ROGER’S FAVOURITES

HITCHCOCK’S HUMOUR

Instead of screening a complete Hitchcock favourite – too many to choose from – I have decided to show extracts highlighting the humour in his films.

Although he is known for being “the master of suspense”, we sometimes forget how much humour most of his work contains, and how he was a practical joker with his actors. I will include clips from ‘The Lady Vanishes’, ‘The Trouble with Harry’ (an actual black comedy), ‘North by Northwest’, ‘Strangers on a Train’ (which we are screening complete in our Patricia Highsmith retrospective), as well as trailers, featuring Hitchcock and his witty comments, for ‘The Birds’, ‘Frenzy’ and ‘Psycho’ – he always spoke of ‘Psycho’ as a black comedy! I will conclude with a complete 30-minute short film from his TV series ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents’ with his humorous introductions. Do not forget Mark Cousins’ new documentary on Hitchcock screening in this Festival. See pg36 for full details.

120M

The Wild Bunch

This 1969 film, directed by the great Sam Peckinpah, is widely regarded as one of the finest Westerns.

Set in 1913, when motor cars are just appearing and German military men are advising corrupt Mexican Federales, Pike Bishop (William Holden) and his ‘bunch’ of ageing, dissolute outlaws, eke out a living by robbing increasingly well-defended targets. The brilliant cast also includes Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O’Brien and Warren Oates.

USA SAM PECKINPAH 145M

“There are many directors that have made great Westerns that I admire, among them Anthony Mann, John Ford, Howard Hawks and Sergio Leone, but Peckinpah’s film was always one of my favourites. I always appreciate the incredible editing and, looking at that opening gun battle with all the cross-cutting, it was pure Eisenstein montage, while the slow-motion deaths followed Kurosawa’s example. I first saw this with my father, who also enjoyed the genre, but he had difficulty in understanding the flashbacks and I realised how film language had moved on. This is being presented in the main auditorium as Peckinpah’s masterpiece really needs to be shown on the largest screen to fully appreciate the full sound and stunning ‘scope’ visuals”. – RG