Legendary director Alfred Hitchcock becomes the protagonist of his own doppelganger mystery in this abstract thriller in which Hitchcock meets his double on a movie set. Johan Grimonprez's quasi-experimental feature weaves this central conceit (cobbled out of various TV appearances by the subject as host of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, supplemented with new material featuring Hitchcock lookalike Ron Burrage and voice impersonator Mark Perry) throughout a meditation on (among other things) the Cold War tension of the late 1950s, the space race, and the culture of classic television, as embodied in archival film and hilariously dated coffee commercials. An intellectual exercise with a clever cinematic flair, Double Take is the most entertaining experiment in avant-garde impressionist filmmaking to hit the screen in a long time, although it is ultimately more essay than narrative, and sometimes feels like a video installation art piece. Likely to appeal to Hitchcock fans and other film buffs, this is a strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)
Double Take
Kino, 79 min., not rated, DVD: $29.99 Volume 26, Issue 2
Double Take
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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