F for Fake

Last night I was watching a documentary called Paul Merton Looks at Alfred Hitchcock, in which comedian Paul Merton discussed the early career of Alfred Hitchcock, when he was making films in Britain, with particular emphasis on his work in silent films, and how he retained the visual stylings of those early films right through his career. The documentary combined stills, film clips, interviews with people who knew and worked with Hitchcock, and archive clips of the man himself. The visual gimmicks that were used didn't always work, but mostly they did and it was a very interesting show. Paul Merton knows a lot about silent film and did a very interesting series on silent comedy a couple of years ago. I remember I did an evening class on the work of Alfred Hitchcock a couple of years ago. Interestingly, Hitchcock was a big fan of the "James Bond" novels by Ian Fleming and was very keen on making a Bond movie, but the producers of the Bond franchise refused because they thought a Bond film done by Hitchcock would take the emphasis away from the rest of the series.

Later on I watched the 1974 film F for Fake, directed by Orson Welles, on DVD. The film is a kind of documentary, initially focusing on well-known art forger Elmyr de Hory and his biographer Clifford Irving, who became famous for writing a fake "authorised biography" of billionaire Howard Hughes, the documentary also discusses Welles' own career, in particular his famous radio broadcast of War of the Worlds, and actress Oja Kodar. The film discusses the nature of art, forgery and illusion. It is mostly interesting and often very funny.

Today I got up pretty late and went out to change some money for my trip to Amsterdam and also to buy a guidebook. On my way back I bought a copy of Empire magazine, which was running a big feature story on the new Terminator film.