Hitchcock

There's a very good reason for my not being a film reviewer. I have a disturbing and extremely predictable tendency to nod off in films. When I'm lucky, I get all of that out of the way during the previews, but I usually miss a few important elements in the set-up of the plot. I'm pretty sure I don’t snore (I wouldn't want this to happen to me!), but I dare not ask my friends, as they would surely lie to me and say that I am snoring up a storm. Note that there is no disrespect to the films; just me being me.

So tonight's film was no exception. I did nod off at the beginning, probably a few times, but I did pick up on this being about Hitchcock and those around him during the filming of Psycho (I'm bright that way). I couldn't help but wonder if some of the interactions had been modernized a bit (women maybe being more assertive than they might have been at the time…and yes, generalizations are horrible) and if the portrayal of Hitchcock himself wasn't more based on his TV persona (pompous sounding commentary…check!) than on the reality of the brilliant director. Maybe they were the same and I'm totally out to lunch.

My other observations are about the audience, which was the usual very sparse one at the Forum, although the film is in its seventh week, so not much of a surprise. There was a guy sitting down in the front section (roughly in the place of the bear prey in that other post I linked to above) who was guffawing in a most unseemly way! We, of course, guffawed in a seemly way and much more restrained that he.

The other oddity was the person who was sitting one or two rows behind us and off to the left for about three quarters of the film and then suddenly got up and moved to a place two or three rows in front of us. What was that about? It's enough to keep a guy awake, I tell you.

Best feature of the credits (which we do tend to like to watch): there were crow wranglers! Close second: some of this California-situated film seems to have been filmed in Mumbai. Can't for the life of me figure out which parts, so they must have been interior sound stage scenes.

And the cliffhanger mystery question: will I get enough sleep next Thursday night to stay awake Friday through all the ads, previews and the movie? Time will tell.