AFI Fest screens Hitchcock classic
By Ed Rampell
When I was attending Hunter College film school, classmates criticized me for stating that the ending of 1959’s North by Northwest symbolized Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint having sexual intercourse. The next class I brought in Francois Truffaut’s book of interviews with Hitchcock (Hitchcock/Truffaut), wherein the "Master of Suspense" confirmed my suspicions.
Part of this year's Special Presentations program this tongue-in-cheek espionage thriller is fraught with symbolism, including what is arguably screendom’s greatest chase sequence: a relentless crop duster in hot pursuit of Grant at a cornfield, hellbent on turning the pre-Don Draper (m)ad man into dust. The Mount Rushmore sequence is also immortal. Hitchcock also built replicas of the U.N., a Frank Lloyd Wright house, etc., for this classic with its quintessentially Hitchcockian theme of a wrong man being pursued. (As Hitch vacationed frequently at the Swiss Alps’ swankiest five star hotel, Badrutt’s Palace, at idyllic St. Moritz, it’s hard to comprehend how the director could have such a pessimistic outlook.)
A cinematic gem featuring one of those unforgettable Bernard Herrmann scores, AFI has a film preservation and historical mission it richly lives up to by screening North by Northwest. Don’t miss this good fun, sit-on-the-edge-of-your-seat movie masterpiece – and that cheeky final shot.
(North by Northwest is scheduled to screen Nov. 2, 6:30 p.m., at Mann Chinese Theater 1, 6801 Hollywood Blvd. For more info: 866/I-FEST; www.afi.com)
By Ed Rampell
When I was attending Hunter College film school, classmates criticized me for stating that the ending of 1959’s North by Northwest symbolized Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint having sexual intercourse. The next class I brought in Francois Truffaut’s book of interviews with Hitchcock (Hitchcock/Truffaut), wherein the "Master of Suspense" confirmed my suspicions.
Part of this year's Special Presentations program this tongue-in-cheek espionage thriller is fraught with symbolism, including what is arguably screendom’s greatest chase sequence: a relentless crop duster in hot pursuit of Grant at a cornfield, hellbent on turning the pre-Don Draper (m)ad man into dust. The Mount Rushmore sequence is also immortal. Hitchcock also built replicas of the U.N., a Frank Lloyd Wright house, etc., for this classic with its quintessentially Hitchcockian theme of a wrong man being pursued. (As Hitch vacationed frequently at the Swiss Alps’ swankiest five star hotel, Badrutt’s Palace, at idyllic St. Moritz, it’s hard to comprehend how the director could have such a pessimistic outlook.)
A cinematic gem featuring one of those unforgettable Bernard Herrmann scores, AFI has a film preservation and historical mission it richly lives up to by screening North by Northwest. Don’t miss this good fun, sit-on-the-edge-of-your-seat movie masterpiece – and that cheeky final shot.
(North by Northwest is scheduled to screen Nov. 2, 6:30 p.m., at Mann Chinese Theater 1, 6801 Hollywood Blvd. For more info: 866/I-FEST; www.afi.com)
