Located in an old anatomical laboratory, Amsterdam's cult cinema Lab111 features a thoughtfully curated mix of classic and modern films. With an in-house exhibition space and contemporary restaurant, it makes the perfect nerve-centre for the city's culturally curious.
Ahead of their upcoming Hitchcock retrospective 'Summer of Suspense: The Films of Alfred Hitchcock', we spoke to to Lab111 film programmer Tom Ooms about Hitchcock's spellbinding style.
Lab111's popular restaurant/bar, 'Strangelove'
PC: What is your favourite title within the catalogue of films Park Circus represents?
TO: I'll have to choose Alfred Hitchcock's seminal masterpiece Vertigo. It's so great to see Park Circus will be re-releasing it this summer. And I'm extremely happy to have it be the centrepiece of our epic 'Summer Of Suspense', featuring twelve of the finest works from the Master Of Suspense.
PC: What is your earliest memory of seeing it?
TO: I first saw Vertigo when I was a teenager and was immediately mesmerised by how unique and peculiar the film was. At that time I was dabbling with the vain idea of becoming a filmmaker myself. Hitchcock, and especially Vertigo, was a great showcase of how to bring together different elements - both in form and in subject - to transform into something that is both wholly cinematic entertainment and simultaneously deeply psychological; at the level we usually only attribute to, for example, literature. It essentially showed me that anything is possible in cinema, making it truly, for me, the most complete art form.
James Stewart and Kim Novak publicity shot for Vertigo
PC: Why does the film mean so much to you?
TO: I'm still very intrigued and moved by the long sequences in which James Stewart follows Kim Novak's troubled femme fatale through the streets of San Francisco. Hitchcock has the chops to show us this 'chase' solely accompanied by Bernard Herrmann's lush score. There are long instances in which not a single word is uttered - just glances, looking, spectating. The film eventually culminates in Stewart projecting his desires onto Novak in a scene that remains deeply troubling. Vertigo is one of those masterpieces that can be viewed from many angles. One might focus on the horrific way it subtly demonstrates the inner workings of the male gaze and the disturbing qualities of male desires gone awry. But another fascinating interpretation is to see Vertigo as a metaphor for cinema itself and a study of the way we as viewers project our own desires onto the characters on the silver screen, changing them to tell a story that is all too familiar.
Lab111's 'Summer of Suspense: The Films of Alfred Hitchcock' begins on Hitchcock's birthday, 13 August
Browse our brochure: Presenting Alfred Hitchcock.
