Do You Like Hitchcock?

Do You Like Hitchcock?
Directed by	Dario Argento
Produced by	Carlo Bixio Joan Antoni Gonzales I Serret
Written by	Dario Argento Franco Ferrini
Starring	Elio Germano Chiara Conti Elisabetta Rocchetti Cristina Brondo Ivan Morales
Music by	Pino Donaggio
Cinematography	Frederic Fasano
Editing by	Walter Fasano
Release date(s)	2005
Running time	93 min.
Country	Spain Italy
Language	Italian English

Do You Like Hitchcock? (orig. Ti piace Hitchcock?) is a 2005 television movie directed by Dario Argento. The film is a homage to the acclaimed thriller film director Alfred Hitchcock.

Plot

In a flashback to 1991, while riding his bike through the woods, a young boy spots a woman darting between the trees. He puts down his bike and runs after her. The woman meets up with another woman, they speak briefly and run together through the woods until they arrive at an old stone house. The boy continues after them and peaks through the window of the house and watches as they wildly slaughter a rooster. The women spot the boy at the window and chase after him, saying "You'll be sorry, I'll kill you, You'll never get away from us" The flashback ends.

A young man, Julio, working late at night spies an attractive neighbor girl getting dressed. He watches her through binoculars as she takes her red bra on and off while wearing only a garter belt below.

The next morning, he rides his motorbike to his girlfriend's apartment to pick her up. After they make love, the girlfriend leaves on the motorbike and Julio stays behind in his apartment, watching the neighbors out the window.

Julio sees a young woman, Sasha, (the same woman from the previous night's spying) having an argument with her mother. He receives a call from his mother and tells her that he needs to watch some films for his studies. Later in the day, at a video rental store, Julio sees the same woman who had been arguing with her mother. He doesn't speak to her, but he watches her as she talks with another woman. The two women both want to rent Strangers on a Train. They talk and become friends. Julio rents some films by Fritz Lang who he is studying for his thesis.

Later that night as Julio is watching his film while awkwardly smoking marijuana, he see the video store woman watching her movies in the apartment across the way. Her mother tells her to turn down the volume. She does and then meanders out to the balcony where she briefly sees Julio. He ducks back into his apartment.

The next day, Julio is back at the video store and he sees the second woman who had been in the store the previous day, Frederica Lalli. She rents Strangers on a Train. The creepy video store guy makes some advances towards her, but she's not interested. Julio watches her as she drives away.

Later, while riding his bicycle, Julio sees the two women having lunch by a fountain, talking closely, almost intimately.

In the next scene, an intruder uses a key and quietly enters Sasha's apartment while her mother is home alone watching TV. The intruder murders Sasha's mother with a brass pestle. Julio is awakened later that night by the sounds of the police cars which have come to investigate. Sasha is being questioned.

Julio meets the video store guy the next morning and they talk briefly about the murder. Inside, Julio's mom tells him that she's getting remarried to her tennis coach. Both Julio and the video store guy attend Sasha's mother's funeral.

Julio meets his girlfriend for lunch. Reading the newspaper, he finds out that Sasha was an only child. Her mother was a rich widow. Julio tells his girlfriend that he's been thinking about "Strangers on a Train" all day. They rent it and watch it together. He suspects that Sasha and Frederica are in an agreement like that of Strangers on a Train. His girlfriend says he's crazy. In the course of their conversation, she realizes that he's been watching Sasah out his window.

Later, Julio sees a woman cleaning Sasha's mother's apartment. He goes across the street and finds the cleaning crew mopping up the bloody crime scene. After a brief exchange with the crew chief, Julio dashes out. He snatches a letter out of the Zerboni mailbox and is almost caught by a neighbor. He reads the letter in the lift up to his apartment. It's a bank statement with almost 1 million Euros in the account. At his home, he is surprised to find his mother there, cleaning it. Eventually, she receives a phone call and leaves for an appointment.

Sasha comes back to her apartment where the crew chief informs her that everything has been cleaned. He also tells her about Julio's visit and that he lives across the street. She knows he's been watching him.

While Julio showers, someone breaks into his apartment. The intruder breaks an empty wine bottle and flees when Julio hears the noise and jumps out of the shower. Julio calls his girlfriend and asks her to come over to spend the night because he's nervous.

Julio and his girlfriend discuss the situation. She's more interested in making love. When he insists that it is now Sasha's turn to kill someone close to Frederica (a la Strangers on a Train), she says he needs to see a shrink and storms out.

The next day, Julio has his locks changed. He passes by the video store and the video guy tells him that Sasha had been in and asked about him, saying that she knew he watched her.

That night, Julio has a nightmare flashback to the first scene with the two women slaughtering the rooster. It becomes obvious that he is the boy in that scene. He awakes to hear someone trying to break into his apartment, but the intruder runs away before Julio can get the door unlocked and give chase.

The following day, Julio returns Strangers on a Train to the video store. The video guy (Andrea) asks Julio to mind the store while he steps out. Julio agrees and while Andrea is away, he looks up Frederica's address on the store computer. In the middle of his poking around, Sasha comes into the store and they speak briefly. She sees that he has returned Strangers on a Train and she puts it back on the shelf.

Julio rides his motorbike to Frederica's apartment and follows her when she leaves. He drives wildly after her until she arrives at her office at Oniusaxo & Co. - Studio Immobiliare (Real Estate Office). Through the window, he sees Frederica's boss grope her inappropriately. At the end of the day, Frederica hesistantingly gets into the boss's car with him. She is clearly unhappy to be there. The arrive at the boss's apartment and Julio, having followed them there, sees them arguing in a second floor window. Julio scampers up a ledge to a second floor balcony as it starts to rain. He can see and hear Frederica and her boss arguing in bed. The boss is blackmailing Frederica because of some money she stole from a client. He is forcing her to submit to him sexually in exchange for not reporting her.

In the middle of the boss's forcing himself upon Frederica, he spots Julio looking through the window. Julio tries to scamper back down the ledge, but he falls and fractures his ankle in the process. The boss gives chase and Julio limps to his motorbike and just barely escapes, slipping and falling in the rain several times while the boss pursues him.

Julio's mom takes him to the doctor who tells him he's have to be in a cast for several weeks. Julio's girlfriend comes over to his place to help him mend, but when he starts telling her what happened and his theory of how Frederica wants Sasha to kill her boss, the girlfriend says he's crazier than ever and storms out, saying she never wants to see him again.

Just as Julio's girlfriend is leaving, Andrea, the video guy comes to visit Julio. He's brought some classic Hitchcock videos for Julio to watch while he's laid up. He asks to use the bathroom and a few minutes later tells Julio that the tap is stuck and won't turn off. When Julio enters the bathroom, Andrea grabs him and tries to drown him in the tub. While Julio and Andrea are struggling, Julio's mother and her fiance come to visit Julio. Hearing the screams from inside the apartment, the fiance breaks down the door and pulls Andrea off Julio. While Julio's mother revives Julio, the fiance chases after Andrea. As they leave the apartment, Andrea runs across the street and is fatally hit by a car. Sasha looks down from her balcony, realizes what happened and becomes physically ill.

The police come and arrest Sasha and detectives speak to Julio. Later, Julio's girlfriend comes over and they make up. Julio explains that Sasha's plot was more similar to the film Dial M for Murder in which a man hires a killer to kill his wife. Here, Sasha hired Anrea to kill her mother.

As Ariana (Julio's girlfriend) is closing the window, she sees a woman dressed in black approaching Sasha's apartment. Despite Julio's protests, Ariana insists on chasing after her to see what she's doing. Julio sees through his binoculars that the woman is Frederica, in disguise. She is looking for the keep which she mistakenly left in Sasha's apartment. Julio realizes that Frederica was the real killer of Sasha's mother and that Andrea must have joined them later. Julio calls Ariana on her cell phone, but she refuses to give up the pursuit despite his protests that Frederica is a killer.

Julio calls the inspector and he responds immediately, arriving at Sasha's apartment before Ariana has a chance to confront Frederica. Frederica runs up the spiral staircase with the inspector and Ariana in hot pursuit. They chase Frederica up to the rooftop where she threatens to jump off. Frederica slips off the edge of the building, but the inspector catches her by the arm before she falls. The inspector and Ariana struggle with Frederica over the side of the roof, but they finally manage to haul her up to safety at which point she is placed under arrest.

In the final scene, Julio's cast is off and he is exercising. Julio gets a phone call from his mother and while they talk he sees a light go on in Sasha's former apartment. Another beautiful woman has taken residence in the apartment. She is almost naked and reading a book on the couch. She sees Julio watching her from across the street, but doesn't seem to mind. Julio stands staring with mouth agape.

External links

• Ti piace Hitchcock? at the Internet Movie Database
• Do You Like Hitchcock? at AllRovi