Mark Cousins’ My Name is Alfred Hitchcock

Perhaps fittingly, few have so regularly defied death and straddled the “uncanny valley” as has Alfred Hitchcock. For instance, his original introductions for Alfred Hitchcock Presents were “resurrected” and colorized for the 1985 reboot of the classic anthology series. Now, he narrates his own documentary from beyond the grave. Of course, it really isn’t Hitchcock. It is narrator Alistair McGowan emulating his voice and persona. One can imagine the questions Hitch might have asked about these projects, like how much was his estate paid and did the checks clear? Regardless, Hitchcock is still quite entertaining in Mark Cousins’ My Name is Alfred Hitchcock, which opens this Friday in New York.

At times, McGowan’s Hitchcock sounds somewhat like Howard Suber in The Power of Film, especially during discussion of his first theme—his characters’ pursuit of “escape”—which echoes Suber’s emphasis on metaphorically and physically “trapped” central characters. However, in the case of Hitchcock, it feels considerably more valid.

Cousins’ other themes should strike Hitchcock fans as equally sound: “desire,” “loneliness,” “time” (which should be speeded up or slow-down, to the protagonist’s discomfort), fulfillment, and a truncated discussion of “height.”  Indeed, considering Hitch’s use of Rushmore in North by Northwest, the bell tower in Vertigo, and the Statue of Liberty in Saboteur, Hitchcock was arguably the king of commanding heights.

Naturally, Cousins incorporates extensive film clips, including shrewd and liberal use of Psycho and The Birds. Although often unfairly overlooked, Torn Curtain and The Trouble with Harry also get substantial screentime, but poor Topaz remains a red-headed stepchild amid his filmography. Still, Cousins serves up a reasonable survey that might prompt viewers to revisit films they maybe have not seen in years, like I Confess, starring Montgomery Cliff, a refreshingly sympathetic portrait of a Catholic priest, “trapped” in a Hitchcockian situation.

Mark Cousins’ The Storms of Jeremy Thomas

If given a choice, an independent film producer like Jeremy Thomas would probably prefer to be the subject of a documentary helmed by an idiosyncratic auteur whose approach is always a little off-center. At least we can hope that is the case, because that is what he got. Whether viewers feel the same is an entirely different question. Regardless, the celebrated but not-necessarily household-famous producer gets his due in Mark Cousins’ The Storms of Jeremy Thomas, which opens Friday in New York.

How big is Thomas in the business? He produced Bernardo Bertolucci’s best picture-winning The Last Emperor. Yet, Cousins devotes more screentime to Dom Hemingway and Young Adam that the epic story of Pu Yi, the boy emperor. We even see more from Thomas’s Oscar acceptance speech than from the movie itself. That should give you idea of Cousins’ highly subjective perspective.

Instead, he structures the documentary as a road movie, accompanying Thomas as he drives from his country cottage to Cannes, where his latest film is premiering, Takeshi Miike’s First Love. Frankly, cineastes could probably eagerly devour a documentary solely devoted to Thomas’s collaborations with Miike, also including Blade of the Immortal, 13 Assassins, and Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai.

By the way, Storms is not always safe for work, because Cousins’ second thematic chapter, “Sex,” does indeed show a lot of it. It isn’t inappropriate given Thomas produced Roeg’s Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession, Cronenberg’s Crash, and Bertolucci’s The Dreamers, but just keep this in mind if you want to stream Storm in an internet café later. Bizarrely, Last Emperor is also ignored during the subsequent chapter, “Politics,” even though the scenes of the Cultural Revolution cry out to be compared with those of the May 1968 protests in The Dreamers (same director, even).

Cousins only interviews a select handful of Thomas’s colleagues, none of whom are directors (one might wonder about his thoughts on that matter). In any event, we hear from Debra Winger (The Sheltering Sky and the unmentioned Everybody Wins) and Tilda Swinton (Young Adam and Only Lover Left Alive), who is rather amusing to watch as she tries to justify Cousins’ choice of title to herself during one of their interview sequences.

The Eyes of Orson Welles: Cousins on Welles

It wasn’t just his eyes. By all accounts, cinematographer Gregg Toland substantially contributed to the dazzling look of Citizen Kane. Yet, that was Welles’ only picture with Toland, but he continued to display a similarly dramatic visual sensibility in all his subsequent masterworks and masterpieces. Cinema docu-essayist Mark Cousins speculates it all started with the original American auteur’s pen, ink, and sketchbook in The Eyes of Orson Welles, which opens today in New York.

Cousins’ intention is never to compete with Chuck Workman’s competent documentary profile Magician: The Astonishing Life & Work of Orson Welles or They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead, Morgan Neville’s fascinating chronicle of Welles’ final film, The Other Side of the Wind. He sets out to make something more personal and impressionistic, but the discovery of a trove of the master’s sketches, drawings, and paintings gives Cousins a hook that will still pull in many skeptical Welles fans.

To his credit, Cousins also has a sharp eye for visuals. At times, he is like a human google image search, drawing connections between Welles’ iconic film scenes, his graphic work, and the sights, locations, and media he would have absorbed at various stages of his life. Most viewers will happily follow him that far, but he ventures out onto thinner ice when he starts offering more speculate psychoanalysis and even presumes to speak for Welles, via a fictional letter from the subject to his documentarian, during the final chapter.

Still, Welles loyalists and traditionalists cannot object too strenuously, since his youngest daughter Beatrice Welles makes supportive appearances throughout Eyes. She seems to have a good sense of humor, which probably helps when you are part of the Welles family.

Of course, it is always rewarding to go back to the Welles well, because his oeuvre, although frustratingly limited as a credited director, is still so rich and powerful. Arguably, Macbeth emerges as the surprise leader for screen time, whereas Magnificent Ambersons gets oddly cursory treatment (especially since Welles was so notoriously excluded from the final editing).

Depending on one’s perspective, the idiosyncrasy of Cousins’ doc is either its greatest asset or detraction. He has clearly considered the Welles canon in holistic and cross-disciplinary ways, but he allows way too much of his personal subjectivity and bias into the film. That also rather needlessly drags things out. A tighter, more formalistic ninety-some-minute film would be much more effective than the current nearly two-hour cut, with its pointless “Citizen Trump” references. Sometime interesting and sometimes frustrating, Cousins’ Eyes of Orson Welles will be a decidedly mixed viewing experience for most classic movie buffs when it opens today (3/15) in New York, at the IFC Center.

Sundance ’15: 6 Desires—D.H. Lawrence and Sardinia

There was a time when D.H. Lawrence’s travel writings were his best received work. Even before his sexually charged novels belatedly achieved widespread critical acceptance, Lawrence’s nonfiction did more than their share to promote Italian tourism. Over ninety years after its initial publication, his Sea and Sardinia continues to lure visitors from the UK to the Mediterranean isle. In this case it is Northern Irish documentarian Mark Cousins and his small intrepid crew, who will retrace the old man’s footsteps in the docu-essay-travelogue 6 Desires: D.H. Lawrence and Sardinia (trailer here), which screened during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

Clearly, this will be a very personal and impressionist journey, considering Cousins starts his voiceovers by asking Lawrence (presumably in spirit) if he can call him Bert. At this point, the audience can envision the novelist looking down from somewhere, chillily replying: “that’s Mr. Lawrence to you.” Nevertheless, Cousins maintains the intimate, but one-sided dialogue, revisiting the sites from the book, but informing the film’s visits with their full historical and cultural context.

This will never be a breakout Sundance documentary hit like Searching for Sugarman, but it is pleasant enough for a while. Despite his libertine reputation, Cousins’ portrait emphasizes Lawrence’s conservative nature, including his categorical rejection of socialism and his contention feminism would largely emasculate males into what we would now call metrosexuals. Along the way, he offers plenty of tips for prospective tourists. The hearty Lawrence multi-course menu offered at one rustic restaurant sounds like it might be worth the trip by itself.

Strangely though, the film loses focus when Cousins hands over the third act narrating duties to a woman, for gender representational reasons Lawrence probably would have abhorred. It is sort of interesting to hear her contrast Lawrence with Grazia Deledda, Italy’s female proletarian Nobel Prize winner for literature, but the vague yet unmistakable implication he helped contribute to the Holocaust because he never criticized Italian fascists in-print is so excessive, it jeopardizes the entire film’s credibility. As points of reference, Sea and Sardinia was published in 1921 and Lawrence died in 1930, so please, get serious.

Frankly, 6 Desires is often doing odd little things to undercut itself. Many times, when Cousins has a lovely vista in his frame, he ruins it by sticking his arm out, selfie style, with a cheap laminated photo or a plastic overlay frame. These just look bad on-screen.

When the film actually focuses on its ostensive subject, it offers some intriguing insights that might lead to viewers to reappraise Lawrence and his work. To jolt everyone awake, Cousins also includes clips from Ken Russell’s adaptation of Women in Love, so you know what that means: Oliver Reed, full frontal. Unfortunately, this is about the time the film starts to founder. It has its moments, but 6 Desires really ought to have been chopped down to an hour and packaged specifically for television. Regardless, it will likely find more festival play following its screenings at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, thanks to the filmmakers’ reputation, but it is strictly for Lawrence and Cousins completists.