Dec 26th 
The Girl**          

(South Africa/Ger TVM 2012)       

Warner Bros GmBH/Moonlighting/BBC/HBO. 90m.

Alfred Hitchcock casts unknown Tippi Hedren as his new star of The Birds and gradually obsesses over her, to the point of sexual harassment.
Speculative in some of its details (particularly over Hitch's inner demons) this uncomfortable behind-the-scenes melodrama - topical in the light of recent celebrity abuse revelations - is quite well reconstructed and performed, although slipping into Hitchcock pastiche half way through (especially of Vertigo), and largely fails to recapture Hitchcock's sense of humour.

Written by: Gwyneth Hughes, based on the book "Spellbound by Beauty: Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies" by Donald Spoto.
Producer: Amanda Jenks.
Director: Julian Jarrold.
Starring: Sienna Miller, Toby Jones, Imelda Staunton, Conrad Kemp, Penelope Wilton.
Photography: John Pardoe.
Music: Philip Miller.
Production Design: Darryl Hammer.