Scorsese Does Hitchcock
Courtesy of my brother comes a link to a fascinating short film by Martin Scorsese that will be of interest to fans of Alfred Hitchcock. It’s 9 minutes and 20 seconds, and is a recreation of 3 1/2 pages from a Hitchcock film that was never made: “The Key to Reserva.” Scorsese sets out to shoot these pages the way Hitchcock would have shot them. The result is fascinating, and pure Hitchcock.
The music is from “North by Northwest.”
Click here.
UPDATE: The comments at Metafilter indicate that the film is actually a commercial for the champagne. That actually helps it make more sense, and explains the funny “mockumentary” style of the “making of” scenes, as well as the amazing seeming familiarity of some of the scenes.
If that’s a commercial, it’s the greatest commercial I have ever seen for any product. It makes me want to run out and buy a bottle right now, just to thank them for such a cool experience.
UPDATE x2: Confirmation. Note also David Ehrenstein’s comment below, explaining the humor of the missing page, for those of us who missed it.
Thank you for sharing that with us.
Comment by Finnpundit (93409b) — 12/2/2007 @ 10:29 pm
Martin Scorsese was one of 5 people honored tonight at the 30th Annual Kennedy Center Honors ceremony. The ceremony and show will be aired 12/26/2007 on CBS.
Comment by DRJ (a6fcd2) — 12/2/2007 @ 11:08 pm
cool, one of my fav directors
Comment by james conrad (7cd809) — 12/3/2007 @ 1:25 am
Hey, here’s some more light on the movie from JWT, the agency that made it.
JWT blog
Comment by Sasha Markova (4a762d) — 12/3/2007 @ 2:30 am
Isn’t that a scene, more or less, from an already established Hitchcock (or someone else) movie?
I suspect this is all fiction from second 1. Interesting, though.
Comment by jpm100 (b48b29) — 12/3/2007 @ 3:23 am
The score is a mixture of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956 version), Vertigo and North by Northwest – both by the great Bernard Herrman. It’s a hilarious and extremely witty hommage, mainly to the aforementioned version of The Man Who Knew Too Much with just a soupcon of Marnie (the sudden flash of red the heroine sees) and of course The Birds for the finale. The suit Simon Ward wears is identical to Cary Grant’s in North by Northwest .
The cream of the jest is that the “missing page” comes right when someone is about to explain the “MacGuffin.”
The opening bit was shot in Marty’s office which contains voluminous files of film memorbilai and psoters. In fact there’s a poster for an early and little-known Hitchcock film, Champagne, right behind him in that scene.
Comment by David Ehrenstein (4f5f08) — 12/3/2007 @ 6:28 am
Yeah, it makes even more sense when you understand what it is. David’s explanation is very helpful.
I’ll have to buy this stuff.
Comment by Patterico (faeccf) — 12/3/2007 @ 6:39 am
And the office seems to be in the building where the murder in “Rear Window” happens. I’m sure that there are other references that we’ve missed.
Comment by htom (412a17) — 12/3/2007 @ 8:19 am
I love the cop at the end who’s a dead ringer for Leo G. Carroll.
Comment by CraigC (9f14b2) — 12/3/2007 @ 9:17 am
What a great Hitchcock tribute (and Herrman too)! Marty did a fantastic job recreating the Hitchcockian scenes (and his acting just keeps getting better!)
What a great idea by the ad agency, who I assume wrote the thing. It actually ends up honoring both Scorcese & Hitch.
Thanks for pointing out the MacGuffin gag David, I likely wouldn’t have tied that together. I think the score is entirely from North by Northwest as per the credits though?
Other references I noticed:
- obviously Vertigo in the falling from the balcony shot
- the Freixenet ad frame/poster references The 39 Steps
- the character names in the credits (hard to make out exactly) are all Hitchcock references
Comment by Bob Loblaw (23d1c4) — 12/3/2007 @ 3:14 pm
Partially North by Northwest. Mostly it’s the ’56 The Man Who Knew Too Much (one of Herrmann’s best scores, IMO — its finale is especially devestating)
As for the falls there are many in Hitchcock: Norman Lloyd in Saboteur for instance, and Kim Novak in Vertigo. Plus Martin Balsam falling down the stairs in Psycho.
Norman Lloyd, BTW, is still hale and hearty in his 90′s. I was introduced to im a year and a half back at a tribute to Gavin Lambert. There’s a new documentary that’s been made about Lloyd that should be showing up on PBS shortly.
Quite a fascinating man and career.
Comment by David Ehrenstein (4f5f08) — 12/3/2007 @ 4:20 pm
The actual plummet imitates Jimmy Stewart’s in “Rear Window”.
Comment by Kevin Smith (54d7ee) — 12/3/2007 @ 4:57 pm
Yes you’re right. That may be the one. But the whole film is a series of evocations folded over one another.
Comment by David Ehrenstein (4f5f08) — 12/3/2007 @ 5:46 pm
Stumbled upon a possible link between Scorsese and Hitchcock. Neither has an Oscar despite about 5-6 nominations.
Comment by jpm100 (b48b29) — 12/3/2007 @ 7:19 pm
That was the case until last year when Marty (finally!) won for The Departed. He should have won for Raging Bull — but Ordinary People was the winner that year.
Comment by David Ehrenstein (4f5f08) — 12/3/2007 @ 7:50 pm