Mark Cousins’ analytical survey of the Hitchcock filmography draws on a strange and not entirely helpful special guest for its narration.
The writer, critic, cultural historian, hiking enthusiast and all-round intrepid man of letters Mark Cousins does himself a disservice by minimising his own redoubtable presence from his new film, My Name is Alfred Hitchcock.
This archive clip-driven documentary comprises Cousins’ own informed and poetic postulations on the inner-workings of the Hitchcock corpus, as he heads on a jolly, thematically-inclined ramble through one of the great artistic legacies of the 20th century.
Yet, instead of placing himself front and centre, trading on the fireside comfort of his angular intonation and impassioned mode of inquiry, we instead have voice impressionist Alistair McGowan giving us his best Hitch, a jowly East London drawl that goes some way to emulate the voice of the Master of Suspense, but not far enough to allow a viewer to suspend all disbelief.
It’s a cheeky little conceit, and one that’s executed as well as it perhaps could’ve been, but it’s also a baffling one, and it’s never really made clear what its function is. If anything, it serves to make the viewer second guess the veracity and sincerity of the observations, as too much time is spent thinking, “Did Hitchcock really say that?”, “Did he really think that?” “Is this all a bit of a joke?” The first person delivery is also strangely disorienting. Realise this sounds a bit like the Fun Police knocking, but there we are…
It’s all done with a nod and a wink and a wee slurp of chilled Le Montrachet, but where the content of the narration captures Cousins’ prowess as one of the foremost modern inquisitors of art and film, it never chimes with the acerbic tone of the real Hitchcock as seen in countless TV intros, movie trailers, awards speeches, advertisements and François Truffaut’s seminal interview volume with the filmmaker. The sound of the voice is there, the self-lacerating tone and wit, maybe less so.
My Name is Alfred Hitchcock does serve one key function, though, and it’s as a no-nonsense catalyst to go and either watch or re-watch the movies themselves. And ever the equal-opportunities critic, Cousins does well to not place all his chips on Psycho, Vertigo and Rear Window, giving deep thought to the early British films like Murder! and the little-seen Juno and the Paycock, as well as his lesser-loved twilight-era efforts, Topaz and Family Plot.
Published 19 Jul 2023
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