2022 marked the hundred-year anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock’s first feature. A century on, Hitchcock remains one of the most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. But how does his vast body of work and legacy hold up in today’s society? Mark Cousins, the award-winning filmmaker behind The Story Of Film: An Odyssey, The Eyes of Orson Welles and The Story of Film: A New Generation tackles this question. Armed with clips from Hitchcock’s biggest hits as well as his rarely-screened features, Cousins’s one-of-a-kind mischievous documentary allows “the director himself” (with the help of actor-impersonator Alistair McGowan) to take the viewer on an entertaining journey through his favorite narrative and stylistic tricks. As Hitchcock rewatches his films and reflects on them in all his sardonic humor and tongue-in-cheek pomposity, we are taken on an educational, entertaining odyssey through his vast career – his vivid silent films, the legendary films of the 1950s and 60s and his later works – in playful and revealing ways.
