Storefront Hitchcock

For the soundtrack, see Storefront Hitchcock (soundtrack).
Storefront Hitchcock
DVD cover
Directed byJonathan Demme
Produced byPeter Saraf
StarringRobyn Hitchcock
Edited byAndy Keir
Music byRobyn Hitchcock
Production
company
Distributed byMGM Distribution Co.
(United States)
United International Pictures
(international)
Release dates
  • March 19, 1998 (1998-03-19) (SXSW Film Festival)
  • November 18, 1998 (1998-11-18) (United States)
Running time
77 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Storefront Hitchcock is a 1998 American concert film featuring Robyn Hitchcock and directed by Jonathan Demme. It was conceived as "a document not a documentary",[1] and the performance was shot in New York City in December 1996, in an abandoned used clothing store on 14th Street.[2] Over the course of the performance, simple props and set pieces are varied, such as a bare lightbulb and a tomato sculpture, and occasionally a passerby on the street glances in.[3]

Demme met Hitchcock after he attended a live show and offered to direct a live performance video for a song, which was then revised to be a full concert.[4] Demme was inspired to film in the storefront setting by a Hungarian theatre group, Squat Theatre, who operated in New York City in the 1970s and 80s and typically performed in a storefront against a large plate glass window facing the street.[4]

Demme subsequently cast Hitchcock in small roles in two other films, The Manchurian Candidate and Rachel Getting Married, and used one of his songs in The Truth About Charlie.[5]

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  4. ^ a b Wooton, Adrian (October 10, 1998). "Jonathan Demme". The Guardian. Retrieved April 18, 2020.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference variety-tribute was invoked but never defined (see the help page).