Scorsese does Hitchcock

Here’s something you might get a kick out of. Current filmmaker Martin Scorsese making a short “film” tribute of sorts to legendary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock. In actuality, the piece is an ad for Freixenet sparkling wines. But the ad itself is a nearly ten-minute segment combining documentary style scenes and an actual short film. The plot consists of Scorsese purporting to have found a “lost”, four-page Hitchcock script (with one page missing), entitled The Key to Reserva, and then shooting it “the way (Hitchcock) would’ve made the picture then, only making it now”.

While the scenario’s reality is certainly in question, the enclosed short film (about three-and-a-half minutes in length) is fun to watch, as it basically serves as an homage to numerous classic Hitchcock scenes, thereby serving as a short, loving tribute to Hitchcock himself. Heck, for that matter, the whole ad is fun to watch. It’s similar to the series of amusing American Express ads (by Scorsese and Wes Anderson, among others) in which different filmmakers take good-natured shots at their own styles and personae. Likewise, The Key to Reserva plays off Scorsese’s reputation as an obsessive curator of the history of cinema, which gives a spark of life to the thought in the back of your mind that maybe, just maybe, this is the real deal, making the ad that much more fun. (The ad’s closing scene clearly lets the audience in on the joke, in case they weren’t already).

Flight of the Conchords stage clips

I’m sorry, but I can’t decide which of these is more funny…

Please help me decide…