Kent Jones – Director – Hitchcock/Truffaut.
FRED’s Matt Micucci interviews director Kent Jones, whose documentary “Hitchcock/Truffaut” was presented in the Cannes Classics section of the 68th Cannes Film Festival.
Kent tells us about the importance of the famous interviews book Hitchcock/Truffaut among film fans, filmmakers and film students, and also shares his views on the human side of the encounter between filmmakers Francois Truffaut and Alfred Hitchcock, their relationship with each other and their mutual respect for one another.
He also talks about his choices of filmmakers for contributions to the documentary.
HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAUT: For half a century, this work has been a must-have item for millions of cinema lovers. in 1962, François Truffaut and Alfred Hitchcock shut themselves away for a week following a request by the young director of The 400 Blows 1959) to discuss the British director’s approach to filmmaking. Truffaut, who was a huge admirer of the master of suspense, took full advantage of this special encounter to ask his mentor about the secrets of his part.
The original recordings gave rise to a cult book in 1966, entitled The Cinema according to Hitchcock. The 30 hours of interviews, analyses and anecdotes recorded that week served as a basis for Kent Jones to put together a probing documentary – his fourth – based on a mix of film footage and archive photos. The American director also met ten contemporary filmmakers to discuss the work of the man behind Vertigo (1958). The film thus features Wes Anderson, Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Olivier Assayas.