Double Take is a 2009 essay film by Belgian director Johan Grimonprez, which intercuts clips and interviews featuring Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...

 with archive footage of cold war

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

 news coverage, and tells the story of the rise of "fear as a commodity". Impersonating Hitchcock, impressionist Mark Perry

Mark Perry (impressionist)

Mark Perry is a British impressionist and his notable impressions include; David Dickinson, John Prescott and the late Robin Cook. Perry is known for playing various public figures in Dead Ringers and 2DTV. In 2007 he appeared in the radio comedy Bleak Expectations...

 narrates a monologue provided by novelist Tom McCarthy

Tom McCarthy (writer)

-Life and work:Tom McCarthy is a writer and conceptual artist. He was born in 1969 and lives in central London. McCarthy grew up in Greenwich, south London and was educated at Dulwich College and later New College, Oxford, where he studied English literature. He lived in Prague, Berlin and...

 describing a fictional meeting between Hitchcock and his double on the 1962 set of The Birds

The Birds (film)

The Birds is a 1963 horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock based on the 1952 short story "The Birds" by Daphne du Maurier. It depicts Bodega Bay, California which is, suddenly and for unexplained reasons, the subject of a series of widespread and violent bird attacks over the course of a few...

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Production

Double Take is a Belgian-Dutch-German coproduction. It premiered at the 2009 Berlin Film Festival in the 'Forum expanded' section and was selected for the 2010 Sundance Film Festival

Sundance Film Festival

The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...

 in the 'New Frontier' section. Exploring the boundaries of documentary as well as art, the film is most commonly referred to as an essay film.

Double Take is a further development from Grimonprez' short film Looking for Alfred (2005).

The film contains a lot of stock footage, ranging from Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...

's introductory links in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...

television series to archival newsreel footage on the Cold War period. The film investigates the theme of "doubles" (a subject often covered in Hitchcock's work) by combining new film material on Ron Burrage, professional Hitchcock double, with a story written by novelist Tom McCarthy

Tom McCarthy (writer)

-Life and work:Tom McCarthy is a writer and conceptual artist. He was born in 1969 and lives in central London. McCarthy grew up in Greenwich, south London and was educated at Dulwich College and later New College, Oxford, where he studied English literature. He lived in Prague, Berlin and...

, inspired by the short story "25 August 1983" by Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...

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