Frenzy

Date January 11, 2010 | Map

“Mr Rusk, you are not wearing your tie!”

Last words of Alfred Hitchcock’s penultimate movie Frenzy, closing the story without any post-climax resolution in the most direct way with uncompromising clarity. While the film does not tell at all what would happen next, we all can be sure, because at the end all storylines and details come together so nicely that there is no other conclusion. Why bother telling what the audience can figure out by using only a minimal fraction of their intelligence? This is what makes Hitchcock so special.

Bankside Residents Forum

Bankside Residents Forum

You know what to expect from a Hitchcock movie, yet the effects never fail to meet the intentions. Hitchcock creates suspense, explores characters and uses humour quite a bit – all neatly separated. This one scene is about humour, the next takes the story further, then one with suspense, all acted out and edited in an almost theatric fashion, so very different from today’s films, which produce kaleidoscopes of everything in any one scene. The pace of Frenzy is hence rather relaxing, but the viewer is entertained throughout the almost two hours of the 1972 film.

Frenzy on IMDb
Frenzy on Rotten Tomatoes

Frenzy Guide Notes

Frenzy Guide Notes

You have got to love the Bankside Community Film Club and their monthly screenings of interesting London-focused cinematic or documentary highlights at Tate Modern’s cinema-like Starr Auditorium, all for free and preceded by wine and popcorn. But only for Southwark and Lambeth residents; I’m truly sorry if you’re not, you are missing out massively. But maybe you have your own community film club in your borough?

The Bankside Community Film Club is growing in popularity, never before have I seen so many people. Today’s audience was also remarkably young – young as in some below retirement age, quite a difference to last year. And it was again enjoyable to see a wide diversity of people of all shapes, backgrounds and abilities, so very different to the nameless but similar looking faces and bodies that you pass every morning on the way to work. Even though (or probably because) I am one of those nameless everyday by-passers, I value the opportunity to blend in with representatives of lives that are not anything like my own. Keeps you grounded.

Be the first to like.


Add comment

XHTML: The following HTML tags can be used: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>