Category: Alfred Hitchcock

Introduction

Alfred Hitchcock has for long been associated with the production and directorship of world-renown films- remaining one of the most influential filmmakers of the 21^st Century, more than 25 years after his demise. His movies, books, and essays elicit great admiration from readers and viewers all over the world, becoming a source of great inspiration for many as they wait for his next movie or book. His use of expressionism, as is exhibited in most of his films, depicts a clear combination of the individual characters’ aesthetic decisions as well as the specific, pre-determined resources. According to Fabe, Hitchcock maintains an experimental capacity for editing or montage to give a keen emotional, social, or political impression as he tells his narrative while paying close attention to the way photographic effects create a psychological expressiveness in the minds of the audience.

In the 1948 movie, Rope, highly acclaimed as “one of the most interesting experiments ever attempted by a major director working with big box-office names,” Hitchcock uses stylistic movements to depict the thoughts and feelings of his two major protagonists through the use of both spatial and formal methods. Throughout the movie, expressionism evades its mere simple definition, creating a central impulse as it tries to depict the emotional states of its characters, a distorted society, and a deformed reality.

Analysis

Alfred Hitchcock is looked upon as one of the all-time great directors, mainly remembered for a well-established system of suspense that most of the upcoming directors, in different eras, have closely tried to emulate. He has held noteworthy information from his audience that has over time captured their attention and allowed them to keenly connect with the film. In the movie “Rope,” Hitchcock was able to bring together two major human characteristics that are regarded as evil in the common society.

He introduces homoeroticism which is an extremely controversial subject matter, as was mainly in the 1940s, since those involved and were against homosexuality would refer to the act as “it’ and others would give it several symbolic names. There are two young men that are friends and they decided to share an apartment and, as time goes, their friendship matures and takes a different direction of homosexuality. American culture is clearly depicted in that, no matter how hard the society may despise the act, it has been in existence and all those willing practices it comfortably. The romantic relationship between “Dall and “Granger,” the two main characters, portray their social identity based on their appeal of attraction to each other despite them being of the same gender (Freedman and Millington 46). Dall and Grander hold themselves with great and exceptional regard. They considered themselves intellectually better in comparison to their former classmate David.

It is interesting that throughout the film, it is never explicitly shown whether or not Rupert or any one of the other characters is in fact a homosexual, or whether any of the other characters are aware of each others’ status. Here, Lawrence would argue that the characterization of a person is not in what they do in their homes but in the outward perception that others have of the said person. The sexuality of the characters is only known to themselves, indicating that, in most cases, people are not willing to reveal their deepest, personal secrets. Lawrence’s main claim throughout the essay is that the American male is typically unrevealing to others, and thus, “what is done in private becomes a true depiction of who you are” (Freedman and Millington 44). It raises questions that cannot be readily answered “repeatedly raising the question of manhood and issues concerned with masculine identity…with their accompanied double meanings and outright ambiguity” (Freedman and Millington 49).

After getting incite from their prep-school house “Stewart,” who from time to time would elaborate the “rational” concept of the “perfect murder” (Freedman and Millington 58). Stewart explains the intricate details of how murder can be changed from an act of violence to be a “work of art” that is used to express to the victim the superiority of the other person (Freedman and Millington 58). Though Stewart does not really advocate that his friends up and start committing murder, clearly indicated when he shoots in the air severally after finding the body of David in the huge antique wooden chest so as to attract the attention of the police, Dall and Grander use that as an inspiration and an excuse to commit murder with a rope. Rudely they call for a party to their house where they have the dead body of their friend, using the chest that the body is hidden in to serve the buffet. Additionally, they ignorantly invite members of the now-dead David’s family to the party, presumably to increase the tension in the room. In one instance, Brandon says that “I’ve always wished for more artistic talent….The power to kill can be just as exciting as the power to create” (Freedman and Millington 60).

The character of Jimmy Stewart as is depicted in the film serves to allegorize the character of the American male in a way that people are inherently bound to find out the truth about them. As the film opens, he discloses that it would be hypocritical of him to disapprove of anyone committing murder as he has himself already killed. Glibly, Rupert recommends murder as “an art; not one of the seven lively perhaps, but an art, nevertheless. And as such, the privilege of committing it should be reserved for those few who are really superior individuals” (Freedman and Millington 64). However, during the final minutes of the film as he undergoes some trying moments, he denounces what he had previously agreed with, assisting with the realization that although he was a soldier championing for the legality of murder, he now finds himself a “soldier who stands in opposition to Brandon and Philip” (Freedman and Millington 69). After the body of David is discovered he regrettably recoils saying to the two protagonists, “you’ve given my words a meaning I never dreamed of and you’ve tried to twist them into a cold and logical excuse for your ugly murder” (Freedman and Millington 70). After this discovery, Rupert is now disgusted both with himself, for his prior beliefs, and his students, saying to them “did you think you were God” (Freedman and Millington 70). This scene serves to allegorize the symbol of a character who is not aware of his own beliefs and values, not certain with what exactly they hold dear to their own hearts.

American hospitality is portrayed when Dall Grander invited his friends for a party though for all the wrong reasons. Their strong urge for superiority is highlighted richly in the movie where they made yet another stupid move still in the intent of showing they can, where they tied several books they rendered to the father of David with the same rope they had used to strangle his son with. Hitchcock’s film thus parallels the Nietzsche idea of committing murder simply for the sake of committing the act, with total disregard to the crime or the punishment thereafter.

Conclusion

Different American’s behaviors are well conveyed in this story as emphasizes the things that happen in society but yet they are denied that they could be happening especially in that heightened level. We saw display the movie display the attraction of men to other men a behavior that is socially unacceptable; there is also the killing merely for the thrill of it. A scenario where two young men consider themselves superior creatures that can do anything just because they can, also for their inner satisfaction.

Works Cited

Freedman, Jonathan and Millington, Richard H. Hitchcock’s America. London: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Introduction

Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” is one of the most influential and famous films of his career. Despite the low budget of the film, Hitchcock employs a variety of new techniques and experiments in filmmaking. This paper will analyze some of the techniques employed by Hitchcock.

Support

Alfred Hitchcock cemented himself as a master of visual storytelling. The film “Psycho” could be seen as one of the most experimental works by Hitchcock. Most of the scenes of the movie utilize multiple storytelling techniques to engage the viewer in a way that was previously absent from the mainstream cinema. It is impossible to perceive all the visual and audio elements that Hitchcock put into every scene over one viewing. Formalist analysis of some of the most famous scenes could be done to show their complexity.

Starting with the opening scene, the camera becomes a voyeuristic presence, as it pans over the city, and into the room where Marion and her lover have been involved in an adulterous activity. The use of the camera in this scene serves three purposes: to introduce the theme of voyeurism, to show the perspective of Marion, and to follow the plot. The second purpose is achieved through the use of the first-person perspective intercut with more standard camerawork. The camera is used to show that Marion is planning to steal money, and run away. This information is delivered through a quick shot of the money, and a pan to a packed suitcase sitting next to it. The movie can be seen as an escalating series of nefarious acts, and the opening scene presents this escalation. It starts with infidelity and moves fast toward theft.

Although it is a less analyzed scene, I believe that the moment when Marion meets Norman outside the hotel is a great example of the subtle use of lighting in the movie. The scene is shot in such a way so we can only see one side of the characters. However, Marion stands in the light, but Norman is only lit from one side, with the other being reflected in the dark window behind him. While on the first viewing this scene would hold no significance, after discovering the true nature of Norman, it is possible to see this as a literal foreshadowing of his split personality. I believe the lighting shows a psychological duality of the character, and not just his hidden motives, as Marion also holds secrets from Norman, but she is still fully lit on both sides. The famous parlor scene continues this motif and introduces a new one in the form of birds. In the scene, Norman sits under two stuffed birds of prey. They have posed aggressively and show the predatory nature of Norman, whether he is aware of it or not. His duality is shown not just with light and shadow, but also through his position in the scene, his body language, and editing. This scene is unique due to the way it never repeats the same shot after cutting between the characters (Olivares-Merino and Olivares-Merino 153). Norman constantly changes his body language from dominant and imposing to shy, submissive, and emasculated. Each change in body language is a reaction to his dialogue with Marion. It shows his inner struggle to control the personality of his mother, and that he is too weak to win in that struggle. Depending on his reaction, the camera either get closer to him or further. It accentuates both the threatening tone he takes when discussing putting his mother in a nursing home, as well as his emasculation when Marion decides to end the conversation.

The most famous scene of the movie is the shower scene, where Marion is murdered by Norman. The scene consists of almost 60 cuts to provide an impression of a visceral and chaotic scene of violence. Hitchcock would later say that this was done to avoid censorship, but the execution provides a scene more shocking than it could be done at the time. The scene was storyboarded by Saul Bass, who was also responsible for the creation of the striking title sequence (Olivares-Merino and Olivares-Merino 17). On a technical level, it was a very complex scene, with innovative techniques used to shoot around water, create an illusion of nudity and violence, as well as to show the horror of the act. It mirrors the techniques used in the opening scene. The scene utilizes the first-person perspective from both the killer and Marion. However, this time the camera is erratic and moves around the scene with each quick cut. The killer’s face is now fully hidden in shadow, signifying that the murderous side of Norman is in control. The scene is also directed in a way to show that Marion feels guilt over her crime and regrets that she will not be able to make up for it. This is shown in her attempt to reach out to the newspaper where she hid the money and the lingering shot of her eye after she falls on the floor.

Conclusion

“Psycho” is an iconic film. Its influence is felt through to modern times, with thousands of directors now utilizing similar techniques to achieve suspense and thrill the audiences. It shows that a small budget can be overcome through innovation and a strong focus on the visual language of the film.

Work Cited

Olivares-Merino, Eugenio M, and Julio A. Olivares-Merino. Peeping Through the Holes. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013.

The film Shadow of Doubt by Alfred Hitchcock is an interesting and entertaining depiction of the 1940s. The movie’s production was based on a true story involving Earle Leonard Nelson, a serial killer from the late 1920s denoted as “Gorilla man.” This became the inspiration for Hitchcock’s concept “Uncle Charlie,” which was based on a real account (Baak 1:39-1:42). The depictions in the film, including the setting, videography, characterization, and its form in general, turn out dramatic and exciting, especially with the producer’s choice of exact shooting locations.

The movie was shot and filmed in Santa Rosa, California, a setting that served as the model for a purportedly tranquil, little, pre-War American city. The choice for Santa Rosa was credited to its perfect nature and a location known for its idyllic silence across all the California American towns. As Baak indicates, “….Santa Rosa California was a perfect…Location an idyllic quiet California American town” (03:55-03:58). Even though Santa Rosa, California, appears in the opening scene, it was filmed in Newark, New Jersey, where the iconic Pulaski Skyway can be seen. The film’s scriptwriter was keen on his choice of shooting scenes because he wanted the depiction to feature the locals who live within the area. Besides, the time when the movie was produced called for the settings. For that reason, the Plot is set in a tiny American town location for Thornton Wilder but with a Hitchcock twist because Wilder penned the original script. Besides, these location choices were influenced by the crew’s adherence to the War Production Board’s ban on set construction expenditures exceeding $5,000 during wartime.

With the choice of their scene, the movie remains relevant today because it brings back memories of important landmarks like the Santa Rosa train station, which is the same setting as the movie’s introduction with Uncle Charlie’s arrival on the train and his niece Charlie’s enthusiastic greeting of him (Bat, para.1). This spot is intriguing since it serves as the film’s “bookends,” or the starting and ending scenes. Hitchcock planned with the special effects team to make the smoke over the train appear black and menacing in that particular moment, which is a fascinating detail. This location is really interesting because the book ends the movie; you see it at the beginning of the movie (Protokino 02:38-02:42). The house chosen for the Deuter title featured in the film was nicely built and had a beautiful interior and exterior. However, it required some cosmetic modifications as per Hitchcock’s specifications. Hitchcock thought that the house’s rich and solid but aged and worn aspect would imply that the Nugent family might be anyone, so the scouts borrowed it from the owners for filming.

This film caught my attention following its intrinsic combination of literary elements, including suspense, symbolism, drama, and horror. First, the whole idea of the idea that your favorite uncle might be a killer is terrifying. Besides, the locations, houses, rooms, and even the characters in the film capture that fear well. Besides, the structures and settings in the film are representations of other phenomena that require interpretation. Medusa is transported to a seemingly perfect middle-American tiny town in sunny California. For instance, “Emma Newton is brought to an idyllic small California town that represents Middle America in Shadow of a Doubt” (Baak 08:44- 8:55). Interestingly, young Charlie has been sheltered from the world in her perfect little town that she does not see what a dirty, disgusting sty the world is. “Although the rest of the family doesn’t have an idea of his killings, other than Young Charlie, he justifies his actions in the most passionate way possible,” (Yüksel para.9). Besides, the dark realization that her uncle is a cold-blooded killer sets in, and the young Charlie realizes that her humdrum, ideal world isn’t so perfect after all.

Works Cited

Baak, John. “Everything you need to know about Shadow of a Doubt (1943).” YouTube, JohnBaak, 2017, Web.

Bat, Adam. “Today’s the Thing, That’s My Philosophy — Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow Of A Doubt.” Medium, Web.

Protokino. “SHADOW OF A DOUBT | Filming Locations.” YouTube, 2021, Web.

Yüksel, Ece M. “SHADOW of a DOUBT: The Devil in Disguise.” Dial M for Movie, Web.

The premiere of the film adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock’s voyeuristic detective Rear Window took place in 1954 in Canada. The plot of the film consists of the everyday life of the main character. The photographer, L. B. Jeffries, spends the seventh week in a cast without leaving his apartment (Hitchcock, 1954). Watching the lives of people opposite is the leading entertainment of L. B. Jeffries. The fun will be replaced by obsession when Jeff begins to suspect a murderer in one of the tenants.

Jeffries watches each of his neighbors and sees how they are all contained in their space. His neighbors, the newlyweds, constantly spend time in the bedroom, but their passion is replaced by constant quarrels over time. He also sees a ballerina girl who lives alone but who is later returned to by a soldier groom whom she missed. Jeffries also sees a composer who lives in the attic and diligently writes some lyrical melody. A single middle-aged woman lives on the ground floor and does the most ordinary things. Among the neighbors, there is also an elderly couple who regularly walk their dog, which they lift and lower on a special lift (Hitchcock, 1954). And the last of the neighbors that the photographer sees is a large man who takes care of his sick wife.

As in real life, the neighbors in this film interact with each other. One of the main characters is Torwald, who takes care of his sick wife. Torwald kills an elderly couple’s dog, and based on this little tragedy, neighbors interact. In addition, a musician who composes a touching melody saves a lonely woman from the first floor. His music distracts her from suicide, and they become friends. One way or another, any interaction of neighbors is aimed at disguising the main storyline, namely the detective and its solution.

Despite a certain small number of interactions between neighbors, in general, one of the film’s themes is the isolation of neighbors from each other. The director uses different visual elements to show this isolation from each other. Each apartment is isolated from the neighbor’s apartment and is also separated by a narrow alley. Despite the presence of a courtyard, the neighbors keep their distance from each other, which, for example, is expressed in Thorwald’s recommendation to the neighbor to shut up in response to the advice of watering flowers.

Reference

Hitchcock, A. (1954). Rear Window [Film]. Paramount Pictures.

Introduction

Alfred Hitchcock’s film ‘Strangers on a Train’ is a captivating masterpiece whose story follows the life of two strangers who meet on a train with a common agenda of murdering someone. On one hand is Guy who is keen on murdering his promiscuous and cruel wife while Bruno is on the other hand planning to eliminate his father (Strangers on a Train).

Following the events that are depicted in the movie in the quest of achieving the goals that each of the two main characters have, the film reveals central themes. One of the most overarching themes is the fate vs. determination. In this theme, the main question is whether many of the events that occur during the movie are because of fate or they are a function of main actors.

The use of German expressionism is also evident throughout the film, as it will be discussed in the paper. As the paper reveals, an accidental incident is witnessed where two strangers bump into one another to produce consequences that neither of them can control.

The Power of Random Events

Firstly, the movie begins with Bruno and Guy meeting on a train for the first time (Strangers on a Train). In their conversation, it is evident that both have sinister plans of murdering someone who is close to them but for selfish reasons. For instance, Guy wants to eliminate his promiscuous wife so that he can marry a beautiful woman, namely Anne, while Bruno wants to kill his father who he accuses of living in luxury with his mother when he (Bruno) is struggling with life (Strangers on a Train).

In this instance, it is difficult to conclude whether it is fate or a well thought out plan by Bruno who already knows Guy’s whereabouts. However, one thing is clear to Guy that fate brings Bruno. On the other hand, it is evident that they both have the determination to achieve their goals.

Determination is a major quality that Guy exhibits throughout the movie. From the beginning, Guy is not comfortable with his way of life. His failed marriage, slow career growth, and other major drawbacks in his life reveal a young man who is no longer contented with who he has become. Hence, he is determined to seek a political seat, which he believes it will offer him a better chance to life (Strangers on a Train).

He is also determined to be with the woman he believes he loves and who will treat him better than his wife Miriam. It is also evident that his interest in Anne is also based on more reasons other than love. Anne comes from a well-connected family.

Hence, she has the potential of linking him to the right people who will help him to advance his career into politics and hence transition from low social class to the higher classes of the society (Strangers on a Train). Guy’s aspiration for political position is evident in the movie. The Capitol Building that appears on the background of his home substantiates this claim.

The lights and shadows that are evident in the above scene are a major characteristic of German expressionism where such lighting and shadows are used to show sharp contrast (Bazin and Gray 5; Gottlieb 37). According to Roberts, incidents of light and darkness are used as an artistic tool that shows where the real and fantasy worlds meet (5). In the movie, they represent the deeper feelings and thoughts of a character.

Another major twist in the movie is the fact that Bruno is mostly used as a reflection of Guy’s deeper intentions, as well as his wrong or evil side. In this case, while the movie shows that Bruno commits the ultimate crime by killing Miriam, it is evident also that Guy had the real intentions of eliminating his wife (Strangers on a Train).

In other words, Bruno is a doppelganger of Guy, a role that he plays perfectly. In this case, Bruno is a reflection of what Guy wants to become. For instance, Bruno is rich, comes from a well-connected family, and above all has the upper social class background as status that Guy wants to achieve. In the movie, the reflection of Bruno’s wealthy life is evident in the scene where his affluent family is attending a dinner in one of Washington’s prosperous political figures as shown below:

The Degree to Which People can Control their Lives

The movie demonstrates an insignificant power of people to control their lives. The level of influence of people is a function of other forces such as the level of poverty or wealth. In the above scene in figure 2, it is clear that the dinner party in the scene has attracted the powerful members of the society. For instance, on the background is a man dressed in army uniform, which represents authority.

Further, a judge and a representative of education and culture are also present in the party as an indication of power (Strangers on a Train). Giannetti’s work addresses the various languages that filmmakers use to pass their artistic messages to their audiences (2). For instance, the black men servants symbolize higher statuses of individuals in the party where servants serve them from the lower segments of the society. Guy wants to join this social class. Hence, he is determined to get it at all cost.

On the contrary, Guy comes from a poor background as evident in the depiction of his hometown, Metcalf, which is a low-class town that lacks affluent people (Strangers on a Train). The following scene depicts the town of Metcalf:

According to Gottlieb, the use of mirrors in the movie to convey important messages and intentions that are also presented through the darkness of the movie and Bruno’s plans is a common feature (37). However, the most central application of mirrors is evident when the images of Bruno straggling Miriam are shown as a reflection on a concave mirror (Strangers on a Train).

The scene uses visual and sound effects to ensure that the viewer feels the desperation of Miriam as she slowly loses her life. On the other hand, the scene depicts the evil nature of Bruno who is a heartless murderer.

However, from the background, Miriam’s friends are searching her, although it seems that fate is not on Miriam’s side, as they never spot her until it is already too late when she is dead. According to Dellolio, the death has its share of conflicting outcomes, including the relief to Guy that Miriam has passed on and the fact that he will be held accountable for the death (261).

As fate would have it, Guy does not honor his part of the bargain since he fails to go with the plans to kill Bruno’s father. However, Bruno is a deceiving character who intends to implicate Guy by planting Guy’s lighter at the scene of the crime. Luck is not on Bruno’s side since Guy reports the matter and arrives at the scene where the crime was committed. His goal is to wait for Bruno to show up on his way to planting the lighter to implicate Guy.

When Bruno arrives, he is seriously injured. However, while it may be too late to save his life, as he lies down, his hands unfold to the extent of revealing Guy’s lighter and hence a proof that he was the murderer who was in a mission to implicate an innocent person (Strangers on a Train). Concisely, Guy gets his wishes firstly by disarming Anne since Miriam is no longer available and secondly by getting a good opportunity to become a politician since he has the necessary connection by virtue of being with Anne.

Conclusion

Based on the above expositions, both self-determination and fate play an essential role in advancing Guy’s interests. While Guy is determined to become a politician, fate plays its role by bringing Bruno who then eliminates Miriam and consequently leaves Guy with the best opportunity for a political position.

Further, the fact that Bruno is no longer capable of implicating Guy on the murder of his wife Miriam confirms how fate has worked in favor of Guy. However, with Anne on his side, he is on the right path to becoming a politician. This state of affairs requires his self-determination in ensuring that he gets the coveted political position.

Works Cited

Bazin, André, and Hugh Gray. “The Ontology of the Photographic Image.” Film Quarterly 13.4(1960): 4-9. Print.

Dellolio, Peter. “Expressionist Themes in Strangers on a Train.” Literature Film Quarterly 31.4(2003): 260-269. Print.

Giannetti, Louis. Understanding Movies, New York, NY: Pearson, 2014. Print.

Gottlieb, Sidney. Early Hitchcock: The German Influence, Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press, 2002. Print.

Roberts, Ian. German Expressionist Cinema: The World of Light and Shadow, New York, NY: Wallflower, 2008. Print.

Strangers on a Train. Ex. Prod. Alfred Hitchcock. Bendigo, Vic.: Video Education Australasia. 2005. DVD.

Among the outstanding filmmakers of the twentieth century, Alfred Hitchcock stands out for his exceptional talent for creating an unprecedented atmosphere of suspense and developing the plot through a range of complicated psychological turns. Hitchcock’s interest in psychoanalytical ideas brought forward by Sigmund Freud finds its reflection in the film Rear Window (1954). At first sight, the action unfolds through the eyes of Jeff, a photographer who watches various courtyard scenes of daily human life.

However, from the point of view of psychoanalysis, the film can be considered as a representation of the photographer’s dreams revealing his inner impulses and fears. The interpretation of Jeff’s dreams according to Freudian theory of dream symbolism discloses the photographer’s fear of marriage based on the primary castration anxiety.

Jeff’s unwillingness to marry his girlfriend Lisa reveals itself both explicitly and latently. The open and unambiguous explication of Jeff’s negative attitude to marriage is stated at the very beginning of the film when the photographer is talking to his employer: “If you don’t pull me out of this swamp of boredom, I’ll do something drastic. […] I’ll get married” (Rear Window).

And after this statement, a whole range of symbols unfolds in support of Jeff’s negation of marriage and his emphasized commitment to his masculinity.

On the one hand, Jeff’s leg is broken: a broken bone, according to Freud’s interpretation of dreams, symbolizes a broken marriage vow and suggests the photographer’s initial inclination towards infidelity in marriage (Freud 256). On the other hand, Jeff constantly employs the main instrument of his work, his photo camera with an enormously long lens.

In Freud’s dream symbolism this lengthy object stands among the male member representations and becomes a necessary support for Jeff in assertion of his masculinity (Freud 230). Other symbols are scattered through various scenarios of courtyard life representing the possible developments Jeff envisages for his relationship with Lisa.

The first and the main scenario that unfolds in the courtyard is the situation with a married couple, where the husband gets so much tired of the wife’s constant complaints and demands for attention that he decides to kill her. Since the very beginning, Jeff shares the husband’s aversion towards female fragility. In his talk to his employer he refers to a wife as “nagging”, and his mental image of a nagging wife is immediately reflected in a visual perception of a scene in the opposite window (Rear Window).

Thus is created the link between imaginary and existing, dreams and reality. The events that take place further on illustrate Jeff’s fantasies on what might have happened and what might have been the solution of the situation when the husband is plagued with his bothersome wife.

The two key symbols of Jeff’s dream over the wife’s murder become the knife and the handbag. According to Freudian theory, the knife, as a sharp and elongated weapon, serves as a representation of a male member (Freud 230). Assaulting the wife with the knife symbolizes the victory and the triumph of the male dominance over femininity. On the other hand, the purse, as any container, is symbolic of female organs (Freud 230).

Thus, it is no mere coincidence that the murdered wife’s purse attracts so much attention both from the murderous husband and from the people trying to solve the mystery of the murder. The significance of a purse to a woman is paralleled in the handbag belonging to Jeff’s girlfriend. Lisa not only carries everything she needs in her handbag but also lectures Jeff on the meaning and role of a purse for a woman.

By stating that a woman would never part with her favorite handbag, not to mention leaving it anywhere on her husband’s territory, Lisa outlines the essential border between men and women (Rear Window). And therefore, capturing the wife’s handbag symbolizes the full and final victory of the husband over the female who bothered him so much.

By showing the supposed murder as happening in a family other from Jeff’s and at the same time making Jeff so interested and involved in the situation, Hitchcock hints that this murderous situation is in fact a projection of Jeff’s secret dreams. The only secure way of getting rid of the bothersome relationship is destroying the object causing this conflict.

However, Jeff himself would not break the norms by committing murder and therefore merely plays it over in his mind. The idea of terminating the undesired relations becomes an obsession, and in order to secure himself against the murderous tendencies, the self-reproachful Jeff employs a mechanism of substituting real people with imaginary characters (Freud 283).

Apparently, the only activity Jeff involves with while his leg is broken is looking out of the window and literally spying on the private life of the others. In psychoanalysis, this enjoyment at watching the others and identifying oneself with them is termed as “scopophilia” and signifies the desire to see the forbidden (Lemire 60).

Too afraid to involve in a normal relationship himself, Jeff projects his fears and fantasies in his dreams, each developing a different course of disappointing spousal life. The seemingly happy newlywed couple appears only to involve in intercourse which is nothing more than tiring for the spouse. Their initial dream of happiness turns out to shatter against the ugly truth of the reality when the wife finds out that the husband is jobless (Rear Window).

The elderly couple has no children, and their only joy is the small dog, a symbol of little children according to Freudian theory (Freud 231). The killing of the dog by the murderous husband signifies the impossibility of having children within a disagreeing couple and realizes another marital fear of Jeff’s, the fear of being childless.

The other participants of various scenarios reflect Jeff’s fears that are associated not with marriage but rather with single life. The songwriter who attracts Lisa with his melodies appears to give big parties but he is still lonely. Even in the biggest and merriest singing crowd he stands alone smoking his cigar (another symbol of male organ).

The lonely woman reflects the double-sidedness of human attitude to maintaining relations. On the one hand, she dreams of having a partner and designs a whole imaginary candle dinner. On the other hand, she rejects any attempts of physical closeness from her one-evening suitor, defending her female honor.

By showing the man out, the woman demonstrates aversion for the assaultive nature of male power and dominance. Last but not least, the female dancer who makes a daily show of her morning exercise in a bikini top, symbolizes female attractiveness and sexuality that are parallel to those of Lisa.

All those separate scenarios reflect different sides of human relationships in married and single life. Despite their variety, they all blend together to produce a multifaceted impression, as the multiple experiences and events of human life merge in the entity of the dream (Freud 121). This successful blending of scenarios is made possible by the symbolic setting of the action: according to Freud’s theory, rooms are representative of female organ, and ladders symbolize a sexual act (Freud 230).

Jeff’s excited scopophilia is first aimed at rejecting and terminating the female origins from his life. But gradually his girlfriend becomes more and more involved in the process of tracing the events and solving the mystery, and finally she climbs the ladder up to the crime scene.

By crossing this barrier, Lisa puts her into position of trespasser and victim of the inevitable punishment, and thus repositions Jeff towards her. Now she is seen by Jeff through the lens of sadistic scopophilia and therefore his castration anxiety is gone, giving place to attraction to the weak female (Lemire 63).

The intricate imagery and symbolism of Hitchcock’s Rear Window provide opportunities for viewing the film from the point of Freudian psychoanalysis as a story that illustrates male castration anxiety.

The separate dream scenarios are saturated with symbolical representation of relationships between men and women and blend into a single entity representing the fears and desires of the main character. The initial aversion of the male to the female is gradually transformed by involvement of the woman in the male sphere and by her trespassing the traditional borders and assuming a subordinate role of a victim.

Works Cited

Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams. New York, NY: Macmillan, 1933. Print.

Lemire, Elisa. “Voyeurism and the Postwar Criticism of Masculinity in Rear Window.” Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window”. Ed. John Belton. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2000. 57–90. Print.

Rear Window. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. Paramount Pictures, 1954. Film.

The well-known film called “The Birds” created by Alfred Hitchcock is based on the story by Daphne DuMorier, which has the same title. Even though both works are named the same way and seem to have the same themes, they are very different. Hitchcock’s film was made in 1963, the story was written in 1952.

The director transformed the plot and the characters; he changed the settings. The story by Daphne DuMorier takes place in a small country town in cold England. Hitchcock’s characters live in San Francisco and Bodega Bay, California.

What evidence of foreshadowing is there in the movie and the story?

Both the story and the movie are designed as a sequence of horrific happenings that have no explanations. The birds in the area where the main characters dwell go restless and aggressive, they gradually become insane and start attacking buildings and people.

From the very beginning of the film and the story, the main characters start noticing the unusual behavior of the wild birds. Though, in the film, the first element of foreshadowing happens when the characters meet at the pet shop, where Mitch wants to find a pair of lovebirds “that are just friendly” as a present for his little sister (The Birds).

The birds that we see as a symbol of love, attachment, and devotion are used in the film as the first sign of a tragedy that has a supernatural character and is inevitable. In the story, the first elements of foreshadowing are the main character’s observations that “the birds had been more restless than ever this fall of the year, the agitation more marked because the days were still” (DuMorier, 1).

The stillness of the days reflects the famous belief that unusually quiet times always foreshadow something really bad. Besides, in both the film and the story, there are scenes, where a bird kills itself hitting a wall or a door. In many cultures of the world, this is a sign that is normally interpreted as an omen.

What themes does Hitchcock touch that is not in the story? Are there any common themes?

The common themes of the story and the film are the confrontations between people and the supernatural, people, and nature. In both the story and the film, the characters that have not been cautious about the birds’ attacks are found dead later. This is how both Hitchcock and DuMorier note that unreasonable bravery leads to negative consequences. Besides, both authors suggest a new perspective on something very common.

We see birds every day, they are all the time around, and there are thousands of them in every city, the film, and the story present an alternative view to the possible threat and power these creatures could have if they united and attacked together. Neither of the works contains an explanation of the aggression of the birds and their strange and dangerous attacks.

Though, it turns out that making his film Hitchcock has been under the influence of an event that happened in 1961 in San Francisco when thousands of sea gulls killed themselves flying into walls of various buildings (The Birds (1963), par. 5). This mass suicide was caused by a toxic poisoning of the birds.

The special theme Hitchcock raises in his film that is not in the story is the issue of environmental pollution and the fact that the aggression of the birds may have been the result of people’s effect on the environment.

Works Cited

DuMorier, Daphne. The Birds.PDF file. n. d. Web.

The Birds (1963). Filmsite. 2014. Web.

The Birds. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. Perf. Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren, and Jessica Tandy. Universal Pictures, 1963. Film.

Introduction

Widely regarded as Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest films, Vertigo presents the masterpiece of suspense. Produced by Paramount Pictures in 1958, the film consists of 128 minutes. A range of talented artists contributed to the creation of Vertigo, including Kim Novak, James Stewart, Bernard Herrmann, Robert Burks, and so on. This film is a screenplay of the French novel From Among the Dead, which was provided by three screenwriters, and filming was established on the on-site principal photography. This paper focuses on the analysis of one scene, the impact of which is based on the selection of colors and camera movements.

Basic Plot

The film narrates about the policeman, Scotty Ferguson, who was retired because of depression and panic fear of height, which caused the death of his colleague. This trauma continues to return to the main character’s life as he follows a woman, Judy, who reminds him of Madeline – one of the clients who behaved in an inexplicable manner. Throughout the film, he is struggling with constant dizziness due to acrophobia and events that have delayed the former detective into the depths of passions and mysteries.

Characteristic Features of the Film’s Style

The details of the film create an atmosphere of psychedelic transmission of fear, horror, and panic in the eyes of the actors. The musical accompaniment, as well as the color spectrum, conveys the mood of the film, which introduces a viewer into an alarming state and the feeling that something wicked will surely happen. Even though at the time of the film production there were few technical opportunities, the feeling of dizziness is transmitted perfectly. Thus, the atmosphere of fear is revealed by cinematographic means, such as editing, sound, and properly exposed light along with the impressive relationships between the characters and their psychological impact on each other.

Analysis of the Style of One Key Scene

The scene when Judy dressed like Madeline appears from the bathroom and walks towards Scotty to kiss him is one of the most remarkable ones. An important color characterizing the heroine is ghastly green that labels something mysterious and ominous (Vertigo). For this scene, the director used green filters that created the effect of light fog, providing characters with a romantic charm. The work with the shadow also carries a semantic meaning: Judy stays in a room lit up with green neon, while light and shadow divide her face in half, recalling the sinister dualism of her image.

Another way to emphasize the romantic perception of the character used in this scene is the rear projection. During the kiss, Madeline and Scotty are surrounded by the background with a changing image that shows Madeline’s room and moves to the church’s courtyard. It seems that to create a spinning effect, the actors were placed on a circular rotating platform. The coordination of the movement of the camera and that of the platform was targeted. At the same time, the actors do not move for a long time, naturally causing feelings of nausea and dizziness.

Conclusion

To conclude, Vertigo contains various cinematographic means that help the director to provide the desired impact on viewers. Personally, I learned that the combination of several methods to reveal a character’s mood and the overall atmosphere is rather effective. For example, in the analyzed scene, the integration of rear projection and coloring are the most effective in showing obsession and vertigo, which fits the main idea and tonality of the film and depicts the relationships between characters.

Work Cited

Vertigo. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, performances by James Stewart and Kim Novak, Paramount Pictures, 1958.

Among the outstanding filmmakers of the twentieth century, Alfred Hitchcock is notable for his talent for creating an atmosphere of suspense and developing the plot through a range of complicated psychological turns. As any talented director, Hitchcock makes wide use of cinematographic techniques that help to create certain effects and contribute to the development of the plot and the mood.

An example demonstrating Hitchcock’s handling of cinematographic techniques is his Rear Window. The atmosphere of overall excitement and the message of people turning into curious observers of the others are rendered from the very beginning of Rear Window via such techniques as lens, shooting angle, framing, camera movement, editing, and mise en scene.

Using a normal lens for the opening scene of Rear Window, Hitchcock allows the viewers to see everything that is going on as if through their own eyes. Nothing is distorted or exaggerated, the images of the inner yard, the apartments, and the dwellers are very realistic and so sharp and clear, as though one is perceiving them through naked eye.

The focus is sharp, nothing is overly augmented or diminished, and every object and person is depicted in natural size as seen by a person with normal eyesight. The key technique of working with the lens in Rear Window is zooming in and out to accentuate the significance of certain images. For example, the camera zooms in on the inscription upon the plaster cast. Through this zoom in, the significance of the main character’s physical immobilization is emphasized.

On the other hands, the words ‘Here lie the broken bones of L. B. Jefferies’ reflect the bitter irony of the situation when a normally mobile and inquisitive photographer is bound to his chair by a physical failure. The use of the lens allows Hitchcock to create a realistic perception of the setting by the viewers, emphasizing the restrictions on physical movements of the main character who involves into active observation of his backyard neighbors instead.

An extremely efficient technique for rendering the natural process of intent observation in Rear Window is the cinematographic technique of applying various shooting angles.

Initially, the viewers observe the backyard and its inhabitants from the viewpoint of the main character, whose window is located several floors above the ground. Thus, the viewers perceive everything that is going on from the photographer’s observation post, first following his gaze straight out of the window and then suddenly dropping down to the bottom of the yard.

This effect of shooting straight down from a great height takes the viewers’ breath away, so abrupt it is, and is quite characteristic of Hitchcock’s movies. However, the sudden dip of view is only a foreshadowing of the approaching horrors and leaves the viewers pondering over the significance of a black cat running up the stairs.

In addition to the effect of shooting straight down from a great height, Hitchcock applies yet another cinematographic technique connected with shooting angle. When the camera returns from the exterior of the backyard to the inside of the photographer’s room, there emerges a close-up on the most significant objects in the interior.

Apart from the sweaty face and the plastered leg of the photographer himself, the viewers can observe such items as a shattered photo camera, several photo prints depicting a race car accident, an atomic explosion, and other extreme events, in addition to a portrait of a beautiful young woman published in a large pressrun of a magazine.

A close-up on all those objects helps the viewers to discover the photographer’s dynamic and risk-seeking personality, as well as to suggest that the woman on the cover is more than a simple model for him.

The use of the cinematographic technique of framing is yet another method through which Hitchcock renders the position of the photographer as a distant yet attentive observer of the world around him. The way the objects are juxtaposed in scale is significant for understanding the attitude of the photographer as an objective surveyor of the whole scene. The images of his broken photo camera and his photo prints depicting extreme and unusual events take the whole screen, dominate it and thus assert their importance in the photographer’s life. On the contrary, the images of people waking up in their apartments are quite small and thus present them as nothing more than objects of overall scenery. Such juxtaposition of an atomic explosion and daily human routine in terms of cinematographic scale helps Hitchcock impart the message of insignificance and vanity of everyday life as perceived by the photographer.

Apart from scale opposition, Hitchcock employs the technique of off-screen images to evoke the sense of suspense in the viewers. When the camera’s eye moves to the photographer’s apartment and starts exploring the interior in search of significant details, the viewers cannot help but wonder who the real observer behind the camera is.

Could it be another mysterious character who wishes to remain unseen until a certain dramatic moment? Are those the viewers themselves who direct the camera’s eye? Or has the camera become an independently functioning object that determines the ways we see the world around us? Those are the ultimate questions emerging in the viewers’ minds and further explored in Rear Window.

A very expressive cinematographic technique used in Rear Window is camera movement. Hitchcock prefers to keep the camera mostly stationary and panning. Slow continuous movement across the scenery of the backyard allows the viewers to watch various apartments and their dwellers at ease, as if shifting the gaze from one scene to another. Hitchcock conducts a round-trip through the inner life of the backyard, leading his viewers in a panoramic observance of the scene from the right to the left side.

This placid movement of the camera’s gaze is interrupted only by tilting it to show the lower floors of the dwelling houses and to return back to the photographer’s apartment. Such treatment of camera movement creates an atmosphere of calm observance of a given reality, uninterrupted by personal emotion or interest – just the way the camera fixes the events on a video tape.

As one of the significant cinematographic techniques, editing plays a considerable role in Hitchcock’s Rear Window. It is remarkable that the director does not apply much cutting through the whole scene: on the contrary, most of the scene progresses in an almost uninterrupted continuity.

The scene is cut only three times: first, when the camera view drops down to a running cat, to attract the viewers’ attention; second, when there is a close-up of a thermometer showing extremely high temperature, to emphasize the heated and tense atmosphere; and third, when the camera focuses on a couple sleeping on a balcony, to accentuate the general act of waking-up carried out by the whole neighborhood.

Such nonuse of cutting is demonstrative of Hitchcock’s objective to create an impression of a continuous inseparable image of a crowded neighborhood where the dwellers are different and yet united by the same routine issues.

Apart from the cutting technique, the sound serves as a method of uniting and dividing the scene into logical fragments as well. Overall, an excited pattern of music prevails, symbolizing the bustle of the awaking neighborhood. However, in this general pattern it is possible to discern certain individual motives that accentuate significant details.

For example, both fragments depicting the dancing girl are accompanied by a more plastic and graceful sound than the rest of the scene. Another instance of musical expressiveness is the shot when the camera view is inside the photographer’s apartment. The music disappears into the background to set off the sound of the radio inquiring whether the listeners wake up tired and hostile.

The absence of music at this moment lets Hitchcock highlight the significance of the radio message that reflects the overall atmosphere of the neighborhood. The music fades when the camera returns to the photographer’s apartment for the second time, to let the viewers perceive a new, more excited melody symbolic of the photographer’s inquiring and ever-present personality.

Finally, the mis en scene plays one of the key roles in developing the opening scene and the whole subsequent action in Rear Window. The setting of a large dwelling complex chosen by Hitchcock allows to demonstrate this world as a unity of tiny communities, slightly different from each other but still united by common problems and concerns.

The contrast between the high-key lightning of the backyard and the low-key lightning of the photographer’s apartment suggests the idea of opposition between the photographer and the simple mundane world. Opposing light and shadow, Hitchcock brings forward the eternal juxtaposition of the collective and the individual.

Rear Window demonstrates a vivid example of how mastery in cinematographic techniques helps the film director communicate the personality of the main character and the key issues discussed in the movie. Since the very first scene, such techniques as lens, shooting angle, framing, camera movement, editing, and mise en scene streamline the viewers’ attention towards the movie’s message.

The poster in concern is the wonderful work of Saul Bass for the Alfred Hitchcock movie Vertigo. The fundamental focus of any advertisement, particularly a movie poster, is to communicate with the audience and reveal the properties of the product in an interesting and creative manner. In this context, this poster by Saul Bass is a complete success.

The poster shows everything an individual, be it a film buff or a general onlooker, wants to gain information about the movie. First, it is a Hitchcock movie, and there is a huge fan following for these types of movies. Hitchcock is a brand name by himself, and so the fonts denoting the name are quite large. Next, the fonts for the protagonists of the movie are larger. It includes a huge star of the era James Stewart. The prime attraction point of a movie of the 50s was star value, and thus the hero’s name appears in a larger font.

As for the content of the movie, the poster is well documented too. It is a thriller, and from the line drawing of the man in black and the women in white, the contrast of good and evil is well revealed. The predominant color red indicates the vibrant aspect of the movie and the indication of bloodshed present. Again, the name ‘Vertigo’ means ‘fear of height,’ and the spirals in the poster indicate a sense of dizziness, and that is enough to convey the basic component of this thriller. At the bottom of the poster, there are the names of the other components of the movie, but as they are not of much interest to the audience, they are written in comparatively much smaller fonts.

This was a time when the world was going through a difficult phase after the horrors of the war. It could be mentioned in the initial stages that it was degeneration time. Imperialism had taken its tolls on the world, which was grilling on the last fires of the World War. The losses were too heavy, and the shocks, almost unbearable. People just lived through a test of the extent-organized cruelty, and purposeful ruthlessness could reach. As far as the future was concerned, the initial tremors of what would lead to a massive cross across the globe were being felt. In this context, it would be relevant to mention that the generation was not finding their existence worthwhile, or in other words, they wanted more out of their life for they hardly knew what to believe. (Lamb, 221).

It is obvious that the world has changed from the days of the 1950s, but still, this poster communicates with us almost the manner it used to reveal the details of the movie in those days. It is true the current stylistic trend is much different, but good work has its perennial value, and we can still understand the message conveyed to us by the poster.

In conclusion, it would be relevant to say that with passing the time, true work of exceptional abilities are evaluated and examined but ultimately, they survive the test of time. Similarly, Saul Bass ad his poster of ‘Vertigo’ has survived the test of time. Though it is true that a movie poster is intended to influence the population with instant effect in the short-term, this poster manages to evoke interest still to this day.

Works Cited

Bass, Saul; Vertigo; IMP Awards: 1958 Poster Gallery: Vertigo Poster; Internet Movie Poster Awards. Web.

Lamb, Davis; Cult to Culture: The Development of Civilization; (Wellington: National Book Trust. 2004).