Jalal Toufic Reimagines Five Hitchcock Films at Beirut Art Center
An exhibition at Beirut Art Center presents five Alfred Hitchcock films through explicit and implicit variations, offering a fresh perspective on the director's work. The show includes Jalal Toufic's 2016 film "Vertiginous Variations on Vertigo" and references his broader critique of Hitchcock as a compromised artist who achieved success by not being radical enough. Toufic contrasts Hitchcock with true poètes maudits like Doug Rice, David Lynch, and Sufi mystic al-Ḥallāj. The exhibition also touches on Gus van Sant's 1998 "Psycho" as an unconscious acknowledgment that the original was not a partial artistic failure. The statement from the artist accompanies the show, which runs at the Beirut Art Center.
Key facts
- Exhibition at Beirut Art Center reimagines five Hitchcock films.
- Includes Jalal Toufic's 'Vertiginous Variations on Vertigo' (2016).
- Toufic argues Hitchcock compromised and made partial artistic failures.
- References Gus van Sant's 'Psycho' (1998) as a shot-for-shot remake.
- Toufic contrasts Hitchcock with poètes maudits like Doug Rice, David Lynch, and al-Ḥallāj.
- Al-Ḥallāj was a Sufi mystic executed for his utterances.
- David Lynch is cited as a poète maudit who achieved critical and popular success.
- Exhibition presents films 'as you've never seen them before'.
Entities
Artists
- Jalal Toufic
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Doug Rice
- David Lynch
- al-Ḥallāj
- Francis Bacon
- Andrei Tarkovsky
- Parajanov
- Alexander Sokurov
- Michèle Bokanowski
- Brothers Quay
- Gus van Sant
Institutions
- Beirut Art Center
Locations
- Beirut
- Lebanon
- Baghdad
- Iraq