Film buffs debate the merits of certain directors, such as Terrence Malick, Darren Aronofsky and Brian De Palma. But there’s no question one man is a master: Alfred Hitchcock. So he’s the perfect choice as this year’s entry in the National Theatre’s free Monday night Summer Cinema series. Washingtonians can be reminded — or perhaps in the case of summer interns, learn for the first time — that the man who chose America as his home was also one of its most influential artists.
“He’s such an iconic figure,” says John Loomis, the National Theatre corporate administrator who programs the mini film festival. “He’s someone who captures the imagination of the public so well. One reason I like him so much is that his films are something everyone can relate to. There’s a common man who becomes enmeshed in events beyond his control.”
That description is particularly apt of the film that opens the series today. “North by Northwest” stars Cary Grant, an average man — if you can say that about the elegant Grant — mistaken for a spy whom enemies have never laid eyes on. The 1959 picture has some of Hitchcock’s most famous scenes: Grant dodging an airplane in a cornfield, the exciting final face-off on Mount Rushmore, the naughty final scene with Grant and Eva Marie Saint on a train.
The National has offered a summer film series for about a decade. But it was five years ago that the theater decided to center each summer around a theme. “It was right around the time of the World War II Memorial dedication. We did films that might have been seen during the war,” Loomis recalls. “It really took off after that.”
Now the series usually focuses on a single American actor or filmmaker. “You see how a person’s career and style developed,” he explains. “You can’t judge Hitchcock by just ‘North by Northwest.’ You need to see ‘Strangers on a Train,’ which was partly filmed right here in Washington.”
“Strangers,” based on the shadowy Patricia Highsmith novel, plays July 25. Before that, June 27 sees “Rebecca,” based on the Daphne du Maurier novel — another one of her books inspired “The Birds,” not shown this year — and July 18 has “Vertigo.” After “Strangers” is “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (the 1956 remake of his own British film) on Aug. 1, and the series concludes Aug. 8 with “Dial M for Murder,” starring perhaps the best of Hitchcock’s blondes, Grace Kelly.
You can catch these films on DVD. But there’s something special about seeing them on the big screen. “Many people these days don’t see the films in the way they were meant to be seen,” Loomis says. “Our screen is big enough to catch the detail.”
Screen on the Green, the series sponsored by HBO and Comcast, used to show eight films a summer on the National Mall, often including a Hitchcock. This year, it’s down to four, with none by the master of suspense. So the National Theatre certainly fulfills a niche. The free films “sell out” the 150-person capacity of the theater, so fans might want to get in line before the films begin at 6:30 p.m. The National gives each patron a program with some trivia about the film. Loomis hints that next year’s festival could be bigger; it sounds like a donor is interested in what the theater is doing. The series is a way for the theater to remain alive during the hot months. “Performers have their own lives in the summer,” Loomis notes.
He’s programmed a great half-dozen films. The dark and circling “Vertigo” might be Hitchcock’s masterpiece. It’s the favorite of both Loomis and this critic. “There are seven and a half minutes when no one says anything. So much is being said in that silent period.” The programmer is also quick to mention “Rear Window” and “Lifeboat.” He laughs and envisions a sequel: “That’s not to say we couldn’t do H2O.”
