There are four crucial scenes of this film in which Hitchcock shows a change in perspective and identity through the mise-en-scène. Hitchcock’s signature motifs, style, and themes are conveyed through the mise-en-scène. There are three key scenes that best exemplify Hitchcock’s technical competence. After Alicia’s party and run in with the police, she is shown lying in bed with a hangover. We see a close up of a concoction Devlin made Alicia for hangovers. The next shot is a Dutch angle of Devlin, arms crossed and in shadow. Alicia drinks more of the concoction and camera’s perspective is in Alicia’s point of view. The Dutch angle slanted to the right rotates clockwise to an upside down shot of Devlin because Alicia is lying upside down on the bed. Coincidently, after the elaborate camera work, Alicia sits up and says, “What’s this all about? What’s your angle?”. Hitchcock’s technical competence in this scene is a testament to his authorship. There are two other scenes that exemplify Hitchcock’s technical competence and ability to connect his vision with the film’s subject matter. A turning part of the film is when Alex realizes he has married an enemy to the Nazi party. He drudges up the staircase, a central facet of a Hitchcock film, to break the news to his mother. Alex, sitting in a chair, delivers the line “I am married to an American agent”. The image of Alex is an overhead close up shot in low-key lighting. This scene denotes a shift in Alex’s character. He is no longer trusting of Alicia because now she poses a threat to his façade for the Nazis. In the third scene, the camera assumes Alicia’s point-of-view upon discovering her husband and stepmother have poisoned her. Alicia leaps from her chair and... ... middle of paper ... ...ousy, just as you’ve always been jealous of any woman I’ve ever shown interest in,” complains Alex to his mother. It is Alex’s mother who conceives the idea to potion Alicia and it is his mother with whom he argues for the keys to the closets. The parallel between Alicia’s dependence on Devlin and Alex’s on his mother is prominent in the final scene. The scene takes place on the grand staircase of Alex’s mansion. Influenced by German Expressionism, stairs serve an integral role in this and subsequent films. Alicia, propped up by Devlin, and Alex, shadowed by his over-bearing mother, all descend the grand staircase in the mansion under the eyes of the Nazi party. Outside of the house, Alicia and Devlin make their escape to freedom while Alex reluctantly returns up the stairs to his fate with the Nazis. Ending the film on the stairs attests to Hitchcock’s style.
Though complex and brilliantly written for its time, the plot of Alfred Hitchcock’s film, Vertigo, is only half of the genius behind it. Alfred Hitchcock’s unique presence as an auteur is truly what sets his films apart. There is symmetry to his shots that give the film an artistic feel, as if each frame were a painting. Many times, within this symmetry, Hitchcock places the characters in the center of the frame; or if not centered, then balanced by whatever else is adding density to the shot. For example, as Madeline sits and looks at the painting in the museum, there is a balance within the frame. To counter-act her position to the right of the painting, Hitchcock puts a chair and another painting on the left side, which is visually pleasing to the eye of the audience. The use of red and green not only adds a visual effect as well, but later serves as a clue that Madeline is not actually dead, when the women who looks like her is wearing a green dress.
To begin, Alex is one out of the four characters that reveals self-awareness broadly. Alex begins by stating, “What’s it going to be then, eh” (Burgess 1). The use of this quote explains to the reader that Alex is not only self-aware of himself, but he is careless, and he is an outlaw. Another quote that Alex states throughout the novel is, “O my brothers” (Burgess 5). “O my brothers” reve...
Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film Rear Window is truly a masterpiece, as it uses fascinating cinematic elements to carry the story and also convey the meaning of voyeurism. Throughout the film we are in one room, yet that does not limit the story. This causes the viewer to feel trapped, similar to the main character, while also adding suspense to the detective story. The opening scene itself, draws the viewer in. In just five minutes and 27 shots, the viewer is given an introduction to the main character, his lifestyle, his condition, and his neighborhood. The lighting, the costumes, and the set are all presented in a way to catch the viewers eye, compelling them to crave more. Combining vivid lighting, edgy cinematography, and unique set design, Rear Window, proves why Hitchcock is still remembered as one of the greatest and most influential directors of all time.
Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho"-the movie the world recognised-was first premiered in the home town of New York on the 16th June 1960.The film follows the life and strife of a young beautiful woman Marion Crane, played by the Janet Leigh, who is on the run from the police after stealing $40.000, she manages to find refuge at the Bates motel where she makes her worst mistake possible. During and after the film production of "Psycho" Alfred Hitchcock had his aids buy as many copies as possible of the novel "Psycho"-written by Robert Bloch. Why? To conceal the ending form the public's eye so when the film was shown in cinemas the audience would'nt know the ending. When people found out the title of the movie Hitchcock said it was based on a greek love story "Psyche".
Through his choice of setting, camera angles and lighting, Hitchcock makes the conversation at the bar a pivotal scene. The audience and young Charlie are finally brought into Uncle Charlie’s world. This scene’s contrast to the stereotypical American town is what makes this scene so important. Even though Uncle Charlie was able to conceal his true self from most of Santa Rosa, a few people saw him for what he really was. Just like there is a bar in every American town, there is evil as well.
Another method for taking a gander at it is that Hitchcock communicates his nerves, on account of the emotions enlivened by Hopper's works; Hopper's specialty frees him, inciting modern cinematographic substances stacked with a sexuality that is not completely unleashed.
Rowe, Lawrence. "Through the Looking Glass: Reflexivity, Reciprocality, and Defenestration in Hitchcock's"Rear Window"." College Literature 35.1 (2008): 16-37.
Alice decides to meet with an artist, Mr. Crewe, who invites her to his apartment and then assaults her. Alice stabs the man with a bread knife. She thinks he is dead, and escapes the crime scene. Later a man, Tracy, is accused for the murder of Mr. Crewe. Alice knows this could be unfair but fails to confess. In The 39 steps, Hannay is accused for the murder of Annabella Schmith. In The Lady Vanishes the idea of the wrong accused man is not that explicit, in fact in this film is shown the idea of the wrong woman, when someone in the train tells Alice that Miss Froy is back in the compartment and results to be Madame Kummar with the English lady´s clothes. Similarly in Rebecca the wrong woman is buried in the family grave while Rebecca´s body is in a boat in the bottom of the ocean, still in this film Maxim De Winter is wrongly accused for her death when is found that she was suicidal. The idea of wrongness in Hitchcock´s films is applied not only in terms of justice but also of relationships and the way the audience judges the characters. In the majority of the mentioned films the couple relationships at the beginning are form for convenience and are wrong in appearance, as the man is older than the woman and the relationship formed lacks of true feelings. Regarding the wrongness in the audience, Hitchcock manipulates the emotions and the information they receive, so that the characters are severely judge by the audience even though they are
For my short paper essay assignment, I decided to write about Strangers on a Train, which is a film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and released in 1951. The story is about two strangers that meet on a train. Those men’s names were Guy Haines and Bruno Anthony. Guy is a professional tennis player and he is married. His wife’s name is Mariam, but he wants a divorce with Mariam because he loves another woman. Bruno Anthony is the other stranger, slightly psychotic, hating his father and wanting to kill him. The movie runs for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Now, in this paper, I will try to analyze Hitchcock’s filming techniques, setting, suspense, camera shots, character plot and theme on this movie.
This paper has attempted to investigate the ways in which Alfred Hitchcock blended conventions of film noir with those of a small town domestic comedy. It first looked at the opening scenes of the film in which the two conventions were introdruced. It then went on to analyse the film with the aid of Robin Wood's article Ideology, Genre, Auteur. From these two forms we can see that film noir and small town comedy were used as a means of commenting on the contradictions in American values.
Stam, Robert & Pearson, Robertson., ‘Hitchcock’s Rear Window: Refluxivity and the Critique of Voyeurism’ in Deutelbaum, Marshall & Poague, Leland A. ed., A Hitchcock Reader (John Wiley & Sons: 2009).
Alicia a handkerchief, and a scarf, which she keeps, but returns to him in this
Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo is a film which functions on multiple levels simultaneously. On a literal level it is a mystery-suspense story of a man hoodwinked into acting as an accomplice in a murder, his discovery of the hoax, and the unraveling of the threads of the murder plot. On a psychological level the film traces the twisted, circuitous routes of a psyche burdened down with guilt, desperately searching for an object on which to concentrate its repressed energy. Finally, on an allegorical or figurative level, it is a retelling of the immemorial tale of a man who has lost his love to death and in hope of redeeming her descends into the underworld.
At the bank where Alex’s uncle's office had been, an undercover MI6 agent greeted him and said the door was locked. When she left the room to take a phone call, Alex crawled out a
Hitchcock makes sure to focus the attention to the specific people at specific times. The windows are being used as frames for the people within the apartments and this happens to ensure that the plot follows because of the fact that there are so many characters. Framing the community as a whole helps to focus the attention on the main issue happening during the film. The cutting from one window to another reinforces the sense of isolation. The ideal of having a perfect community with each neighbour opposes to voyeurism. Stella warns, “We’re a race of Peeping Toms. People ought to get out of their homes and look at themselves.” Thorwald is the only tenant who shows no concern for the death of the dog allowing for the dog’s death becomes further proof of Thorwald’s guilt. In Rear Window’s scene, Hitchcock clearly favours giving ambient sounds to each neighbour to further enhance their character. All of these noises that each character gives off is used as a way to connect each individual with one another. The sounds give life to the characters and to the community as a whole as it boosts the realism of the film’s setting. The bereaved mistress of the murdered dog denounces her neighbours or apartment society for not being a community. The set isolates individuals by having each character or couple appear in separate windows. The