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Psycho alfred hitchcock film analysis
Psycho alfred hitchcock film analysis
Psycho alfred hitchcock film analysis
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In the essay "On `Sleeping Beauty'," Francine Prose argues that the movie Vertigo is about "a sort of modified necrophilia: not exactly sex with a corpse - literal graveyard amour - but rather sex with a woman who only appears to have left the world of living" (223). This statement certainly has many ties to the movie. Vertigo, Hitchcock's masterpiece, secretly reveals men's sexual desire and obsession towards women, especially for those who appear to have lost touch with the real world. One may recognize the central character, Scottie, as a person who is surrounded by all kinds of emotional faintness due to his great loss of love. However, the action that Scottie has taken after the suffering tells the audience the whole different story; Scottie has committed "modified necrophilia" (223) as the movie progresses.
The movie Vertigo tells the story of John "Scottie" Ferguson, a hapless detective who becomes traumatized when he watches a fellow cop plummet to his death from a rooftop. This event leaves Scottie with a disabling acrophobia, which forces him to take a time off. During his break, an old friend Gavin Elster asks Scottie to come out of retirement to follow "Madeleine", his wife, and investigate her strange behavior. He reluctantly accepts, and while following her, ends up falling in love with her. His obsession and love towards Madeleine grows more and more as the time passes.
Scottie is a desperate man who, upon suffering the loss of his true love, descends into the pits of his very soul to redeem "Madeleine's spirit." After losing Madeleine, Scottie turns into a psychologically disturbed man. In the movie, his attitude towards Judy occasionally frightens the audience with his very obsessed facial expres...
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...e describes that "Scottie [has] turned the warm-hearted, down-to-earth Judy into an exact replica (a mannequin) of the icy, ethereal - and, by that point, dead - Madeleine" (224). This argument also leads to an idea of possessive sexuality, where Prose once said "they all seemed perfectly capable of telling the larger and smaller differences between a female college student and a Barbie doll. Moreover, the male's inability to see women as fully human ..." (225).
In conclusion, the movie Vertigo was not only about the male desire towards unconscious women and obsession, but also about a darker side of human nature. One may state that the movie is about passionate love but it clearly shows that the men can be fanatically preoccupied onto one another. Released in 1958, Hitchcock's Vertigo was an incredible exposition of sexually possessed love and obsession.
Hitchcock’s use of doubles is apparent throughout most of his films. In Vertigo, the image of Madeline and Scotty’s passionate embrace is repeated several times during the film. In Scotty’s life, Hitchcock also places many instances of doubles, such as the two women he loves, Madeline’s dual roles as two different women throughout the plot, and the two identical deaths of the women he witnesses. Doubling is also apparent between Madeline and the fictional Carlotta, especially in the scene in the art museum, where the flowers, the hairstyle, and the position of Madelin...
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.
In order to suit his needs Hitchcock transports the locale of Vertigo (1958) to the most vertical San Francisco city where the vertiginous geometry of the place entirely threatens verticality itself. The city with its steep hills, sudden rises and falls, of high climbs, dizzying drops is most appropriate for the vertiginous circularity of the film. The city is poised between a romantic Victorian past and the rush of present day life. We were able to see the wild chase of Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart) in search for the elusive Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak) and the ghost who haunts her, Carlotta Valdes in such spots as the Palace of the Legion of Honor, the underside of the Golden Gate Bridge at Fort Point, the Mission Dolores, Ernie’s restaurant,
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.
There was a heavy rain outside, but other than that, the room was silent. George stared at the bunk where Lennie slept, unable to sleep. He was filled with hatred of the world that forced him to kill his own friend. As the night dragged on his hatred shifted to Curley’s wife, then Curley. “If Curley hadn’t let his tramp wife go around and cause trouble Lennie would still be here” George thought. Just then, Lennie appeared in front of him with a look of deep sadness and pain. Seeing Lennie’s pain and suffering, sent him over the edge. “That god damn Curley!” George thought, grabbing Carlson’s gun while he slept. “This is all his fault!” he thought, consumed by rage. He shuffled over to where Curley slept and pulled out the gun. George aimed the gun at Curley and pulled the trigger. An instant later he is horrified by what he has done. A couple seconds pass and Slim comes into the
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 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
Vertigo boasted several different themes. However, the “Ideal Woman – Lost” theme was the most prevalent (“Handout #1”). This theme was brought on by an obsessed “everyman” type. Jimmy Stewart, otherwise known as Scottie in the film, played this “everyman” type whose personality was maliciously twisted into an overly obsessive man. His cause for obsession was a beautiful, young woman played by Kim Novak, known as both Madeleine and Judy in the film. Madeleine drew Scottie in so deep, that he literally became a different person. This film mirrored Hitchcock’s personal feelings and was considered to be his favorite film.
Strangers on a Train is one of Hitchcock’s most well-known films. It is typically analyzed in terms of the ways that the two main male characters interact. According to many film critics, homosexual attraction between Bruno and Guy is one of the premises of the film. This may be the case, however, many of these film critics fail to consider the minor characters of the film: the women. Specifically, they fail to analyze the influence of these women on the development of the male characters and to interpret the message Hitchcock is trying to portray about women, especially those with qualities typically not associated with women.
As the paradigm in which this curiosity is exposed inhabit the human being, that voyeurism that uncounted of us have inside. Hitchcock is able to use this element to catch the spectator, building a devilish and fascinating tale of suspense set in a microcosm. In which there reflects the intimate and daily life of the current man, where the protagonist observes from his window. The viewer sees what Jeff (the protagonist) observes, has the sensation of being the protagonist, observing through his window.
Hitchcock Vertigo stars James Stewart as Scottie, a retired detective, and Kim Novak as Judy Barton, who gets disguised as Madeleine, a woman hired by Scottie's friend to act as his wife in order to frame Scottie. The story takes place in San Francisco in the 1950's. The film opens on a high building, where officer Scottie and his partner are in pursuit of a suspect. Scottie's partner's life is on the line, and only he can save him. Unfortunately, he has vertigo, a fear of heights.
The Barbie is a plastic, man-made female toy, which has perfect facial symmetry, unnatural body dimensions, and perfectly unblemished white skin. In Chris Semansky’s Overview of “Barbie Doll,” he explains that the Barbie “is invented to show women have been socialized into thinking of their bodies and behavior in relation to a male-controlled idea” (Semansky). The title directly alludes to the Barbie toy, which represents a design of a man-made construction of the female image that shows an unnatural human form that could only exist inside the imagination of men. Throughout both “Barbie Doll” and “The Birthmark” you will find the female protagonists seeking an ultimately perfect form, free of the characteristics that those around them see as unworthy. It is as if they are chasing the blueprint of perfection that is present in the Barbie. The original Barbie came with three outfits a bathing suit, a tennis outfit, and a wedding dress (Semansky). Her outfits clearly symbolize restrictions forced on female privilege, identity, and autonomy, where “she embodies the ideals and values of her middle-class American community” who expect her to “spend her days at the country club and her afternoons cooking dinner for her husband” (Semansky). This is directly similar to the “outfits” those around the women in “Barbie Doll” where the girlchild is born
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.
The poem, "Barbie Doll," written by Marge Piercy tells the story of a young girl growing up through the adolescence stage characterized by appearances and barbarity. The author uses imagery and fluctuating tone to describe the struggles the girl is experiencing during her teenage years, and the affects that can happen. The title of this poem is a good description of how most societies expect others, especially girls to look. Constantly, people are mocked for their appearance and expected to represent a "barbie-doll"-like figure. Few are "blessed" with this description. The female gender is positioned into the stereotype that women should be thin and beautiful. With this girl, the effects were detrimental. The first stanza describes the influence that a child is placed into during early childhood. Girls are expected to play with "dolls" and "stoves and irons," the usual toys that relate to the old-fashioned duties of women. A young girl begins to learn what she should be for society and not to deviate from the norm. The tone used in this stanza is quite silent and simplistic at first,...
Critics have noted that Alfred Hitchcock always had trouble with women. His films are known for having blond women portraying troubled, morally challenged women. This holds true in Spellbound, with Constance’s initial emotional frigidity, which later gives way to intellectual stupidity. In Spellbound, Hitchcock’s treatment of women is at an all time low. Constance is dismissed repeatedly throughout the film, as not being capable of clear, intellectual thought because she is in love. Before she falls in love, she is dismissed as a cold fish, incapable of feeling, and her femininity is challenged. There is therefore no middle ground left.