THE PRIVATE FILES OF J. EDGAR HOOVER

The Private Files of J.Edgar Hoover tells the story of the first director of the FBI who remained head of the organisation until his death in 1972. Larry Cohen has adopted two visual styles. There’s the backlot look used to reenact great moments in J. Edgar Hoover’s life, like the shooting of John Dillinger in front of the Biograph Theatre in Chicago and Hoover’s first arrest. Then there’s the documentary look: Hoover in the FBI building; that’s the real FBI building. Hoover in the apartment of his lifelong friend Lionel McCoy; that’s the real McCoy’s apartment.
Today everything is in the newspapers, everything is subject to scrutiny and criticism. You’ve got to remember that J.Edgar Hoover was in there for 48 years. That is an amazing amount of time for anybody to stay in power without any real challenge toward his job. If he hadn’t died at the age of 77, he probably would have lasted another two or three years. And as soon as he was gone, what happened? The administration collapsed completely. The attorney general was indicted, key members of the President’s staff were indicted, the President himself had to resign and narrowly escaped being prosecuted. The entire seat of government collapsed with J.Edgar Hoover’s death. So, for example, if he had been around, there probably wouldn’t have been any Watergate. The Private Files of J.Edgar Hoover is the one of my films that I’m most proud of. (Larry Cohen)

Tickets for the gala evening on October 26 are only available at the pre-sale box offices due to technical reasons.