Director Johan Grimonprez casts Alfred Hitchcock as a paranoid history professor, unwittingly caught up in a double take on the cold war period. The master says all the wrong things at all the wrong times while politicians on both sides desperately clammer to say the right things, live on TV. DOUBLE TAKE targets the global political rise of ‘fear as a commodity’, in a tale of odd couples and double deals. As television hijacks cinema, and the Krushchev and Nixon debate rattles on, sexual politics quietly take off and Alfred himself emerges in a dandy new role on the TV, blackmailing housewives with brands they can't refuse. The novelist Tom McCarthy writes a plot of personal paranoia to mirror the political intrigue, in which Hitchcock and his elusive double increasingly obsess over the perfect murder – of each other! Subverting a meticulous array of tv footage and using 'The Birds' as an essential metaphor, Grimonprez traces catastrophe culture's relentless assault on the home, from moving images’ inception to the present day.
Info
| Title | Double Take |
|---|---|
| Original version | English |
| Status | Completed |
| Category | Docs |
| Year of production | 2009 |
Credits
| Cast | Ron Burrage & Mark Perry |
|---|---|
| Editing | Dieter Diependaele & Tyler Hubby |
| Music | Christian Halten |
Technical specs
| Running time film | 80' |
|---|---|
| Release format | Beta Digit |
| Aspect ratio | 1:1.85 |
| Sound format | Dolby SR |
| Colour | Colour |
Partners
| Supported by | Flanders Audiovisual Fund, ZDF/Arte, Nordmedia, Dutch Film Fund, Rotterdam Film Fund |
|---|
Festivals
2010: Sundance Film Festival (USA) / Witte De With (NLD) / San Francisco Independent Film Festival (USA) / !f Istanbul (TUR) / Doc Fortnight (USA) / The State of Things - NAMOC (CHN) / Québec City Biennial (CAN) / Seattle International Film Festival (USA) / The Fruitmarket Gallery (solo show) (GBR) / Videoex Festival (CHE) / CaixaForum, UAB (SPA) / Voges Gallery (DEU) / Cinema release: Film Forum (USA) / Ikonoklash - Centro Cultural de Lagos (PRT) / Museu Colecçào Berardo (PRT) / Underhill International Documentary Film Festival (MNE) / Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (CZE) / Melbourne International Film Festival (AUS) / Blanton Museum (USA) / Le Fresnoy (FRA) / XVth Forum of European Cinema 'Cinergia' (POL) / Cinema release: BFI Southbank, Curzon Mayfair, Curzon Wimbledon (GBR) / Cinema release: MK2 Bibliothéque (FRA) / Harn Museum (USA) / Hirshhorn Museum (USA) / MUDAM (LUX)
Awards
2009: Special Mention (Era New Horizons International Film Festival) / Special Mention (Image Forum Festival Yokohama) / Black Pearl Award for Best Documentary Director (Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF) )
Flemish Artists take over VIDEOEX
Disorient by Florence Aigner and Laurent Van Lancker received the Main Prize at VIDEOEX, the International Experimental Film & Video Festival in Zürich (21 – 29 May). Because We Are Visual by another helmers' duo, Olivia Rochette and Gerard-Jan Claes, was given an Honourable Mention by the Jury.
The International Jury, consisting of Maria Palacios Cruz (BE), Seppo Renvall (FIN) en Georges Salameh (GR) decided to share the Main Prize between two ‘brave’ films which ‘experiment with storytelling and with the absence of images. Both films share a sense of internal rhythm and pacing, as well as a strong correspondence between the chosen formal strategies and the subject matter that is being dealt with.’ Because We Are Visual also received praise from the jury for its ‘fragile beauty, ‘highly complex editing’ and ‘the two young filmmakers’ ambition.’
Transilvania fetes 10th edition the Belgian way
Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF, 3 - 19 June) presents a Belgian Focus containing seven Flemish and seven French-speaking Belgian films.
One of the titles, Hans Van Nuffel's feature debut Oxygen, also made it into competition. Artistic director of the festival, Mihaj Chirilov, describes the film as an 'intimate film that puts under the microscope individual destines in extreme circumstances'. Since its Montreal World Film Festival debut last year, where it won the Grand Prize of the Americas, Oxygen garnered an impressive number of festival selections and kudos.
Last edited on 22 October 2012