Double Take

The Cold War, according to Alfred Hitchcock.

‘Crime doesn’t pay. You need a sponsor.’

Alfred Hitchcock Presents ran on American television from 1956 to 1963. This is the time-frame for Double Take, a sly and hugely enjoyable voyage through cold war paranoia and the ‘annihilation of cinema’ by TV with Hitchcock himself as our ringmaster. A treasure-trove of ads and newsreels are woven together with a sinister tale of the director (played by Hitch impersonator Ron Burrage) encountering his older self on the set of The Birds. Grimonprez’s first film was Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y (1998), which spookily foreshadowed the September 11th attacks.