Hitchcock \ Truffaut Page #2

just like Hitchcock did.

(MAN WHISTLING)

MAN:
All together! Pull!

(SPEAKING FRENCH)

Hitchcock often told the story of being

sent to the police station as a boy,

where he was locked up for a few

minutes as a symbolic punishment.

He said that it led to a

lifelong fear of the police.

But Truffaut

really was locked up.

He was delivered to the police

by his own father,

(SPEAKING ANGRILY IN FRENCH)

and then sent to

a juvenile detention center,

an episode he put into his

autobiographical first feature.

(TRUFFAUT SPEAKING FRENCH)

Truffaut had a fierce

attachment to freedom.

It's there

in all of his films.

And it sent him in search of another

father, a father who would liberate him.

(INAUDIBLE)

He found the great

film critic Andre' Bazin,

who virtually adopted Truffaut and

brought him to Gamers du Unma.

He found Jean Renoir,

and Roberto Rossellini.

And he found Alfred Hitchcock.

Hitchcock had freed Truffaut as an artist,

and Truffaut wanted to reciprocate

by freeing Hitchcock

from his reputation as a light entertainer.

And that's the basis on which

they started their conversation.

(CASSETTE RECORDING)

HITCHCOCK:
Well, let me check with

him and see if he's running yet.

(CLEARS T HRO AT)

(TRUFFAUT SPEAKING FRENCH)

HITCHCOCK:
You started?

You're up?

(WOMAN SPEAKING FRENCH)

HITCHCOCK:
All right, you're

running now, huh? Okay, fine.

We are now on the air.

(LAUGHS)

(WOMAN CONTINUES SPEAKING)

(TRUFFAUT SPEAKING FRENCH)

WOMAN". Your type of picture?

(TRUFFAUT CONTINUES SPEAKING)

WOMAN:
People get enjoyment

but pretend not to be fooled.

(TRUFFAUT SPEAKING)

WOMAN:
They sulk,

they begrudge...

They give their

pleasure grudgingly.

HYYCHCOCK'. Yes. Well...

WOMAN:
When I say pleasure, I don't

mean amusement. I mean their enjoyment.

HYYCHCOCK:

They are obviously...

They're going to sit there

and say, "Show me!"

(WOMAN SPEAKING FRENCH)

HITCHCOCK:
They expect to anticipate-

"I know what's coming next- "

I have to say, "Do you?"

(TRUFFAUT SPEAKING FRENCH)

HYYCHCOCK:
Yes,

but you see, to me,

(WOMAN SPEAKING FRENCH)

plausibility for

the sake of plausibility

does not help, you know.

(HORN HONKING)

(TIRES SCREECHING)

(TRUFFAUT SPEAKING FRENCH)

(BIRDS SCREECHING)

(GIRL SHRIEKING)

HYYCHCOCK:
I have a favorite little

saying to myself, "Logic is dull."

(TRUFFAUT SPEAKING FRENCH)

(TRUFFAUT CONTINUES SPEAKING)

WOMAN:
Is it possible now

for us to define suspense?

That is to say, are there

many forms of suspense?

(TRUFFAUT SPEAKING)

WOMAN:
People believe,

uh, somewhat naively...

(TRUFFAUT SPEAKING)

...that suspense is when one is afraid.

Which is wrong.

HITCHCOCK:
No, no.

In the film Easy Virtue...

(WOMAN SPEAKING FRENCH)

HYYCHCOCK:
...a young man

was proposing to this woman.

(WOMAN CONTINUES SPEAKING)

She wouldn't give an answer,

she said, "I'll call you up

when I get back around 12:00."

And all I showed was the operator

on this telephone switchboard.

(WOMAN CONTINUES SPEAKING)

That girl is in suspense!

And she was

relieved at the end,

so that the suspense

was over.

The woman said, "Yes."

The suspense doesn't

always have fear in it.

(TRUFFAUT SPEAKING FRENCH)

FINCHER:

He talks about things,

contextualizing what the

work of a director truly is

at its most fundamental

and most simple.

HYYCHCOCK:
Emotionally,

the size of the image...

(WOMAN SPEAKING FRENCH)

is very important.

You're dealing with space.

(WOMAN CONTINUES SPEAKING)

You may need space

and use it dramatically.

(WHIRRING)

When the girl shrank

back on the sofa,

I kept the camera back

and used the space

to indicate the nothingness

from which she was shrinking.

FINCHER:
If you have

some kind of understanding

of color and design

and light...

Directing is

really three things.

You're editing behavior

over time,

and then controlling moments

that should be really fast

and making them slow,

and moments that should be really

slow and making them fast.

NARRATOR:
It is indeed

a solemn occasion.

I switch you over

to our microphone...

(TRUFFAUT SPEAKING FRENCH)

HYYCHCOCK:
Yes.

That's what film is for.

To either contract time...

(WOMAN SPEAKING FRENCH)

...or extend it.

Whatever you wish.

(TRUFFAUT SPEAKING)

UNKLATER:
Hitchcock, in

a way, was the master,

let's say sculptor

of moments in time

to take you through

a sequence

or to direct your

perception in a way

where he could elongate

time or telescope it.

HYYCHCOCK:
Well, there are moments

when you have to stop time.

(BOYS CONVERSING IN FRENCH)

(TRUFFAUT SPEAKING FRENCH)

HYYCHCOCK:
Describe to me

in detail what the action was.

(TRUFFAUT SPEAKING)

HYYCHCOCK:
Cutting to the

mother before the boy saw her?

(TRUFFAUT SPEAKING)

WOMAN:
She was not

looking at the child yet.

(TRUFFAUT SPEAKING)

WOMAN:
And then you show the

mother who saw them walking away.

(SPEAKING FRENCH)

HYYCHCOCK:
I'm asking from a story

point of view, what was the intention?

(TRUFFAUT SPEAKING)

(BOTH SPEAKING FRENCH)

(TRUFFAUT SPEAKING)

HYYCHCOCK:
I would have hoped

that there was nothing spoken.

(SPEAKING FRENCH)

(SPEAKING FRENCH)

(ASSAYAS CONTINUES SPEAKING)

ANDERSON:
The thing I think about

the most with Hitchcock is

the visuals are so

graphic and precise.

There is a lot

to learn from that.

BOGDANOVKZH:
He said, "When I'm

on the set, I'm not on the set.

"I'm watching it

on the screen."

That's the key to

Hitchcock, in a way.

I mean, he sees the

picture in his head.

I imagine he just sat alone

and these images came to him

and hejust

never questioned it.

You don't feel like he's ever

not confident in every shot.

That's one guy you

don't really question.

It always works within his

world, kind of perfectly.

(KU ROSAWA SPEAKING JAPAN ESE)

(KUROSAWA CONTINUES SPEAKING)

lthoughtyou

didn't like to cook.

No, I don't like to cook.

(KUROSAWA CONTINUES SPEAKING)

I'd be delighted.

ANDERSON:
Even if they go

all the way across the room,

he is going to move

with them in the kiss

and the actors

are going to say,

"This is the most

bizarre thing,

"we are walking

while we are kissing."

But he knows how it

fits in the frame

and he knows that the

tension won't be broken

and, um, the spell

won't be broken.

This is a very strange love affair.

(DIALING PHONE)

Why?

Maybe the fact that

you don't love me.

Hello?

HYYCHCOCK:
I was giving the

public the great privilege

of embracing Cary Grant

and Ingrid Bergman together.

(WOMAN SPEAKING FRENCH)

HYYCHCOCK:
It was a kind of

temporary mnage trois.

And the actors

hated doing it.

They felt dreadfully uncomfortable-

- - (VVCDIVIAN CONTINUES SPEAKING)

...in the manner in which they

had to cling to each other.

And I said, "Well,

I don't care how you feel,

"I only know what it's gonna

look like on the screen."

He obviously had contentious

relationships, in some cases, with actors.

You know, he definitely

solicited movie stars.

You know, there is no doubt

in reading the book

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