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How many times have I said that, if they were gonna make a bio-pic about Hitch the chapter in his life they most needed to focus in on is his time with Tippi Hedren before and after The Birds? A million billion times. It's a little bit lurid, sure, but this is Hitch we're talking about. Lurid sounds just right.
If you don't know the story, Hitch basically reenacted Vertigo with Tippi - she was a nobody model that he repackaged from the ground up into his perfect image of the icy blond (of course, he just wanted all his ladies to be Grace Kelly). He'd pretty much been working his whole career towards this sort of thing - his obsessions becoming... obsessed upon. He was at the peak of his popularity at this time - his TV show was huge, Psycho was a massive hit (even if the critics didn't come on board that one right off the bat - remember: lurid!). So he groomed Tippi into what he wanted and then... SOMETHING... happened between them, in Tippi's trailer supposedly, which she's refused to talk about. But their relationship was forever scarred from there on. And you can basically say that The Birds is Hitch's last true masterpiece. Oh some people don't even give The Birds that distinction, and a lot of other people will call Frenzy his last masterpiece - I'm with the people who say The Birds is his last Great Movie. Later films surely have things to recommend them, but they don't belong amongst the finest things he ever did.
Point being, it's got a sensationally lurid tale to tell, that period, and it's got the Hitchcock we all want to see in a movie about Hitchcock anyway - the old jovial (at least on-screen) fellow we saw camping it up in his show and the commercials for his films. So good news - the BBC is making a movie out of it! It's called The Girl and it will star Timothy Spall - who probably best known for playing rat-toothed Wormtail in the Harry Potter movies - as Hitch, which is terrific casting, and January Jones as Tippi. JJ's proven herself a peerless Grace Kelly imitator these past few years on Mad Men... can she do Tippi as well? They are different creatures. What do we think?
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2 comments:
Timothy Spall has proven an impressive actor, especially in those Mike Leigh films. January Jones, great on the show Mad Man, has proven to be a horrible actress in every other project. I was really excited until I saw January Jones' name.
I have to disagree with you that The Birds was the last great film. I really enjoyed Marnie very much. Frenzy just was bizarre to me - not a fan at all.
I like the casting of Spall, but January Jones can't act her way out of a paper bag. Isn't there anyone else more qualified???
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