OLLI: Spring 2012: BRITISH HITCHCOCK
Hitchcock's themes: most films: suspense-thriller genre:
1. transference of guilt: the wrong man accused:
hero pursued and must solve problem to establish innocence:
THE 39 STEPS / THE WRONG MAN / NORTH BY NORTHWEST
2. the
double (doppelganger): related to transference of guilt:
the ghostly double of a living person which haunts its counterpart:
SHADOW OF A DOUBT / STRANGERS ON A TRAIN / VERTIGO
3. the guilty woman: degree of punishment depends upon degree of guilt:
complicity in murder: results in death: VERTIGO
lesser crimes: she must suffer, then restored to "normalcy":
BLACKMAIL / NOTORIOUS
disproportional punishment: PSYCHO
4. the nightmare amidst the commonplace:
ordinary fears of normal human beings transformed into abnormal occurrences:
a. the underlying chaos / paranoia: PSYCHO / THE BIRDS
b. horrible crimes take place in public places:
THE LADY VANISHES train
STRANGERS ON A TRAIN amusement park
MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1934, 1956) concert hall
5. the moral complicity of the voyeur:
films narratively constructed around voyeuristic situations:
guilt is extended to viewers because of subjectivity of films:
SPELLBOUND / REAR WINDOW / PSYCHO / VERTIGO
6. obsessive love: REBECCA / PSYCHO / VERTIGO
7. the hero is often infirm: must ultimately confront both exterior enemy and himself:
physical problems: Jefferies' broken leg in REAR WINDOW
personal/emotional problems: SPELLBOUND / VERTIGO
8. the weight of the past upon the present: often: how the dead affect the living:
REBECCA / NOTORIOUS / PSYCHO / VERTIGO
9. acting / performance: theatrical references enrich both narrative and thematics:
39 STEPS / STAGE FRIGHT / REAR WINDOW / NORTH BY NORTHWEST
10. the fragility of human relationships: especially male-female relationships:
SHADOW OF A DOUBT / REAR WINDOW / THE BIRDS / MARNIE
Hitchcock: inclined towards:
1. false leads, suspects, etc.: the MacGuffin: focuses the quest:
NOTORIOUS / NORTH BY NORTHWEST / FAMILY PLOT
2. sympathetic villains: SHADOW OF A DOUBT / STRANGERS ON A TRAIN
3. dull-witted police: often connected to wrong man theme:
SABOTAGE / TO CATCH A THIEF / NORTH BY NORTHWEST
4. atmosphere of romantic longing: REBECCA / SUSPICION / NOTORIOUS
5. black humor: sometimes pervades entire film:
THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY / FAMILY PLOT
6. refusal to cloud a good story with ideology: divorced from socialist/realist problems
Hitchcock's style:
1. editing / montage:
a. bravura use of editing: showy, calls attention to itself:
PSYCHO: shower scene: 78 separate shots / 45 seconds screen duration
THE BIRDS: attic scene: stylistically: edited same as shower scene
b. POV editing: deliberate manipulation of audience: see below: #3a.
2. master of the moving camera:
YOUNG AND INNOCENT: most elaborate & celebrated shot in all Hitchcock's
British films: camera crosses full hotel set to drummer's twitching eyes
ROPE: made up almost entirely of 10-minute takes
REAR WINDOW: opening shots: Hitchcock as master of the establishing shot(s)
3. self-conscious narration: calls attention to itself by the way it's done: happens 2 ways:
a. narration confines itself to single character's point of view more than usual:
optical subjectivity: lets us see through character's eyes:
powerful tool for audience identification
b. use of narrational intrusions: commenting on the action:
Hitchcock's cameo appearances: his "signature" on the film
symbolic inserts: SPELLBOUND: giant gun
revelatory camera movements: YOUNG AND INNOCENT:
from wide shot of room to XCU of twitching eye
unexpected camera angles: THE WRONG MAN:
overhead shot of hero being locked in jail cell
sound overlaps: THE 39 STEPS: sound bridge
because of self-conscious narration: there's a tension:
between what the character knows and what narration tells us:
we feel we want to help character
but narration never tells all: suppressive aspect to storytelling
4. sets up challenges for himself: technical innovator:
sound: creative use of sound in BLACKMAIL: "knife": emphasizes woman's guilt
color: TROUBLE WITH HARRY: autumn leaves in New England
moving camera: ROPE: 10-minute takes
set pieces: Mount Rushmore in NORTH BY NORTHWEST:
motif running through films: chase through a famous setting
5. use of actors' images:
heroes: actors used: Robert Donat, Cary Grant, James Stewart:
augmenting generic conventions with their own personas
"cool blonde" heroines: fire under ice:
Madeleine Carroll, Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly
cool and disdainful: yet underlying eroticism
in general: smooth, slick male --- offset by --- cool, sleek female
6. economy: nothing unnecessary: everything tinged with meaning:
Hitchcock plays with us on this
7. preparation: Hitchcock prepared thoroughly for filming: storyboards:
but left some room during filming for alternative takes, etc.
"Actors should be treated like cattle."