Phesitant: Torn curtains will never place itself in the pantheon of Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpieces. The faults, first of all, are the shaky screenplay – right down to the happy ending, the terrible, almost unimaginable naivety in Hitch –, then the slightly tearful heroine, and finally the Paul Newman/Julie Andrews pairing that freezes like still water in a glass in the first scene.
But the problem is more subtle. Hitchcock himself never really defended the spy film, which was released in 1966, in the midst of the Cold War. And for good reason: he doesn’t have complete control over it. Starting with the choice of the star duo, imposed by Universal Pictures, the master supported almost the idea of making a film without suspense.
I have to say that the early 1960s offered that Psychosisa brutal yet unexpected victory, before reminding him that glory never lasts. birds, terrifying but poorly understood, it did not achieve the expected success, although the film is still today considered his last great aesthetic surprise. No spring for Marnie, released in 1964, described by François Truffaut, a laudatory speech, as “a very repulsive film”, convinced neither critics nor a public confused by the intrigues fostered by the first intuitions of modern psychiatry. Hitchcock, for his part, would have only bitterness and assertion that, one thing for sure, Tippi Hedren would never be Grace Kelly.
These were difficult times for Hitchcock, who saw the world on which he had built his empire crumble. He laments the loss of the great stars of the past; He even admitted that James Stewart could no longer play the lead role, his face slumped, like a metaphor for Hollywood of the past. Cary Grant turned down the lead role Birdforcing him to link it to Rod Taylor, whose charisma remains inversely proportional to his impressive stature. And Grace Kelly went to Batu to marry her destiny.
Tensions with Paul Newman
His recent failures no longer put him in the position of strength he once had the studios trembling in. Universal, seeking sensations but above all dollars, therefore weighed on him, who dreamed of reviving alchemy Death in pursuitpair bankable : the mirage of Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint disappears in favor of Julie Andrews and Paul Newman who, between them, make up half the film’s budget.
He’s out of Mary Poppins (for which she won the Oscar for best actress) and Sound of Musicwhere she still sings, in the role of a governess full of good intentions and sentimentality. He is the new golden boy of American cinema: less tortured than Montgomery Clift, but as brilliant as Brando at his fever pitch. The studio wants it at the top: they will get it.
For the director, this was the first slap in the face. Julie Andrews is not blonde – a crime against Hitchcock – and lacks the icy beauty that pervades his work. It was difficult for him to direct an actress who was expected “at any moment to start singing,” he complained.
Paul Newman, for his part, had a string of triumphs (Trickster, Sweet Young Bird, Wildest of All). The studio applauded; Hitchcock, for his part, was wary of the famed Actor’s Studio “Method” that actors revered, a way of inhabiting characters to the point of obsession, which sometimes prevented him from offering filmmakers the quick, detailed shots necessary to create tension. Moreover, indocile allows himself to discuss certain scenes, questioning the actions of his characters.
Bernard Herrmann was dismissed
Another hard blow: Hitch no longer had his usual team to execute his ideas and intuition. Editor George Tomasini and cinematographer Robert Burks (Oscar winner for Hands on Collar) is lost. But the hardest and almost irreparable loss is the musical loss. The abandonment of the soundtrack composed – then rejected – by Bernard Herrmann spelled the death knell for one of the most fruitful collaborations in cinema history. However, Universal wanted a “modern” sound, a composer capable of reaching the top of the charts. Bernard Herrmann no longer meets specifications. We’ll go with John Addison, the new Oscar winner for the film Tom Jones.
So, is there really nothing to save The curtains are torn ? Of course. Hitchcock still knows how to distill his suspense tinged with black humor, even though his breath struggles to calm down in the first half of the film. But he remains a master in the art of designing scenes in which the audience suffocates, glued to their seats. Bus, ballet hall (slight nod A man who knows too much), a museum: so many places where he manages, with his usual grace, to recreate subtle anxieties.
And then there’s the farm scene, a monument to dry horror and black humor. An almost legendary sequence from Hitchcock cinema that takes all the clichés upside down. Paul Newman, supported by a young farmer played by Carolyn Conwell (a future regular Fire of love), painstakingly attempts to eliminate the villainous Stasi agent Gromek (Wolfgang Kieling).
To find
Kangaroo today
Answer
A long, clumsy, endless struggle with no dialogue where everyone uses everyday objects. Far from the James Bond who kills while breathing, Hitchcock reminds us here that killing is a brutal, selfless and highly physical act. An almost primitive scene without music – sorry Herrmann – which makes every movement even more unbearable. This moment of cinema alone justifies that we still watch it today Torn curtains. Sweat, cold of course, guaranteed.
Torn curtains by Alfred Hitchcock. 1966. With Paul Newman, Julie Andrews, Lila Kedrova, Hansjörg Felmy, Tamara Toumanova, Wolfgang Kieling, Ludwig Donath, Günter Strack, David Opatoshu, Gisela Fischer, Mort Mills, Carolyn Conwell. To (re)discover in Arte.
