En 1962, Hitchcock et Truffaut s’enferment pendant une semaine à Hollywood pour mettre à jour les secrets de la mise en scène au cinéma. A partir des enregistrements originaux de cette rencontre qui servirent à élaborer le livre mythique « Le cinéma selon Hitchcock », ce film met en image la plus grande leçon de cinéma de tous les temps, et nous plonge dans l’univers de l’auteur de Psychose, Les Oiseaux et Sueurs froides.

Hitchcock–Truffaut de Kent Jones : une relecture très contemporaine du cinéma d’Hitchcock. En restituant les enjeux essentiels de cette conversation, avec de nombreux extraits de scènes (mythiques ou moins connues) des films d’Hitchcock, 10 grands cinéastes actuels reviennent sur les questions esthétiques, techniques et narratives au centre de la conversation avec Truffaut. Et grâce aux enregistrements des entretiens, c’est tout à coup comme si le livre s’animait : Hitchcock et Truffaut, avec leurs intonations, leurs hésitations, leurs rires, répondent à Martin Scorsese, Arnaud Desplechin, David Fincher, Richard Linklater, Wes Anderson, James Gray, Olivier Assayas, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Peter Bogdanovich and Paul Schrader pour faire revivre cette rencontre mythique d’une semaine et une amitié de 25 ans.

D’une modernité incroyable, l’art d’Hitchcock est éclairé et expliqué par les réalisateurs d’aujourd’hui.

« Avec ce film, mon but n’est pas de plaire aux cinéphiles. Je veux que le spectateur ait la révélation viscérale de ce qu’est le cinéma dans toute sa puissante beauté ».

Kent Jones

The encounter between François Truffaut and Alfred Hitchcock in the early 60s was a sort of apotheosis for cinema buffs worldwide. Published in 1966 as a book entitled Hitchcock/Truffaut (simultaneously in France and in the USA), the extended conversation between the two men had a profound effect on the critical approach to Hitchcock’s movie around the world. Above and beyond that, the very conception of the cinema was transformed, as from then on, the filmmaker was seen as the true auteur of his oeuvre, thanks to his mastery of mise-en-scène.

So this book of taped interviews had a lasting impression on the balance of power between the film industry and the talent. Truffaut thought of the book as a “book-film” and he often referred to it as “The Hitchbook,” believing that in a way, it exposed the artist’s secrets about how he saw both the cinema and the world. Crucially, many American key filmmakers working today read it while they were making their first films and think of it as a sort of “bible” of the cinema. The film will follow the path of Truffaut and Hitchcock’s conversation about the cinema, portraying the key points, and showing how Hitchcock deeply influenced European cinema and at the same time how the French New Wave had an incredible impact on “New Hollywood”.

It will do so through interviews and first-person accounts from other filmmakers who were influenced by this book about filmmaking, as well as with a few legendary scenes from Hitchcock films that illustrate the main aesthetic, technical and narrative issues at the heart of his conversation with Truffaut. The original tapes of those conversations, which were found some 20 years ago, will be an essential resource, as they allow us to hear Hitchcock and Truffaut’s own voices, with their intonations, their hesitations and their truth.

Directors like Martin Scorsese, Arnaud Desplechin, David Fincher, Richard Linklater, Wes Anderson, James Gray, Olivier Assayas, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Peter Bogdanovich and Paul Schrader will be among the main characters of our movie. The will testify of the importance which had for them this book, and this unique relation in all the history of the film, acted as a sort of bridge between two key times and places in filmmaking.

Written by Serge Toubiana (Director of the Cinemathèque française) and Kent Jones, the film will describe the intellectual and artistic bonds between the master of suspense born in the 19th century (1899!) and a man 33 years younger – one of the greatest of French film-makers. In 2014, the Cinemathèque française will be honoring Truffaut with an exhibit and a retrospective of his films to mark the 30th anniversary of his death.

Co-writer and director with Martin Scorsese of numerous documentaries, such as the Emmy-nominated and Peabody Award-winning 2010 film, A Letter to Elia, Kent Jones currently serves as Artistic Director of The World Cinema Foundation. In November of 2012, he was appointed Director the New York Film Festival.

More than just the personal story of two filmmakers who strove to make our hearts beat a little faster, in retracing 25 years of friend-ship, this film brings us a slice of cinematographic history.