Master of Suspense

Jean-Luc Godard famously said, “It’s not where you take things from — it’s where you take them to.” That quote might well serve as the mantra for the art of appropriation. Godard’s compatriot Fabrice Mathieu took this advice to heart when he made this inspired short film.

 

Master of Suspense fashions Hitchcock’s famous cameos into a coherent, stand-alone short. Mathieu harvested footage of Hitch from his many films, but also from some of the trailers he made. (The extended Psycho trailer in particular is a gem, showcasing Hitchcock’s comedic side and supplying Fabrice Mathieu with loads of footage for his short).

 

The result is a remixing tour de force. Though it consists of footage from wildly differing films, the smart editing stays true to the rules of the continuity style by using match on action cutting and matching eyelines. The creative and skillful sound design ties everything together nicely.