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The discussion of Hitchcock and Freud seems awfully vague -- saying Hitchcock "studied Freud in the 1940s" sounds like he spent a decade immersed in the psychoanalytic lit, which is most unlikely -- but simply saying he read Freud could mean anything from skimming a couple of essays to poring over various books for weeks or months or more. My feeling is that Hitch was well-read (if not as profoundly so as Adrian suggests) and intellectually curious and very, very smart -- and beyond that it's hard to be certain, since he did keep his own counsel in such matters. (If you're out there, Sid Gottlieb, maybe you can offer some specifics on this, given your intimacy with Hitch's own writing?) More broadly, studio-era filmmakers (and some since) have definitely found it politic to play dumb, or at least "average," in the intellect department. Peter Bogdanovich's fine doc "Directed by John Ford" turns Ford's reticence into a very funny trope, showing Ford yelling "Cut!" every time Peter comes within hailing distance of an "intellectual" question. I remember Otto Preminger being very coy about questions or observations he found too "brainy" for comfort -- ditto for George Cukor and others I've interviewed. As for JLG, many of his works (strong examples include "JLG/JLG" and the "Histoire[s] du cinema" series) are so crammed with verbal (and visual) quotes (and allusions) that multiple viewings are needed just to absorb all the manifest content; on the flip side, he can be elusive as well -- for just one example, I don't recall him speaking much about Francoise Dolto's influence on "Je vous salut Marie." Go figure. David Sterritt, PhD Chairman, National Society of Film Critics Professor Emeritus of Theater and Film Long Island University Programming Associate Makor/Steinhardt Center of the 92nd Street Y 1 East Chase Street, Suite 501-502, Baltimore, MD 21202-2574 410-385-0123 ************************************** AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at http://www.aol.com. * * Film-Philosophy Email Discussion Salon. After hitting 'reply' please always delete the text of the message you are replying to. To leave, send the message: leave film-philosophy to: [log in to unmask] For help email: [log in to unmask], not the salon. **