The Master's Touch: Hitchcock's Signature Style (2009)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Great documentary features interviews with Martin Scorsese, Curtis Hanson, Francis Lawrence, William Friedkin, Guillermo Del Toro, John Carpenter and others as they discuss the films and style of the Master of Suspense. Various topics are discussed including how Hitchcock always had you cheer for the killer, how the good guy on conflicts, objects of desire, how sound was used and the importance of objects that might not mean anything. By the time this documentary was released in 2009 there had already been countless films that took a look at Hitchcock and his style so you might go into this thing wondering what else there is for us to know but what makes this film so special is how those involved really do look at things you might not have noticed before. This was produced by Warner so the film's covered are the ones they owned like STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, NORTH BY NORTHWEST, SUSPICION, I CONFESS, THE WRONG MAN, MR. AND MRS. SMITH and DIAL M FOR MURDER among others. These are films that most fans have seen multiple times and it's still interesting at how the filmmakers really breakdown certain scenes and make you notice things that you might not have. There's no doubt that after watching this you'll want to go back and watch all of the films again just so you can view them in a new way, which is something that happens with most Hitchcock classics. Scorsese offers up some interesting views on THE WRONG MAN and the discussion of Hitchcock's humor is spot on. Fans of the great director are really going to enjoy this 57-minute film and we even get a couple interviews with Hitchcock himself that were recorded back in the 70s.
