Janelle Monae Channels Hitchcock In 'Noir Town' By Jordan Peele For W Magazine Vol 2 2018

Talent Janelle Monae is styled by Sara Moonves in 'Noir Town", lensed by 'Get Out' director and writer Jordan Peele for W Magazine Vol. 2 2018./ Hair by Nikki Nelms; makeup by Dick Page

The scene according to W: A private investigator is standing in a clock tower taking photographs of a parade. She is a woman, played by Janelle Monae, searching for clues to a murder. As the detective stares through the lens, she begins to realize that one of the bystanders on the ground looks exactly like her. Then she sees another identical face. And another. Suddenly, the sea of potential suspects are visions of herself. Are these women good? Are they evil? And why are these twinlike alter egos haunting her? “I wanted to create a Hitchcock moment that doesn’t really exist in a Hitchcock film,” explained Peele.

Peele, who was standing on the fourth floor of the abandoned Palace movie theater in downtown Los Angeles, had constructed a scenario that paid homage to the mystery and intrigue of Hitchcock masterpieces like 'Vertigo' and 'Psycho'. Just as 'Get Out' is Peele’s subverted and original take on unsettling classics like 'Rosemary’s Baby' and 'The Stepford Wives', 'Noir Town' replaces Hitchcock’s uniformly white protagonists with a woman of color.