Alfred Hitchcock
Frenzy

After a week spent dealing with urgencies, duties, stress, and more, I begin to see the possibility of a catharsis, a spiritual and cerebral purification. It's called Friday. And it's pouring rain. The solution is the most obvious: pizza, a movie, and some friends to feel wretched in company. Once again, we find ourselves browsing the DVD catalog pretending not to know the titles present, when in reality, we could reel them off by heart. "Ti voglio bene Eugenio". "La casa delle finestre che ridono". "La rosa purpurea del Cairo".... In the end, the eye falls on "Frenzy". Without seeking any connection between the bad weather and Hitchcock's gloomy atmospheres, the screening begins.

For the record, I think it's fair to mention some facts about the aforementioned film. "Frenzy" is the penultimate film of the English director and dates back to 1972. The work is based on the novel "Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square" by Arthur La Berne and is scripted by Anthony Shaffer, already dealing with "Sleuth". "Frenzy" was presented out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival, receiving a good critical and public success. A substantial majority of individuals will certainly not know the actors who make up the cast of the feature film. In fact, for some of them, the participation in "Frenzy" marked the peak of their careers, which tended to lean towards television or theater, limiting their fame within the confines of the United Kingdom, obviously excluding the more well-known Jon Finch ("Macbeth", Roman Polanski) and Billie Whitelaw, Beckett's muse. Finally, the film represents the return to choosing London as the setting for his stories, a place he abandoned in 1950 with "Stage Fright".

The city of London is terrorized by a serial killer who strangles several women with a tie after raping them. The protagonist, Richard Ian Blaney (Jon Finch), is a former RAF officer living in precarious conditions. He is accused of being "The Necktie Murderer" following the discovery of his ex-wife Brenda's corpse and a series of incriminating evidence. In reality, the true murderer is Robert Rusk, an old comrade of Richard's who manages to pin his crimes on the protagonist. However, a meticulous member of Scotland Yard is on the trail of the truth and succeeds in exonerating Blaney.

Fundamental to interpreting "Frenzy" is abandoning the assumption that the film is a simple murder mystery and therefore preserves the identity of the killer for the finale. Hitchcock reveals early on the true identity, making us understand his real purpose: to parallelly describe the life of two men, one intent on satisfying his murderous mania, the other struggling to prove his innocence and fulfill his desire for revenge against those responsible for the nightmare he is living. The whole thing has a common denominator: delirium. The scene in which Rusk suddenly remembers he left a clue that would lead back to him in a sack of potatoes with the victim's corpse perfectly illustrates the anguish that derives from a murderer's potential distractions and places him in close connection with Blaney's claustrophobic sense of disorientation.

An additional peculiar element is the everyday aspect found in the setting and the characters themselves. The so-called "American Period" (From "Strangers on a Train" to "Topaz") is marked by slightly glamorous, charismatic characters, in short, typically Hollywood. In "Frenzy", no space is given to any embellishment of reality, which is presented through its most ordinary aspects. We alternate between pub waitresses, secretaries, matchmaking agency owners, and failed men. Falling within the same concept is the portrayal of the typical bourgeois couple, realized through two amusing moments where the chief inspector of Scotland Yard shares his doubts about the Blaney case with his wife while she serves him unappealing French dishes for dinner, which he pretends to enjoy, lacking the courage to express displeasure at his wife's culinary choices.

An array of extraordinary shots that do not weigh down the scenic action, supported by a good cast and the grand abilities of a Master of the genre, this is "Frenzy".