Alfred Hitchcock’s masterworks are famous for exploring dark depths of human psyche and his preference for blonde muses, and veteran French actor Isabelle Huppert joked about the director’s enduring yet disturbing obsession with his light haired heroines.
Huppert, who received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 50th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), has worked with almost all the acclaimed filmmakers in global cinema, but according to her, she never got an opportunity to collaborate with Hitchcock as she wasn’t “blonde enough”.
“I wish I could have worked with Alfred Hitchcock. I would have loved to work with him. But I think I wasn’t blonde enough to work with Hitchcock,” the 66-year-old celebrated actor quipped during a masterclass here on Thursday.
Hitchock’s affinity towards blondes started with cameos and his first film with a blonde lead was 1926’s The Lodger, featuring actor June Tripp. In the coming years, the ‘Hitchcock blonde’ reached its peak as the director roped in Ingrid Bergman (Notorious), Eva Marie Saint (North by Northwest), Grace Kelly (Dial M for Murder, Rear Window) as his mystery women.
Huppert, who made her debut in 1971, five years before Hitchcock directed his last film Family Plot, added that “I was an actor enough to work with” such big names as she always required a lot of freedom to perform in front of the camera. She credited her frequent collaborators German filmmaker Werner Schroeter and Austrian director Michael Haneke for giving her the space she required as an actor. (PTI)
