Alexandre O. Philippe is a Swiss American film director whose films include the documentaries '' Doc of the Dead'', ''

The People vs. George Lucas ''The People vs. George Lucas'' is a 2010 documentary comedy film directed by Swiss director Alexandre O. Philippe. It explores the issues of filmmaking and fanaticism pertaining to the ''Star Wars'' franchise and its creator, George Lucas. The fi ...

'', and '' 78/52''.Filmmaker Magazine - Alexandre O. Phillipe
/ref> Philippe is Creative Director and co-owner of Denver-based Cinema Vertige and his most recent commissioned work for the City of Denver garnered four Heartland Emmy Awards.

Career

Phillippe received a MFA in Dramatic Writing from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

's Tisch School of the Arts. He has directed several narrative and documentary shorts, including ''Left'', ''the Spot'' and ''Inside'', which screened at over 70 international film festivals, and won several awards. ''Left'' was the first film to have been recorded, edited and mixed at 192 kHz/24-bit for

Dolby Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (Dolby Labs or simply Dolby) is a British-American technology corporation specializing in audio noise reduction, audio encoding/compression, spatial audio, and high-dynamic-range television (HDR) imaging. Dolby li ...

’s process of lossless encoding in TrueHD 5.1 surround sound technology, and was honoured by the

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker who List of works by Akira Kurosawa, directed 30 feature films in a career spanning six decades. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the History of film, history of cinema ...

Foundation in Japan. ''

'' was his third feature documentary, after ''Chick Flick'' (about

Mike the Headless Chicken Mike the Headless Chicken (April 20, 1945March 17, 1947) was a male Wyandotte chicken that lived for 18 months after he was beheaded, surviving because most of his brain stem remained intact and it did not bleed to death due to a blood clot. ...

) and ''Earthlings,'' an examination of the

Klingon The Klingons ( ; Klingon language, Klingon: ''tlhIngan'' ) are a humanoid species of aliens in the science fiction franchise ''Star Trek''. Developed by screenwriter Gene L. Coon in 1967 for the Star Trek: The Original Series, original ''Star T ...

language phenomenon. He was also Second Unit Director on Dirk Simon’s ''When the Dragon Swallowed the Sun'' ), which premiered at the 2010 Santa Barbara International Film Festival, won three Movie Maverick Awards. Phillippe's 2017 documentary '' 78/52'' deconstructs the infamous shower scene from director

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featu ...

's '' Psycho''.RogerEbert.com "Hot Docs Interview 2017: Alexandre O. Philippe on '78/52'" by Matt Fagerholm May 5, 2017
/ref> Film critic

Owen Gleiberman Owen Gleiberman (born February 24, 1959) is an American film critic who has been chief film critic for '' Variety'' magazine since May 2016, a title he shares with . Previously, Gleiberman wrote for ''Entertainment Weekly'' from 1990 until 2014. ...

of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' remarked "''78/52'' centers on an up-close analysis of the shower scene that’s at once delirious and definitive; the movie is also a cinematic meditation that features a wealth of terrific anecdotes about the creation of Hitchcock’s masterpiece."Variety Film Review: "78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene’ A hypnotic film-geek doc about the 'Psycho' shower scene digs deep into the mystique of the Hitchcock film that shook the world" by Owen Gleiberman January 24, 2017
/ref> The documentary features interviews with actors

Elijah Wood Elijah Jordan Wood (born January 28, 1981) is an American actor and producer. Wood made his film debut with a minor part in ''Back to the Future Part II'' (1989) at the age of eight and achieved recognition in the early 1990s as a child acto ...

and

Jamie Lee Curtis Jamie Lee Curtis (born November 22, 1958) is an American actress, producer, and children's author. Known for List of Jamie Lee Curtis performances, her performances in the horror and slasher film, slasher genres, she is regarded as a scream qu ...

(daughter of star

Janet Leigh Jeanette Helen Morrison (July 6, 1927 – October 3, 2004), known professionally as Janet Leigh, was an American actress. Raised in Stockton, California, by working-class parents, Leigh was discovered at 18 by actress Norma Shearer, who helped he ...

Osgood Perkins James Ridley Osgood Perkins (May 16, 1892 – September 21, 1937) was an American actor. Life and career Perkins was born in West Newton, Massachusetts, son of Henry Phelps Perkins Jr., and his wife, Helen Virginia (née Anthony). His maternal ...

(son of

Anthony Perkins Anthony Perkins (April 4, 1932 – September 12, 1992) was an American actor. Born in Manhattan, Perkins began his career as a teenager in summer stock theater, summer stock programs, although he acted in films before his time on Broadway the ...

), directors

Peter Bogdanovich Peter Bogdanovich (July 30, 1939 – January 6, 2022) was an American director, writer, actor, producer, critic, and film historian. He started out his career as a young actor studying under Stella Adler before working as a film critic for ''Fi ...

Guillermo del Toro Guillermo del Toro Gómez (; born 9 October 1964) is a Mexican filmmaker, author, and artist. His work has been characterized by a strong connection to fairy tales, Gothic fiction, gothicism and horror fiction, horror often blending the genres ...

Eli Roth Eli Raphael Roth (born April 18, 1972) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. As a director and producer, he is most closely associated with the horror genre, namely splatter films, having directed the films ''Cabin Fev ...

Karyn Kusama Karyn Kiyoko Kusama (born March 21, 1968) is an American filmmaker. She made her feature directorial debut with the sports drama film ''Girlfight'' (2000), for which she won Best Director and the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival an ...

, film editors

Walter Murch Walter Scott Murch (born July 12, 1943) is an American film editor, director, writer and sound designer. His work includes '' THX 1138'', ''Apocalypse Now'', '' The Godfather I'', '' II'', and '' III'', '' American Graffiti'', '' The Conversation ...

Chris Innis Christina Jean "Chris" Innis is an American film editor. She was awarded the 2010 Academy Award, BAFTA, and ACE awards for "Best Film Editing" on the film '' The Hurt Locker'' shared with co-editor, Bob Murawski. She is an elected member of th ...

Bob Murawski Bob Murawski (born June 14, 1964) is an American film editor. He was awarded the 2010 Academy Award for Best Film Editing for his work on ''The Hurt Locker'', which he shared with his wife, fellow editor Chris Innis. He often works with film di ...

, and

Marli Renfro Marli Renfro (born April 3, 1938 in Los Angeles, California) is an American former showgirl, model, Playboy cover girl and actress. She was the body double for Janet Leigh in the shower scene of the 1960 film '' Psycho''. Early career Renfro, ...

(body double for Janet Leigh). The title refers to the number of set ups in the scene and the number of cuts, each one dissected and analyzed by film historians and enthusiasts. Kenneth Turan of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' reviewed the film, expressing that it is "obsessive but accessible, the deepest dive imaginable into one of the most celebrated scenes in movie history, the documentary ''78/52'' looks at a brief three minutes of cinema the way it's never been looked at before."

Filmography

Film

* 2003: ''Chick Flick: The Miracle Mike Story'' (Documentary) * 2004: ''Earthlings: Ugly Bags of Mostly Water'' (Documentary) * 2006: ''Left'' (Short) * 2008: '' The Spot'' (Documentary short) * 2009: ''Inside'' (Short) * 2010: ''

'' (Documentary) * 2011: ''The Right to Breathe'' (Documentary short) * 2012: ''The Life and Times of Paul the Psychic Octopus'' (Documentary) * 2014: '' Doc of the Dead'' (Documentary) * 2017: '' 78/52'' (Documentary) - Distributed by IFC * 2019: '' Memory: The Origins of Alien'' (Documentary) * 2020: ''Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist'' (Documentary) * 2021: ''The Taking'' * 2022: ''

Lynch/Oz ''Lynch/Oz'' is a 2022 American documentary film directed and written by Alexandre O. Philippe that explores the influence of the film ''The Wizard of Oz'' (1939) on the American filmmaker David Lynch. Synopsis ''Lynch/Oz'' examines the influe ...

'' (Documentary) * 2023: '' William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill'' (Documentary) * 2024: '' Chain Reactions'' (Documentary)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Philippe, Alexandre O. Swiss documentary film directors Living people Tisch School of the Arts alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Collage filmmakers