Coming to DVD tomorrow, December 14: DOUBLE TAKE
Johan Grimonprez’s clever documentary/narrative hybrid premiered at Berlin last year and went on to screen at numerous international festivals including London and IDFA before coming stateside at this year’s Sundance. Kino picked up the intriguing film for a limited release and are bringing it to DVD tomorrow.
Constructed in many ways as a film essay, DOUBLE TAKE reflects on the culture of fear that persists to the present day by focusing on the figure of Alfred Hitchcock and his late 1950s and early 1960s films. Setting them against the backdrop of Cold War paranoia, Grimonprez recasts the director from his infamous cameos to leading man in a delightfully subversive story of doppelgangers, filmmaking, advertising, and manipulation. Perfectly in keeping with Hitchcock’s self-reflexive showmanship, the film is equal parts game and avant-garde collage of the Master of Suspense’s film and TV work, making for compulsive viewing.
what (not) to doc 