Hitchcock/Truffaut is a 2015 Documentary based on the famous book. The book with this title will be found on the bookshelves of every film major. And certainly every director.
And I just found out about, and watched, the 2015 documentary based on the book. How Meta is that? It isn't just about the book, but features interviews with great directors talking about the importance of the book, what it meant to them, how they came across it. This includes greats like Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader, David Fincher, Wes Anderson, Richard Linklater, and Peter Bogdanovich. (Notably absent, Brian DePalma.)
For those who don't know, the book was simply the recording of a week long interview between the director Francois Truffaut and Alfred Hitchcock, where they went over each and every one of Hitchcock's films. (Except the four he filmed after this book was written.)
In 1962, directors were being treated like artists, and Hitchcock was respected but not taken too seriously as he was simply too successful, and even dabbling (successfully) in television, which made him considered too 'studio' to be thought of as a great director. Truffaut even says in France older directors considered him a light entertainer, rather than a serious artist. And he wanted his book to prove that this was not the case.
Perhaps an equivalent snobbery is lobbied today against Spielberg, or Stephen King as a writer.
Me personally, I own a copy of the book after a film student in college, named Dan, told me about it, and pointed out in all the student films this book was always in the background or on a coffee table. And I read the appropriate section of the book right after I see a Hitchcock film. Between 2016 and 2018 I caught maybe twenty of Hitchcock's work on TMC (before comcast took that channel away from me). I had seen some of his most famous works before, but definitely not all 40 plus.
About a 3rd of this documentary is Hitchcock's own words from the interview, describing his work. Another 3rd are the great directors talking about what made Hitchcock great, which moments of his films really stand out to them, and his influence. The rest are spent with specific films, visual ideas he invented, who he made his films for, what defines a director 'artist', and other similar very interesting things.
One highpoint for me is a moment where Hitchcock is telling Truffaut about a scene in one of Truffaut's movies telling him that if he did it right, there wouldn't have been any dialog. It reminded me that Hitchcock started in silent films, and knows how to tell a story using only visuals. And in another part, explaining his troubles with actors. It is one thing reading Hitchcock's famous slights about what he thinks of actors, but to hear Hitchcock's own voice speak about how dare Montgomery Clift question where the script tells him to look because he isn't sure his character would do that. You can really hear the disgust in his voice.
Reading up on it, the director Kent Jones said that Brian De Palma declined to participate because of De Palma (2015). "Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow just did a movie about him. They worked on that film for about four years. I asked [De Palma] and he said he wanted to save what he thought about Hitchcock for their movie." Kathryn Bigelow was asked to speak in this film but she declined saying she was "too shy".
This is a really interesting documentary for anyone who enjoys films, and wants a masterclass in how to tell the story visually, or create suspense.
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