Reel 81: In the Style of Hitchcock

Can I just take a moment to sit back and look proudly upon this episode’s cover art? It wasn’t tough to make but I really like the way it came out.

Okay, onward:

It’s often fun to see a film and realize that there’s something about it that reminds you of another filmic work. Maybe it’s a plot point. Maybe it’s the director’s use of the camera. Maybe it’s the overall feel of the thing. And maybe it’s just homage.

In this episode we’re looking at a pair of films that look and feel as though they’d been directed by Alfred Hitchcock. But in fact, Hitchcock was long dead by the time these films were released. (To be fair, he may have been alive while the first one was being made, but still.)

We begin with Diva, a film from 1981 that was directed and co-written by
Jean-Jacques Beineix. Based solely on the title and perhaps the artwork, you’d never have any idea that it’s a taut thriller. It’s got corrupt cops. It has French mobsters. It’s got opera singers and their groupies. It’s got a teenage thief who doubles as a muse for an artist-cum-philosopher. And, because it’s in the style of Hitchcock, it’s got a McGuffin. (MacGuffin? Research says they’re both right, but “Mc” looks better to my eye.) And that’s not all.

From there we jump ahead to 2006 and a film called Tell No One, directed and co-written by Guillaume Canet. This is one based on Hitchcock’s “innocent man” tropes, where a person finds themselves at the center of a big mystery, and everyone thinks he’s the criminal. We spend the film watching him struggle to prove his innocence as the forces around him get closer and closer. Does he know more than he lets on? Is he, in fact, innocent? You’ll be guessing until the very end.

COMING ATTRACTIONS:

In our next episode we move from Hitchcock to Bergman. Reel 82 looks at two films made in the style of Ingmar Bergman: Away From Her (2006) and then the aptly-titled Bergman Island (2021). Join us, won’t you?

Reel 76: The Gangster Film as Allegory

This episode and the previous episode have something in common, besides the word “allegory”. All of these films are specifically anti-Capitalism allegories based in genre films. Last week it was Westerns; this week it’s Gangster films. And the only reason I didn’t put that in the episode title is because that’s a LOT of words to put in your metadata.

We begin with The Long Good Friday (1981), directed by John Mackenzie and starring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren. While Hoskins had been around for a bit, this was pretty much his breakout role, and he does a terrific job with it, because he’s Bob Hoskins. Helen Mirren, as well, manages to elevate her role from someone who could easily be so much window dressing. But, of course, we talk about that in Part 1 of the episode. Likewise, I’m sure it’ll come up somewhere in Sean’s review when he posts it here.

From there we go to 1980’s Thief, starring James Caan and Tuesday Weld, and directed by Michael Mann. Now, if you’ve been paying close attention you may have a question. “Hey!” you’ll say. “Don’t you usually review the films in chronological order?” Well, yes, we do. But in this case The Long Good Friday was completed in 1979 and wasn’t released until 1981, so we flipped the order this time around.

At any rate, Caan plays a safecracker trying to get out of his life of crime, and Weld is his wife. And just like his filmic “brother” Al Pacino, just when he thinks he’s out, they pull him back in. But perhaps he knows a way to get out for good.

COMING ATTRACTIONS: 

I’ve actually been looking forward to this one for awhile, because I unabashedly love both of these films. Unfortunately, they’ve had an interesting side effect that likely wasn’t attended. We start with 1939’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and it’s a discussion that could easily have gone on for twice as long but (believe it or not) we DO have some restraint. From there it’s The Accidental Tourist, from 1988, and there’s an interesting story I tell about my experience seeing this one in the theater, long before I moved to the film’s setting of Baltimore. Join us, won’t you?