Lifting the lid on a true cinema great

HITCHCOCK ( 12A, 98 MINS) Drama/ Romance. Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson, Danny Huston, Toni Collette, Jessica Biel, James D’Arcy, Ralph Macchio, Michael Stuhlbarg, Michael Wincott, Kurtwood Smith. Director: Sacha Gervasi. In a career spanning more than 50 years, Londonborn film- maker Alfred Hitchcock redefined the cinematic landscape with his diabolical and twisted thrillers.

Audiences screamed and cowered on cue, and Hollywood courted his enviable talents behind the camera.

Yet for all that success and public adulation, he never won an Academy Award as Best Director and had to put his personal for- tune on the line to commit arguably his crowning achievement to celluloid.

Director Sacha Gervasi pays tribute to the iconic film- maker in this compelling biopic based on the book Alfred Hitchcock And The Making Of Psycho by Stephen Rebello.

Adapted for the screen by John J McLaughlin, Hitchcock focuses on the fractious relationship between the film- maker ( Anthony Hopkins) and his screenwriter wife Alma Reville ( Helen Mirren) during the turbulent period when the couple risked everything to self- finance “a nice, clean, nasty little piece of work” called Psycho.

Studios bosses balk at distributing the film and the universally feared Motion Picture Production Code voices its concerns about the in famous shower scene.

So Hitchcock strikes a deal to shoot the film’s love scene to Shurlock’s exact specifications in exchange for keeping the shower scene intact.

Pressures on and off the set take their toll and Hitchcock is haunted by the spirit of Ed Gein ( Michael Wincott) - the notorious serial killer who was the inspiration for Norman Bates.

Hitchcock is a handsomely crafted portrait of tortured genius, distinguished by scintillating performances.

Mirren oozes determination and steely resolve as a trailblazer in an industry dominated by men, while Hopkins disappears beneath Oscar- nominated prosthetics.

His mannerisms perfectly capture the awkwardness and insecurities of a visionary who struggled with his weight.

Hopkins delivers the lipsmacking one- liners with obvious relish. “My murders are always models of taste and discretion!” grins Hitchcock at one point.

Gervasi’s picture is almost as delicious and elegant.