Jean-Luc Godard began his life in film as a critic for Cahiers du Cinema. In his numerous reviews and articles Godard demonstrated an intense appreciation and love of the Master of Suspense that later influenced his own films. It is in Pierrot le fou , Godard’s 1965 film about a couple on the run that most obviously shows his Hitchcock-stocked hand and by referencing interviews of both Hitchcock and Godard we are able to understand more fully the significance that Pierrot has not only to the director but the the then-rapidly growing New Wave. With later films Godard branched out into territory superficially divorced from Hitchcock but never did he truly leave the master behind. It in his more experimental films that Godard turned back to criticism and by viewing the oddities 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967) and Week End (1967) through the lens of Hitchcock criticism we are better able to understand such complex works.
The Museum of Film History 