Francis Ford Coppola explains why he doesn’t care for Alfred Hitchcock
The thriller genre wouldn’t be what it is today without Alfred Hitchcock, whose career in the film industry established him as the ‘Master of Suspense’ and one of cinema’s most important innovators. Hitchcock began his career back in the silent era, with his first feature film coming in 1925 with The Pleasure Garden. The filmmaker moved between genres like comedy and romance, although his love of thrillers showed early on; one of his earliest features, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog, was his first attempt at the genre.
He established himself further as a thriller director with titles like Murder!, Mary, The Man Who Knew Too Much and The 39 Steps – the transition to sound cinema suiting him well. More movies, like Sabotage, The Lady Vanishes, Rebecca and Jamaica Inn followed, proving him to be a pioneer of the genre. As his career progressed, his movies became more experimental, with Vertigo, for example, containing one of the first ever computer animations, as well as lucid, colourful lighting that made it a pure visual feast.
With Psycho in 1960, he changed the horror genre forever, setting the movie up as a thriller before totally twisting our loyalties and tonally shifting the movie into the realms of pure terror. A lot has been said about Hitchcock over the years, but whether you like his films or not, it is hard to deny his mammoth influence. Not only did the British filmmaker massively impact Hollywood, but he also inspired foreign filmmakers, exerting particular influence over the French New Wave with his stylish mysteries.
Many legendary filmmakers looked up to Hitchcock, such as Steven Spielberg (although the love was not reciprocated), François Truffaut, Sam Raimi, and Brian De Palma. However, Francis Ford Coppola, one of the greatest filmmakers of his generation, isn’t so convinced by Hitchcock’s brilliance. The director behind The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now does acknowledge Hitchcock’s legacy, but he feels as though the Psycho director approached filmmaking very differently.
“Anyone who intends to make a film in the thriller genre is a student of Hitchcock. He invented it,” he explained (via Scraps From The Loft). Discussing his own movie The Conversation, the filmmaker said, “I felt, very early on, that it had to be a kind of horror film—a Hitchcockian horror film.” Subsequently, “I reviewed the Hitchcock films and tried to understand why they work so well.” By doing so, he noticed that they didn’t have all that much in common.
“Ultimately, I think I’m a lot different from Hitchcock in my approach. Hitchcock seems to be almost entirely interested in the design of his films. I’m much more interested in performances.” Certainly, while Hitchcock’s movies have delivered some memorable performances from actors like Janet Leigh, James Stewart and Anthony Perkins, for example, these are hardly as revered as performances like Marlon Brando’s in The Godfather or Apocalypse Now.
“I don’t care for most Hitchcock films because they’re terribly acted. My favourite Hitchcock films are the ones that are well acted, like The Wrong Man and Strangers on a Train,” he claimed. Instead, Coppola has found much more inspiration in the work of Henri-Georges Clouzet, citing Diabolique as a significant influence on his approach to making thrillers.
