Guillermo del Toro opens “Guillermo del Toro Dissects Hitchcock” at the Academy Museum, spotlighting five Alfred Hitchcock films and unpacking decades of obsession—from studio battles with David O. Selznick to the lasting power of the “Notorious” kiss.
When Guillermo del Toro walked into the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles this week, it wasn’t just to talk about Alfred Hitchcock. He was doing something closer to a guided return—one film at a time—to the kind of cinema he believes people are losing the habit of seeing.
The director. obsessed with Hitchcock’s work for most of his life. is sharing decades of research and obsession with the public through “Guillermo del Toro Dissects Hitchcock. ” a series of screenings and lectures at the museum. The retrospective began Thursday night with “Notorious” (1946). a movie del Toro called a pivotal moment in Hitchcock’s development as a Hollywood filmmaker.
Del Toro anchored his lecture in the messy, human machinery behind the movies—specifically Hitchcock’s collaborations with David O. Selznick, the legendary producer who first brought the British filmmaker to America. For del Toro, the creative tension was never subtle. On films like “Rebecca” and “Spellbound. ” Selznick micromanaged Hitchcock and sent him endless memos. some of which Hitchcock managed to resist by sheer attrition.
“He waited, stubborn and quiet, and eventually got his way,” del Toro told the Academy Museum audience. But he also said Hitchcock met his match with Selznick. “Selznick was the prototypical controlling producer. We talk about the frustrations Hitchcock felt during ‘Rebecca’ because it was a tug-of-war with Selznick. Selznick wanted to leave his signature above anyone else’s.”.
Then came the shift that del Toro says changed everything: on “Notorious. ” Selznick was so consumed by—and buried under the financial weight of—his Western epic “Duel in the Sun” that he had to relinquish control over “Notorious” to Hitchcock and RKO Pictures. That, del Toro argued, finally gave Hitchcock room to work freely with all the resources of a Hollywood studio.
The payoff, in del Toro’s telling, was immediate. “Notorious” became an espionage thriller and romance that incorporated Hitchcock’s most personal concerns while still delivering as mainstream suspense. Del Toro also used the lecture to stitch the film into Hitchcock’s larger career. presenting images from the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library. where he found behind-the-scenes stills depicting the making of “Notorious.”.
He drew lines forward and backward through the language of cinema itself—showing how certain devices evolved. Among the examples was a crane shot that begins in the sky and lands on a small detail, a tool del Toro connected to the progression of Hitchcock’s filmmaking over time.
The most talked-about moment in “Notorious” also became part of del Toro’s argument for how Hitchcock weaponized craft. Del Toro discussed the film’s most famous romantic scene: a lengthy kiss between Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. He said it evaded the censors’ scissors with sly blocking and action that technically stayed within the boundaries of the Production Code while defying it in spirit.
To del Toro, Hitchcock’s greatness doesn’t stop at the scene itself. He pointed out how the movie calls back to it at the film’s end, returning with a climax that repeats the rhythms in a different way—creating powerful emotional effects through pure cinema.
That idea—Hitchcock as a practitioner of “pure cinema”—is what motivated del Toro to host the lecture series. “He’s one of the purest filmmakers that represents cinematic language,” del Toro said. “Why do I say this is important?. Because I think the language of cinema is evaporating. Most of the time when we discuss movies, we discuss them in terms that we inherit from dramaturgy. The plot, the screenplay, the characters. But think about all the fine arts. We don’t discuss them in those terms.”.
Del Toro compared that loss of attention to the way people talk about painting. He brought up a Van Gogh example. saying. “nobody says. ‘Well. it’s a couple of flowers in a vase.’ No. you discuss it in terms of the vigor of the tracery of the brushstroke. the richness of its color palette. and you discuss it formally and artistically in a language that befits the medium.”.
He believes the same kind of close. formal discussion of film is slipping away—so the lectures are meant to sharpen cinematic literacy. especially for young filmmakers. “Film is not about what it’s about or who it’s about,” del Toro said. “It doesn’t exist only in dramaturgical, social, or political terms. It exists as an art form that cannot be articulated in any other way but film.”.
His goal is simple and ambitious: to give viewers permission to watch differently. “It will hopefully provoke in you the desire to watch movies again and again in a different way each time.”
The program is built around five key Hitchcock works—“Notorious. ” “Shadow of a Doubt. ” “North by Northwest. ” “I Confess. ” and “Frenzy”—each screening at the museum with in-depth introductions from del Toro. Those sessions include his historical context and his own visual and thematic analyses, including shot-by-shot breakdowns of important sequences.
And the curtain might not be falling after June. Del Toro teased not only upcoming Hitchcock screenings but also the possibility of future lecture series now that he’s a member of the Academy Board of Governors. One idea he floated was a program devoted to Luis Buñuel’s Mexican work. “It’s up to us to renew the pact with cinema,” del Toro said. “It’s not up to the studios. You know, there are no old movies. There are only movies waiting for you to see them for the first time and make them new.”.
“Guillermo del Toro Dissects Hitchcock” runs at the Academy Museum through June 28.
Guillermo del Toro Alfred Hitchcock Academy Museum Guillermo del Toro Dissects Hitchcock Notorious Shadow of a Doubt North by Northwest I Confess Frenzy David O. Selznick Cary Grant Ingrid Bergman