In the fall of 1962, whilst The Birds was in post-production, François Truffaut carried out extensive interviews with Alfred Hitchcock at his offices at Universal Studios. The interviews were recorded to audio tape and the content eventually edited down into Truffaut's Hitchcock book.

Although Truffaut could speak a little English, he hired Helen Scott (of the French Film Office in New York) to act as the translator for the interviews.

Truffaut had intended to quickly publish the book of the interviews, but the first edition wasn't published until several years later (1966 in France and 1967 in America). To bring the book up-to-date, Truffaut conducted further interviews to discuss Marnie and Torn Curtain.

In 1984, Patricia Hitchcock donated a set of the interview tapes to the Margaret Herrick Library, where they are now part of the Hitchcock Collection. Although Truffaut claimed that the recordings lasted 50 hours, the surviving tapes — which cover the 1962 interviews — last for less than 26 hours.

Research by Janet Bergstrom[1] has made clear the fact that the book often does not contain a verbatim transcript of Hitchcock's responses to Truffaut's questions...

Certain categories of information seem to have been omitted from the published interview for reasons over and above the need to keep the page count down or omit Hitchcock’s slightly off–color jokes and descriptions of individuals that might offend them or even prove libelous. Information was dropped that would be considered precious today, particularly by film historians: explanations of technique were greatly limited compared to the original, references to television and the film industry as such, including observations about people who were not necessarily well–known and what they did, as Hitchcock remembered this or that film or phase of his career.

The interviews were used as the basis of Alain Riou and Stéphane Boulan's French stage play Hitch: When Truffaut Confronted Hitchcock.

Audio

The audio tapes of the interviews have not been released commercially. However, portions of the tapes were used for a French radio broadcast by the station "France Culture".[2]

French Radio Broadcast

Nearly 12 hours of the interviews were broadcast on French radio as a 25 part series. Each episode runs for just over 25 minutes.

Transcriptions are available for some of the parts.

Childhood through to his early years in the film industry...

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The Mountain Eagle through to the end of the silent era...

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Part 3

Blackmail through to a discussion about American audiences...

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Part 4

Rich and Strange through to realism in films...

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Part 5

The 39 Steps through to plausibility in film and film critics...

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Part 6

Secret Agent and Sabotage...

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Part 7

Young and Innocent and The Lady Vanishes...

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Part 8

Final years in Britain through to his move to America...

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Part 9

Rebecca...

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Part 10

Discussion about Hollywood through to Notorious...

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Part 11

Mr and Mrs Smith through to Suspicion...

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Part 12

Saboteur through to Shadow of a Doubt...

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Part 13

Lifeboat through to Spellbound...

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Part 14

Notorious through to The Paradine Case...

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Part 15

Rope...

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Part 16

Rope and Under Capricorn...

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Part 17

Stage Fright through to Strangers on a Train...

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Part 18

Strangers on a Train through to I Confess...

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Part 19

Notorious through to a discussion about suspense...

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Part 20

Initial discussion about the The Birds through to Rear Window...

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Part 21

The Wrong Man through to Vertigo...

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Part 22

North by Northwest through to Psycho...

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Part 23

Psycho...

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Part 24

The Birds...

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Part 25

Psycho through to characterisation in films...

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Documentaries

Video

The following is an interview from the French "Apostrophes" television programme (13/Apr/1984), in which Bernard Pivot talks to Truffaut and Roman Polanski about Hitchcock. Truffaut had just released the "Definitive" version of the book and this would be his last public appearance — just six months later, he died from a brain tumour. The video is in French with Italian subtitles.

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See Also...

Notes & References