The Creator of Suspense
Alfred Hitchcock is one of the most well known directors of all time bringing murder and mystery to a new light. His films, starting in 1925 with "The Pleasure Garden" and ending in 1976 with the film "Family Plot", set a precedent for all other directors in the film industry. Many story lines and techniques within the cinematography of Hitchcock are common standards for films of today.
However, Hitchcock did not start out as a brilliant director, but instead started from the very bottom of the business. As a young man Hitchcock was raised and lived in England with his parents. When a new Paramount studio opened he rushed to get a job there having had interest in film making for quite a bit of time. He was employed at Paramount as a "title designer" for silent films meaning he wrote out the lines that are displayed after each shot in the film. From that job he worked his way up through the business to assistant director and directed a small film that was never finished or released. Hitchcock's directorial debut took place in 1925 with the release of the film "The Pleasure Garden". His breakthrough film came just a year later with "The Lodger", a film that came to be an ideal example of a classic Hitchcock plot. The general idea of the plot is an innocent man is accused of a crime he did not commit and through a web of mystery, danger, action, and of course love he must find the true criminal. This plot came to be used in many of Hitchcock's films throughout his career both silent and "talkie". It was not long before Hitchcock came to be known as the "Master of Suspense". He was said to have "not only mastered the art of making films but he also mastered the task of taming his own raging imagination".
The first Alfred Hitchcock film I am going to address is his and England's first "talkie" which is the dramatization "Blackmail". This film, released in 1929, was originally shot as a silent and some people say it should have remained as a silent. Nonetheless, it was a tremendous breakthrough for both Hitchcock and the British film industry for their first movie with sound. However, there were a few problems with this transition to sound.
Anna Ondra who played the main female character Alice had a very thick Eastern European accent that came to be impossible to decipher on the film. This had never been a proble...
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... a large historical impact on movies. After this movie came out almost every chase and spy thriller have copied its style. This film set a precedent for similar types of movies and directors realized it attracted an audience. The film gets the viewer so involved in the suspense, action, and romance they almost forget about the actual 39 Steps. Better said: Such is the zest of the Hitchcock plot that the original point of the title was totally forgotten, and half a line had to be added at the end by way of explanation.
This quote essentially sums up the film that contains minimal special effects and an incredible plot that intrigues an audience to stay in their seats and watch a masterpiece.
The last movie I am going to mention is the 1939 film, "The Lady Vanishes". This film is one of Alfred Hitchcock's last films made in Britain before he immigrated over to America to pursue his directing career. It is a warm film that still holds mystery and suspense. The film takes place on a train bound for England travelling across central Europe. All the main characters have been introduced from the night before when they were snowed into an inn in an unnamed location.
...ormation of novel to film, sees Hitchcock’s responsibility as auteur. Suggesting Hitchcock as ‘creator’, attributes to Vertigo’s “perfection” (Wood, p.129) as Wood argues. Stylistic features known classically to Alfred Hitchcock movies is also what defines Hitchcock as a classic auteur, his style generates a cinematic effect which mixes effectively with his use of suspense. In returning to Cook’s discussion, she references Andrew Sarris, who argues that the “history of American cinema could be written in terms of its great directors,” (Cook, p. 411) showing the legitimacy of authorship in popular American cinema. Ultimately Cook goes on to address the changes in authorship from the 1950’s until today, featuring developments in authorship within Cinema. Overall, both Cook and Wood presented a balanced discussion on the legitimacy of Alfred Hitchcock’s auteur status.
Alfred Hitchcock’s films not only permanently scar the brains of his viewers but also addict them to his suspense. Hitchcock’s films lure you in like a trap, he tells the audience what the characters don’t know and tortures them with the anticipation of what’s going to happen.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo is a thrilling film filled with mystery and suspense. However, Hitchcock left many unsolved issues at the end of this film. In contrast, when comparing Vertigo to more recent films of similar genre’, mysteries are usually always solved and thoroughly explained by the end of the film. Ironically, Hitchcock’s failure to explain everything to the audience in Vertigo is one of the film’s best attributes. This lack of knowledge allows the viewer to use their own imagination and speculate as to what might or might not have become of certain characters.
The film, Vertigo (1958) directed by Alfred Hitchcock, is classified as a genre combination of mystery, romance, suspense and thriller about psychological obsession and murder. Filmed on location in San Francisco and on the Paramount lot in Hollywood, California in 1957, the cultural features of the late 1950’s America were depicted in the films mise en scène by costume and set designs current for that time period. The film was produced at the end of the golden age of Hollywood when the studio system was still in place. At the time Vertigo was produced, Hollywood studios were still very much in control of film production and of actor’s contracts. Hitchcock’s groundbreaking cinematic language and camera techniques has had great impact on film and American popular culture and created a cult following of his films to this day.
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Cinematography of Hitchcocks Psycho Alfred Hitchcock is renown as a master cinematographer (and editor), notwithstanding his overall brilliance in the craft of film. His choice of black and white film for 1960 was regarded within the film industry as unconventional since color was perhaps at least five years the new standard. But this worked tremendously well. After all, despite the typical filmgoer’s dislike for black and white film, Psycho is popularly heralded among film buffs as his finest cinematic achievement; so much so, that the man, a big
As a filmmaker, whose individual style and complete control over all elements of production, Alfred Hitchcock implied a great deal in the motion pictures that he made.
...m, or escape racism. Many want racism to end but are asking the wrong questions to make that happen. The question is not who is still racist or who is most discriminated against or even how to stop racism but rather what is the cause of racism. Is it because our forefathers all agreed that those with darker skin tones were inferior and society decided as a whole to continue with that ignorance or is it because society needs a “pick me up” every now and then and chose to fulfill that need that by putting others down or maybe it’s because for them, racists, the thought of having to admit that the way they treat others of different racists is erroneous and immoral, is too much to handle. Whatever the reason may be before anything can be done to end racism in its entirety one must find the base, the root, the simple yet convoluted cause of the idea of racism itself.
Another key theme that is linked to both the Dignity of The Human Person and The Common Good is the theme of Subsidiarity. This theme ...
Environment plays a big role in human health. Having a healthy environment such as clean air can bring positive impact to people’s health.
With the help of superb editing, sound, mise en scene, and cinematography, this film cannot be topped. The fist scene of the movie creates an atmosphere that helps the viewer know that he/she will enjoy this wonderful classic. Throughout the movie there are surprises and fun that makes this a movie that people will want to watch again and again. Gene Kelly said it best when he said, "Dignity, always dignity. " That is what this movie has from beginning to end, dignity.
All directors of major motion pictures have specific styles or signatures that they add in their work. Alfred Hitchcock, one of the greatest directors of all time, has a particularly unique style in the way he creates his films. Film analyzers classify his distinctive style as the “Alfred Hitchcock signature”. Hitchcock’s signatures vary from his cameo appearances to his portrayal of a specific character. Two perfect examples of how Hitchcock implements his infamous “signatures” are in the movies, A Shadow of a Doubt and Vertigo. In these movies, numerous examples show how Hitchcock exclusively develops his imagination in his films.
Psycho is a suspense-horror film written by Joseph Stefano and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. This film was loosely adapted from Robert Bloch’s 1959 suspense novel, Psycho. A majority of the movie was filmed in 1960 at Universal Studios in Los Angeles. Psycho is about Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), a secretary from Arizona who steals $40,000 from her employer’s client. She takes that money and drives off to California to meet her lover Sam Loomis (John Gavin) in order to start a new life. After a long drive, she pulls off the main highway and ends up taking refuge at an isolated motel owned and managed by a deranged Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). In Alfred Hitchcock’s film, Psycho, symbols, character and point of view are three literary aspects used in the film to manipulate the audience’s emotions and to build suspense in the film.
Alfred Hitchcock developed his signature style from his earlier works The Lodger and Blackmail. These films were the framework for his signature films later on. His themes of “an innocent man who is accused of a crime” and “the guilty woman” were first seen in these two films and are repeated throughout Hitchcock’s cinematic history
Hitchcock has characteristics as an auteur that is apparent in most of his films, as well as this one.