Alfred Hitchcock (floating, far right) in Alain Resnais and Alain Robbe-Grillet's Last Year At Marienbad, 1961. Shortly prior to this shot, the film's narration mentions "a gray silhouette of a man…" And there it is!
Image of the day, 6/11/09
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When I first saw the film, I had thought that looked remarkably like Hitchcock, but always thought it was a stand-in, because I never recalled seeing verification in any materials that it was Hitchcock being mentioned anywhere.
@Mathias—well, in a sense, it is a stand-in—if you look carefully, particularly at the feet, you can see it’s a life-size cardboard depiction of Hitchcock, no doubt a remnant of an ornate lobby promotional display for one of his films.
When I get the time I’ll find the shot-by-shot homage to “Gilda” in this thing, and post a comparison…
Thank you for this. I’d read, via Jonathan Rosenbaum, that Hitchcock makes a “cameo”, but even after seeing the film twice (once in the theater), I could never find him. Even in your screengrab, even with directions, I had to scan it for a few seconds.
Maybe the best screen-grab I’ve ever seen. Thanks. Like a magic eye picture! One that truly packs an auteurist punch…
Are we sure this isn’t something those jokers at Criterion added to this masterpiece digitally?
This has got to be the first time a film has been so cleaned up for DVD that suddenly a Hitchcock cameo became visible.
@Tim: I amm sure! The blink-and-you-miss-it AH ” cameo” is a legendary bit of cinema lore, mentioned in “Midnight Movies.” I believe it came up in my interview with himm too. This might be the first time it could be pinned down, though.
Hi Glenn,
For whatever it’s worth, this frame grab was also reproduced in the English translation of the screenplay published by Grove Press as an Evergreen paperback–which is where I first found it. And, as I believe you already know, there’s also a Hitchcock “cameo” in MURIEL, with a Hitchcock blowup right outside a restaurant.