Alexandre O. Philippe has made films about cinematic icons such as David Lynch, Alfred Hitchcock, and William Friedkin. Yet, there is one director who continues to elude him—at least for now.
“Nicolas Roeg. He holds more mysteries to me than any other director,” Philippe shares. Roeg, who passed away in 2018, is best known for his films *Don’t Look Now* and *Walkabout*. Philippe admits, “I feel like I haven’t spent the time with his films that I need to spend, and I keep wanting to go back and understand how he worked. There’s one film in particular that dabbles in a really strange kind of cinematic magic, and that’s *Eureka* with Gene Hackman.”
Set to receive the Indie Star Award at the Tauron American Film Festival, Philippe has become renowned for his in-depth explorations of cinema history in his documentaries. Lately, he has also been delivering intimate portraits of cultural figures like William Shatner and Kim Novak, the latter in *Kim Novak’s Vertigo*, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
“There’s definitely been a shift towards the personal,” Philippe reflects. “I’m very interested in craft, but the emotion of cinema is really what I’m most passionate about.” For him, this personal approach truly began with William Friedkin. “Just having that personal connection with him and spending so much time together allowed us to dig deep.”
Philippe’s film *Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist* is a testament to that bond. Asked about his secret to getting close to his subjects, Philippe responds, “The best way to answer this is that I’m not looking for gossip. I don’t have an agenda other than making sure I give them the time and the space to show themselves as they are.”
He acknowledges the reputation these figures have for being guarded. “Everyone was terrified of Friedkin. And Shatner? [Songwriter] Ben Folds said he eats directors for breakfast. Kim Novak is a complete recluse.” Yet, Philippe was granted remarkable access. “I was allowed to go up into her attic, pick up boxes, and spend the night going through them. It’s crazy that we had that level of comfort. We still do.”
Philippe adds, “With Kim, for example, I wasn’t interested in her relationship with Sammy Davis Jr. Colman Domingo is already making a film about that with Sydney Sweeney. I’m more interested in what makes them tick. What gets under their skin? In *You Can Call Me Bill*, there’s a whole chapter dedicated to loneliness, which is Shatner’s deepest fear. You’ve never seen him like that.”
Looking ahead, Philippe is slowly preparing to venture into fiction filmmaking. “It’ll either be a western or a horror, but it’s hard to make a unique horror with something to say. I’m a big fan of *Weapons* and was super impressed by *Longlegs*. I’d love to make a horror film that gets under the audience’s skin in an unexpected way,” he admits.
In the meantime, Philippe will continue proving that “there’s no one right way to look at a film.” Reflecting on his earlier work, he laughs, “When I was touring with *78/52*, I said I could make nothing but movies about that [*Psycho*] shower scene for the rest of my life, and I would still have a full and fascinating life as a filmmaker.”
Initially, his documentary *Memory: The Origins of Alien* was supposed to focus on the infamous chestburster scene. “I thought: ‘Why don’t I apply the same model I applied to *78/52* and talk about that instead of the shower scene? They’re both completely shocking and changed the course of cinema.’ But it just didn’t work.”
Philippe explains, “They operate in very, very different ways. The shower scene was the scene people wanted to see back then. It said: ‘The 1950s are over. Welcome to the 1960s.’ The chestburster scene was not the scene people wanted to see. They wanted friendly aliens and *E.T.* It was 40 years ahead of its time.”
As he researched, Philippe found that Ridley Scott had shown H. R. Giger Francis Bacon’s triptychs, a revelation that deepened his exploration of *Alien*. “You realize these three figures in his triptychs are the Furies of Greek mythology. I started geeking out, thinking about the mythological roots of the Xenomorph.” What began as a film about the distant future turned into a film about the distant past.
“The lesson I learned from that was that, well, you should never be lazy. My job as a filmmaker is to pay attention to what the film actually wants to be.”
Though Philippe delves deeply into the movies he loves, he never intends to reveal all their secrets. “It’s not about: ‘Let me explain what David Lynch or Kim Novak are all about.’ With Kim, the feedback I’ve been getting is that she seems even more mysterious now. That’s the best compliment I could ever get.”
He also reflects on the reception of his documentary *Lynch/Oz*. “People have always asked me if David Lynch watched it. He certainly never told me that. Back in March, we had a screening in the wake of his death, and, of course, someone asked about it again. A week later, I got a message from critic Matt Fagerholm. He said: ‘An old dear friend of David’s asked me to tell you he watched it and loved it.’”
“That moved me tremendously. He understood my intent was not to ‘solve’ David Lynch—that would be preposterous—but to deepen the mystery.”
Alexandre O. Philippe continues to explore the multifaceted world of cinema—not by providing all the answers, but by inviting viewers to experience and connect with the magic that lies within film.
https://variety.com/2025/film/global/indie-star-award-alexandre-o-philippe-horror-nicolas-roeg-1236573021/