Double Take (2009)
Director: Johan Grimonprez
With: Ron Burrage, Mark Perry
Not quite a documentary, not quite a work of fiction. More like a meditation on the Cold War as seen through a fictional version of Alfred Hitchcock, his work in movies (especially The Birds) and his TV show. It also works in a kind of insipid paranoia using real commercials for Folger’s instant coffee as a reflection of the very real fears of nuclear annihilation in the early 60s. And, all of this is set against the so-called “kitchen debate” between Nikita Khrushchev and Richard Nixon, then vice-president. Still with me?
The content of this film is based on an idea by Jorge Luis Borges in which Hitchcock meets an older double of himself from 1980, while shooting The Birds in 1962. Hitch’s voice is mimicked by Mark Perry as a narration. Long-time Hitchcock double Burrage stands in for the director, as well as telling anecdotes from his own career.
The Folger’s ads are a monument to the idea that anyone who wants to return to the “good old days” is an idiot. Wives are near hysterical when their coffee is cruelly rejected by their husbands, until they find Folger’s. Then, the old man’s violent disdain turns into a Cialis moment.
While all of the parts work on one level or another, the whole thing doesn’t jell, and is a bit of a mess. Here’s the kicker. It’s a fascinating mess, and I won’t say don’t see it. See it for the wild attempt to merge disparate parts, from the disordered imagination of an unusual director.
B