Both Sir Alfred Hitchcock and François Truffaut could actually speak quite adequately in the language of the other, as can be heard in off camera moments. However neither felt confident enough, so they used Helen Scott, a bilingual Truffaut collaborator, to provide simultaneous translation.
Interpreter Helen Scott is uncredited in this documentary although her voice is heard throughout. Born in New York, she was brought up in Paris where her father worked for the Associated Press. Decorated for her work on the Free France resistance radio in Brazzaville, Congo, during World War 2, she later worked for the French Film Office in New York and helped Truffaut when he needed help with communicating in English.
Famous writer and screenwriter William Goldman feels that the book this film is about ruined Sir Alfred Hitchcock as a filmmaker. He pointed out that it made Hitchcock self conscious and concerned with being an artist in a way that destroyed his ability to engage audiences and be the great director he had been up to that point.
The poem Martin Scorsese paraphrases ("You may leave the religion but...") is 'The Hound Of Heaven' by Francis Thompson.
Kathryn Bigelow was asked to speak in this film but she declined saying she was "too shy". Jane Campion was also approached but responded, "I have absolutely nothing to say about Alfred Hitchcock."