Movies are much more than just a picture on a screen. They are not linear, they are complex and have depth beyond our imagination. One of the most critically acclaimed master of this art is Alfred Hitchcock. The movie describes the events that occur when a small town is attacked by vicious birds. The movie “The Birds” by Alfred Hitchcock has a deeper emotional weight with its audience than the book “The Birds” by Daphne du Maurier because of Hitchcock’s deliberate use of setting, imagery, and mood in the cinematic experience.…
Hitchcock is taking us through different everyday lives, leaves us to imagine horrific events.. Then back to everyday lives. WE ARE THEN left with fear…
The classic masterpiece, Citizen Kane (1941), is probably the world's most famous and highly rated film, with its many remarkable scenes, cinematic and narrative techniques and innovations. The director, star, and producer were all the same individual - Orson Welles (in his film debut at age 25), who collaborated with Herman J. Mankiewicz on the script and with Gregg Toland as cinematographer. Within the maze of its own aesthetic, Citizen Kane develops two interesting themes. The first concerns the debasement of the private personality of the public figure, and the second deals with the crushing weight of materialism. Taken together, these two themes comprise the…
Alfred Hitchcock’s films changed the film industry and shaped it into what it is today. His horror films such as Psycho and The Birds had a huge impact on the horror films of today, for example, the scene I will be looking at in The Birds shows all of the crows silently on a school climbing frame. In the famous horror film Jeepers Creepers (2001) the ending scene shows the…
In conclusion, Alfred Hitchcock is the master of suspense and remember suspense does not always have to be horror, in fact as we now know one of Hitchcock’s greatest secrets was incorporating humor into his works. He, of course he also has a specialty in mounting tension, and his success as a director shows in many of his movies including but not limited to north by northwest, vertigo, and…
This creates suspense by making viewers more hooked into the film. Some other techniques Alfred Hitchcock used were fast camera movements including the silence and background music. For example, in the fil Rope there was a scence where they had a gun and they zoomed-in.…
The way films are created and pieced together has progressed greatly over the past century, where before 1910 there was little use of film techniques such as special effects, animation, complex transition sequences and many more. However the introduction of film techniques have helped films gain a sense of genre and establishment as they were used to create specific intensities set out by the director; this is where roles corresponding to certain areas were introduced such as cinematographers, production designers and lighting directors. A classic example of a well-known director would be Alfred Hitchcock (1899 – 1980) who is famous for creating suspense films like The Birds or Psycho. I am mentioning him as he had revolutionised the way films…
Recently while watching two old film classics, Vertigo and Notorious, I found myself thinking of other movies directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Most of his movies have many things in common, while remaining completely independent of each other. These two films have different plots, actors, and most obvious one is filmed in color the other black and white. Which leads me to believe that Alfred Hitchcock really knew what he was about; as a result his films all a have a distinctive theme about them. Both films keep you in a state of anticipation as the stories unfold and reveal the twist and turns that Alfred Hitchcock was famous for. Notorious was written in 1946 a year after World War II came to an end and the red-scare was sweeping the nation, yet Vertigo was written twelve years later in a completely different climate. Meaning the McCarthy era had come to an end and the United States was a different country then. Taking that into consideration it’s interesting the parallelisms these two films have.…
One of the main concerns in Hitchcock’s film is that deception can be achieved by one hiding in plain sight. This concept is evident throughout the train scene Thornhill is hiding in plain sight from the police. A medium low angle shot of Thornhill glancing at a stranger reading a newspaper with a headline of “Manhunt on for U.N killer” suggests that Thornhill is now seen as an individual wanted by the police. The use of a low angle shot makes Thornhill appear taller and more menacing. The use of the low angle engenders the audience to believe that Thornhill is a vicious murderer. As a result, Thornhill wears black sunglasses as a way to stay incognito within the crowd. The sunglasses act as a way to hide his true identity in order to deceive…
Hitchcock uses hidden information, reaction shots, and costuming in order to portray the plotline. A concept Hitchcock uses to add suspense is showing the audience what the characters do not see.11 Typically, Hitchcock shows the harmful object in the beginning and let the scene continue normally. The suspense of oncoming danger will be in the audience’s mind. This is shown in the movie when Hitchcock shows the brake fluid leaking from the car and Blanche and George driving the car completely unaware of the problem. The audience is terrified because they are aware of the trouble that is about to come, but the characters are oblivious. He also uses point of view shots and reaction shots to allows the audience to feel the same panic the characters…
In 1941, the sophisticated and classical screenplay, Citizen Kane was released to the public in America. The motion picture is known to be as probably one of the world’s most famous and highly-rated films, with its remarkable scenes, and use of literary devices. Director, star, and producer of the film were all the duty of one man by the name of Orsen Welles. He stars as Charles Foster Kane, who was ripped away from his parents during childhood, then went on to live a very lavish lifestyle, but never knew what real happiness was. Throughout Citizen Kane, Welles presents the idea of the American Dream as living a rich and prosperous lifestyle, but illustrates at how unsatisfactory that this “dream” really is through the use of lighting, sound,…
Hitchcock was a member of the London Film Society which showed French, German and Soviet art films, as well as early and new American films. This provided a unique opportunity where Hitchcock could observe and gain different ideas and techniques. The London Film Society influenced Hitchcock and many other aspiring British filmmakers. (Spoto, 1983) Another early influence was German director F.W. Murnau. Murnau was a strong influence for Hitchcock. While filming the film, "Der Letze Mann" Hitchcock visited the set and observed Murnau at work. The unchained camera and his pursuit of telling the story in visual terms alone were Murnau 's main points of interest. This had become a lifelong interest for Hitchcock.(Haeffner, 2005)Two predominant influences of Hitchcock were German Expressionistic style and American films. During the silent period of film making Hitchcock was working in a German studio. When he first began making films, he saw a collection of Fritz Lang 's silent films. During World War 1 the German film industry found it difficult to create films that could match Hollywoods. German Expressionist created their own style which included the use of symbolism and mise en scene that created more depth and meaning. Hitchcock 's first thriller, "The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog" was Hitchcock 's first film to use elements of Expressionist. (Spoto, 1983)Another influence in Hitchcock 's career was Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. During Hitchcock 's career Freud was informing the world of his scientific discoveries for human…
Hitchcock introduces a different approach in solving the crime from the conventions of the Golden Age, as a result of the tense and rising suspicions from the Cold War and McCarthyism within American at that time.…
In Robin Wood’s essay: Ideology, Genre, Auteur, Wood revisits Hitchcock’s films and analyses the different characteristics in the films. Wood focuses mostly on Shadow of a Doubt and It’s a Wonderful Life in which he compares and describes the different values of Hollywood cinema. One of Wood’s major points to hear two opposing views. Wood stresses that a critics job should be to look at a piece as a whole rather than at the particular aspects of one of the theories or too superficially, like a genre. Wood, however, then demonstrates what a proper critic should be like, by analyzing and comparing every single aspect, characteristic, and plot details in Shadow of a Doubt and It’s a Wonderful Life.…
Hitchcock imbibing the true sentiments of Americans delineated its culture in myriad forms and hues through his films.…