Truffaut/Hitchcock

May 5, 2010 12:04 PM

The complete series of interviews of Alfred Hitchcock by François Truffaut (with interpreter Helen Scott) which were used to create the classic book, with some nice photos and commentary.
posted by serazin (18 comments total)

(Thanks to askme folks for introducing me to this awesome book)
posted by serazin at 12:05 PM on May 5, 2010

I thought for sure this was a double, but I guess it just faked me out by jumping in the San Francisco Bay

Thanks for this.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 12:11 PM on May 5, 2010 [7 favorites]

This is one of my favorite books. MCMikeNamara, it's obvious you could never be the keeper of the 39 Steps.
posted by shakespeherian at 12:20 PM on May 5, 2010

I love this book. I had no idea audio of the interviews was available. Thanks for this!
posted by HumanComplex at 12:22 PM on May 5, 2010

Nthing the others.

Thanks!
posted by defenestration at 12:24 PM on May 5, 2010

thank you!
posted by Geameade at 12:47 PM on May 5, 2010

certifiably fantastic. thanks!
posted by Lutoslawski at 12:55 PM on May 5, 2010

Whenever I read about the master of suspense, I can't help but remember how, years ago, his name was routinely translated to "Alfred Hitchman-meat" by Worth1000's automatic obscenity filter. They have since re-coded the system but I kinda liked the old one better.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 12:55 PM on May 5, 2010 [3 favorites]

Spun around in happy circles so many times when I saw this that I got Vertigo.
posted by bearwife at 1:23 PM on May 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

Dial "A" for Awesome.
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:25 PM on May 5, 2010

This is better than when Elvis met Nixon.
posted by benzenedream at 3:14 PM on May 5, 2010

Hitchcock/Truffaut is literally one of the two or three truly essential books on film. Thanks for this.
posted by Sticherbeast at 4:35 PM on May 5, 2010

I always get the impression from this business that Truffaut was, with his comments, sort of leading Hitchcock into and out of answers that made the most sense or best fit with Truffaut's own views on filmmaking, like he'll take something Hitchcock says and run with it somewhere and Hitchcock will just sort of pleasantly mhm him and move on, not bothering to contradict this dude who's obviously a massive massive fan and highly influential and respectable in his own right.
(that said, this is awesome!)
posted by The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew at 4:49 PM on May 5, 2010

Sticherbeast, I think it was you who recommended it to me on AskMe. I love it. And TEDBH, listening to the audio you can see how clever the editing is in the book. Truffaut seems to allow himself a lot of long exposition that wasn't included in the book.
posted by serazin at 5:21 PM on May 5, 2010

Thank you so much!
posted by Wolof at 6:04 PM on May 5, 2010

Everyone else has already said it, but I'll say it anyway; love the book, great post, thank you.
posted by HSWilson at 1:29 AM on May 6, 2010

Thanks for this!
posted by brundlefly at 9:13 AM on May 6, 2010

Just started listening to this: it's amazing! The book's one of very few I kept after my Great Bookshelf Purge, and one I read over and over. Thanks for this awesome resource.
posted by estherbester at 10:42 AM on May 14, 2010