CHEVY CHASE, Md. — It was a one-on-one meeting that forever transformed blockbusters into high art.
It’s hard to believe, but the Master of Suspense was once dismissed as a commercial filmmaker of mostly mainstream fodder — never once handed a Best Director Oscar — until a budding maverick from France saw him as something different, as an auteur, as an artistic genius — and wanted the world to know.
In 1962, French New Wave filmmaker Francois Truffaut sent a letter to Hollywood legend Alfred Hitchcock, asking if he’d agree to sit down for a tape-recorded interview about the art of filmmaking.
The result was published as the book “Cinema According to Hitchcock” (1966), which for decades has served as the ultimate filmmaker’s textbook, complete with shot-by-shot screengrabs of Hitchcock’s greatest films, as chronicled in the 2015 documentary “Hitchcock/Truffaut.”
This weekend, The Avalon Theatre in Chevy Chase celebrates both filmmakers with the four-day Hitchcock/Truffaut Festival, screening masterpieces by both legends and building toward a giant benefit reception and Q&A with Kent Jones, director of the “Hitchcock/Truffaut” documentary.
“Truffaut wrote Hitchcock this beautiful letter that Hitchcock said brought tears to his eyes … because people didn’t take Hitchcock seriously at the time as a really serious craftsman,” said Beth Anderson, Director of Marketing & Communications at The Avalon Theatre. “It really changed Hitchcock’s reputation. … It was sort of Truffaut’s mission to make everyone else see that as well.”
Now, it’s The Avalon’s mission to pass this appreciation on to a new generation, as well as raise money to continue its place as the oldest operating theatre — and only nonprofit theatre — in D.C.
“Every year, we do this benefit to help raise money,” Anderson said. “We said Hitchcock is one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, so let’s do this [doc] for our benefit event. Then, once we started talking about it, we thought this would be a great opportunity to show all these Hitchcock movies in the theatre and let people come see them. So we picked seven films: six Hitchcock, one Truffaut.”
Which movies can you expect to see?
Here’s a complete rundown:
‘Rear Window’ (1954) — Alfred Hitchcock
Showtimes: Thursday at 3 p.m., Saturday at 8 p.m.
“We’ve become a race of peeping toms. What people ought to do is get outside of their own house and look in for a change.” If you want to understand Hitchcock the auteur (author), you have to understand “Rear Window” as more than a mystery about a man who thinks he sees a murder, but rather a commentary on our own movie-watching experience.
While there are many movies about movies, none symbolize the medium better than the “movie” Jimmy Stewart cuts together with his own eyes out of the rear window of his Greenwich Village apartment. The neighbors’ windows not only serve as suspenseful transition spaces in the master’s dollhouse, but they also symbolize movie screens within the larger screen of Stewart’s window, within the overall screen of Hitchcock’s frame. What’s more, each neighbor represents a possible future for Stewart, who must learn to appreciate his fashion editor girlfriend (Grace Kelly).
As Stewart tells Kelly his reasons for not settling down, we see a sexy ballerina in the background. But when Kelly suggests marriage, Hitch swoops around to show a newlywed couple behind them. You won’t find another film that carries as much surface-level suspense, underlying character subtext and self-reflexive directorial vision. As Peter Bagdonovich said, “’Rear Window’ is sort of Hitchcock’s testament film … the best example of what Hitchcock’s cinema at its best stood for.”
‘The 39 Steps’ (1935) — Alfred Hitchcock
Showtimes: Thursday at 5:30 p.m., Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
One of the best from Hitchcock’s early British period, “The 39 Steps” sets up many of his essential elements. The premise — a wrongly accused man on the run — was later explored in “Saboteur” (1942), “The Wrong Man” (1956) and “North By Northwest” (1959). The camera — moving in for key close-ups to advance the plot — influenced telling images in “Psycho” (1960). The titular “39 Steps” is a classic MacGuffin — a plot mystery that matters less to the story than the journey of the characters.
Most memorably, the lead actress, Madeleine Caroll, inspired a long line of ice-cold blondes under Hitchcock’s male gaze (fittingly, the “Vertigo” blonde is named Madeline). Voted one of the Top 5 British films ever made, “The 39 Steps” launched actor Robert Donat to a new level of stardom, enough to win the Oscar four years later in “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” (1939).
‘North By Northwest’ (1959) — Alfred Hitchcock
Showtimes: Friday at 12:15 p.m., Saturday at 5 p.m.
Arguably the most entertaining Hitchcock movie, “North By Northwest” starts with a case of mistaken identity and never lets up. Cary Grant delivers his most iconic role as Roger O. Thornhill, a suave ad man mistaken for a government agent and kidnapped by foreign spies (James Mason, Martin Landau).
Grant’s fight for survival leads him across the country, sharing a train cabin with the sexy Eve Kendell (Eva Marie Saint), dodging a relentless crop-dusting plane, joking his way out of a deadly auction and scaling Mount Rushmore for a thrilling climax (topping Hitch’s Statue of Liberty finale in “Saboteur”).
Not only did the film’s title give birth to the South by Southwest festival, it inspired the very character of James Bond. The aforementioned crop-dusting scene is visual storytelling at its finest, while the film’s final image of a train entering a tunnel is sexual innuendo at its most playful. After the art masterpiece “Vertigo” flopped upon its 1958 release, “North by Northwest” was Hitchcock letting go and having immense fun — with a little hidden social commentary on “acting” under the surface.
‘Notorious’ (1946) — Alfred Hitchcock
Showtimes: Thursday at 7:45 p.m., Friday at 3:15 p.m.
“Notorious” was not only Roger Ebert’s favorite Hitchcock film, it’s also the favorite of Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osbourne. It’s easy to see why. Ben Hecht’s script was voted one of the Top 101 Screenplays of All Time, filled with double-meaning dialogue and complex characters. Ingrid Bergman plays the flawed daughter of a Nazi sympathizer who is recruited by Cary Grant’s intelligence officer to spy on a group of Nazis who have fled to Rio de Janeiro after the war.
While Bergman and Grant develop feelings for one another, their relationship is tested when she must marry one of the Nazis (Claude Rains) to avoid suspicion. How far will she go to ingratiate herself, and how far will he let her go before professing his love?
This script alone would make for a riveting watch, but it rises to the level of masterpiece when you add Hitch’s direction: turning upside down to portray Bergman’s hangover; craning down from a high angle to a reveal a close-up of a key; cutting to a diminishing tub of wine bottles as Bergman and Grant investigate the wine cellar; circling around their embrace at their relationship’s “turning point;” and crosscutting their final descent down the staircase. This one drips with genius on all levels.
‘Rope’ (1948) — Alfred Hitchcock
Showtime: Friday at 5:45 p.m.
Long before Alejandro G. Inarritu created the illusion of one continuous shot in “Birdman” (2014), Hitchcock did the same in his first Technicolor picture. Due to the technological limits of having to manually change film-stock magazines, Hitch was forced to shoot in 10-minute segments, creatively masking the edits (i.e. swooping behind a man’s black shirt) to continue the illusion of the single-take.
This camera choreography plays out amid a delicious murder premise, as two young men (John Dall and Farley Granger) strangle their classmate with a rope, hide his body in a box under a tablecloth and throw a dinner party to see if anyone notices. The body under the table is the ultimate “bomb on the bus,” as the audience knows something the characters do not. It’s up for Jimmy Stewart to crack the case. Theories that the two men may be homosexual makes “Rope” repay on repeat viewings.
‘Psycho’ (1960) — Alfred Hitchcock
Showtime: Friday at 8 p.m.
Hands down the most famous Hitchcock movie, “Psycho” invented the slasher genre, yet remains a work of artistic depth that its cheap imitators can only dream to achieve. At the 1960 premiere, audience screams were so loud that you couldn’t even hear Bernard Herrmann’s famous slashing soundtrack as Janet Leigh stepped into the shower of the Bates Motel.
While those stabbing murders have lost some of their initial shock value, the suspense building up to them is textbook tension. Anthony Perkins is unforgettable as the ultimate momma’s boy, Norman Bates, whose flaw is symbolized from the opening credits to window reflections to stuffed birds.
Hitchcock went to great lengths to conceal his twist, holding red-herring casting sessions, ordering theaters locked, and buying up copies of the novel. It’s hard to imagine a movie that will ever change horror history the way Hitchcock did when he invited us into the male gaze, shifted our character sympathies and posed the disturbing question: “We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven’t you?”
‘Jules & Jim’ (1962) — Francois Truffaut
Showtime: Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
After watching these six Hitchcock masterpieces, come check out the festival’s sole Truffaut flick “Jules & Jim.” For years, Francois Truffaut analyzed movies as a critic for the French magazine Cahier du Cinema before he and fellow critics decided. So while Jean-Luc Godard made “Breathless” (1959) and Alain Resnais made “Hiroshima Mon Amour” (1959), Truffaut burst onto the scene with “The 400 Blows” (1959), a semi-autobiographical tale about a juvenile delinquent (Jean-Pierre Léaud).
But of all the films Truffaut made — from “Fahrenheit 451” (1966) to “Day for Night” (1973) — it was perhaps “Jules & Jim” that most cemented his place among the French New Wave’s most beloved directors. It follows a love triangle between buddies Jules (Oscar Werner) and Jim (Henri Serre) and the impulsive Catherine (Jeanne Mureau), as their relationships evolve over a period of decades.
Grand Finale: ‘Hitchcock/Truffaut’ (2015) doc plus director Q&A
After three days of film screenings, the festival closes Sunday with its grand finale, “The Genius of Hitchcock,” including a screening of the documentary “Hitchcock/Truffaut” (2015) and special Q&A between longtime D.C. movie critic Arch Campbell and the documentary’s director, Kent Jones.
Tickets cost $50 for Sunday’s documentary screening and discussion, or you can drop $250 for the screening, discussion and reception, as well as admission to all of the movies throughout the festival. You can also buy tickets to the individual screenings ($8.75 matinee, $12 evening).
The money goes to a great cause to keep D.C.’s oldest operating movie theatre running, as well as to support The Avalon’s various film education programs throughout the year. Such programs are the reason my personal favorite Hitchcock flick — “Vertigo” (1958) — isn’t playing this time around.
“The Avalon did ‘Vertigo’ as our first film education program for adults just last year, and since we’d shown it recently, we decided to mix it up,” Anderson explained.
Either way, you can’t go wrong with the movies selected for this wonderful festival.
Why roll the dice on the multiplex when you’re guaranteed a masterpiece at The Avalon?
Click here for more information. Listen to the full interview with The Avalon’s Beth Anderson below:
