at how very clever I am" without any obvious thematic path through the film (the six sections don't really overlap at all).  I'm also sure that Alastair McGowan's impression is very accurate, but Hitchcock's voice is actually quite annoying - so that doesn't help matters either.

However, I do have to admit that I'm very much not an expert of Hitchcock films - I think I've only seen The 39 Steps (not a fan, but it was made in '35 so I can forgive it feeling very dated), Dial M For Murder (yup, I liked this) and North By Northwest (also good). I'm perfectly happy to agree there are plenty of his other films I'd probably like, but I've just never got round to them - and that's not a great hit rate for a director with over 50 films on his CV, so I should make more of an effort (but I won't).

Because the film is either film clips or stills of Mr Hitchcock, there's little technical skill on display - it very much relies on the central concept. And it's is a definitely a clever concept, but there's really not enough to support two hours of film - you're left thinking that Mark Cousins is also in the "oooh - look at how very clever I am" camp. And he is - but, for me, he's also not clever enough to realise that it needs something more to justify a whole film. Having said that, in the last 30 minutes, it does tie some things back to Alfred's real life which provides slightly more interest for me - but that would be far too late under normal circumstance. 

It's been an interesting film to write up because there's no acting or direction component involved - I just don't see who this film would be of interest to except for a very niche section of Hitchcock fans. I don't feel I need to issue a recommendation though because you're going to know whether this is for you or not - and if you want to see it, it's available to rent in all the usual places.

I'm also still no clearer to understanding what The Guardian meant by "critically agile"...

#34 - Utterly charming
#32 - Impressive - although impressively long