One of Hitchcock’s more graphic films is Frenzy (1972). He confuses the audience by having them identify with both the murderer and the victim. Hitchcock also has an unlikable protagonist who is innocent and a likeable antagonist who is the murderer. “By having disturbed individuals for heroes, casting these parts with attractive and established stars and by deliberately using this technique for identification, Hitchcock’s scorn for the false values of his audience cannot be more clearly exemplified” (Sonbert, 2015, p. 36). Hitchcock knew how to exploit the audiences’ feelings for the actor that portrays a specific character. Good versus evil is a moral code that the audience has to question. The characters they are forced to like often are …show more content…
103). Hitchcock needed a leading lady who would attract men and whom women could identify with. “The Hitchcock blonde is known for her smoldering sexuality, a quality fully revealed in private. She is also supremely feminine, well dressed, impeccably groomed, and always in full make-up” (Friddel, 2015, p. 103). Hitchcock often worked with bombshell blondes like Grace Kelly Ingrid Bergman, and Tippi Hedren who all shared similar characteristics. In Fincher’s most recent film Gone Girl (2014), the main character Amy Dunne, played by Rosamund Pike, portrays the Hitchcock blonde. She is spoiled by her moneyed upbringing and is always put together. “Hitchcock was a master of using actors with whom the audience can sympathize despite their role as an unsympathetic character” (Kohn, 2015, p. 99). This ties in again with having charming antagonists to create a sort of unpredictability. Fincher also has particular actors he collaborates with habitually. Brad Pitt was his leading man in Seven (1995), Fight Club (1999), and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). According to David Fincher, “On-screen and off-screen, Brad's the ultimate guy. If I could be anyone, it would be Brad Pitt. Even if I could not look like him. Just to be him. He has such a great ease with who he is” (Knapp, 2014, p. xvi). Brad Pitt is Hitchcock’s Cary Grant or James Stewart (Knapp, …show more content…
Gus Van Sant’s remake of Psycho (1998) was not so much of a remake as it was a recreation of Hitchcock’s classic film shot by shot. “Van Sant’s Psycho, strips away Hitchcock’s original meanings and gestures without replacing them with anything else” (Leitch, 2003, p. 254). To remake a Hitchcock without Hitchcock is inevitably challenging. David Fincher’s next project is a modern take on Hitchcock’s 1951 film Strangers on a Train (Kreps, 2015). To remake the master of suspense’s classic film puts a lot of pressure on Fincher with such high expectations to meet. It will be a modern take on the storyline and will cut the title to just Strangers. Many directors who attempt to remake Hitchcock films do not succeed. They cannot find a way to improve the film or to incorporate their own meanings or messages into the film. Fincher will have to create his own interruption to display how his style is his own and not just recreate Hitchcock’s film shot for
To understand why Hitchcock’s portrayal of female characters is crucial to fully understanding the film, it is important to consider the way society worked for women in the fifties. Women “were taught to pity the neurotic, unfeminine, unhappy women who wanted to be poets or physicists or presidents” (Friedman, 16). It was completely wrong for women to try and get male dominated jobs. They were supposed to be housewives who did not have any power in society. “They had no thought for the unfeminine problems of the world outside the home; they wanted the men to make the major decisions” (Friedman, 18). In her book, Friedman continues to explain how most of the women she had interviewed who were housewives felt dissatisfaction with their lives and were ashamed that they felt this way.
Lisa is always clean, prepped and perfect looking, not a hair out of place. She seems to behave with more overall grace than the rest of the cast and was potentially even given special lighting in certain scenes to give her a more radiant appearance than the others. This gives Lisa her own individualized look. In addition, characters not centrally involved are represented as very distinctly different personalities and situations for possibly the same reason. In conclusion, in “Rear Window” Hitchcock is shown off as an auteur and realist through his modification and implementation of his own creative mind and as a realist by conveying reality and occurrences of everyday life.
...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.
Suspense is only one of Hitchcock’s many techniques and themes. His themes range from the obvious violence, to the depths of human interaction and sex. From Rear Window to Psycho, Hitchcock’s unique themes are present and evident. Rear Window starts with something we all do at times, which is nosing in and stalking on others business, and turns it into a mysterious investigation leaving the viewer second guessing their neighbors at home. Psycho on the other hand, drags
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.
...m, Hitchcock makes his cameo appearance wearing a grey suit and carrying a bugle case and strolls across the screen from left to right just before Scottie arrives at Elster’s shipyard. In conclusion, Vertigo, fifty six years later, is now considered an iconic classic and one of the best films ever made.
Because Alfred Hitchcock implied a great deal in his films, his films may have implied a great deal about himself. If this is true, Alfred Hitchcock had a cryptic way of expressing who he
One major attribute in Hitchcock films is how creatively Hitchcock tricks the audience about the fate of the characters and the sequence of events. Many people argue that it is a tactic by Hitchcock to surprise his audience in order to increase the suspense of the movie. For example, in Shadow of a Doubt, the audience assumes that young Charlie is an innocent young girl who loves her uncle dearly. However as the movie progresses, Young Charlie is not as innocent as the audience suspects. Young Charlie, once a guiltless child, ends up killing her evil uncle. In Vertigo, the same Hitchcock trickery takes place. In the beginning, the audience has the impression that the Blond women is possessed by another woman who is trying to kill her. The audience also has the notion that the detective is a happy man who will solve the murder case correctly. Just before the movie ends, the audience realizes that the detective was specifically hired by a man to kill his wife. The detective, in the end, seems to be the hopeless, sad victim.
Anthony ‘Tony’ Perkins was well known for his roles in romantic comediess. The attractive, shy, well-intentioned young man not only captured the hearts of many teenage girls, but the eye of Alfred Hitchcock when looking for the perfect Norman Bates. Hitchcock’s clever choice of actor immediately threw off the audience and made them ask what is Anthony Perkins doing in a horror film? Perkins' shy personality and slightly awkward movements did him well in his usual genre but did him even better when playing a homicidal schizophrenic. In fact, Perkins' portrayal of Bates made people second guess themselves as to who murdered Marion and Arbogast. This makes the movie significantly more thrilling.
Hitchcock’s Blondes broke many stereotypes at the time with their outspoken strength, shocking audiences. As noted by Thomas Leitch in his book “A Companion to Alfred Hitchcock”, "Both dependency and independence in women inspire hatred... it places the woman in a double bind from which she is often unable to extricate herself. For Kelly's characters, the double bind always involves a latent hostility to the very graphic qualities Hitchcock prizes in the actress. Kelly's perfection in Rear Window is, in itself, enough to visit male anger upon
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 a way of throwing clues in the face of the spectator, yet still allows some room for the spectator to find their own less obvious details. In the same museum scene, Hitchcock shows the viewer exactly what he wants them to see. In a sense, Hitchcock can be very manipulative with the camera. The audience sees the picture containing the women with a curl in her hair holding flowers, and then the direct connection is made by the camera, by showing the curl in Madeline’s hair, and the flowers sitting next to her. The spectator is led to believe that they have solved the mystery and she is truly possessed by the women in the picture. However, Hitchcock does this on purpose to lead the audience away from the truth that she is only acting. It is for these reasons that Hitchcock’s work at an auteur adds a level of depth and intrigue.
“For me, suspense doesn’t have any value if it’s not balanced by humor”, words of Alfred Hitchcock whose technique of using the combination of suspense and humor to engage the viewers is a technique many filmmakers today attempt at using in their films. Most suspenseful or even horror movies do not usually contain both, suspense and humor, yet Hitchcock used it in a majority of his films such as Psycho. Hitchcock used different and quirky characters, different settings, and a right balance between the two elements. The characters used in Hitchcock’s films are infamous and known for their quirkiness; some even used in multiple of his films. Norman Bates, played by Anthony Perkins, came off as an awkward and troubled middle aged man who lived in the house behind the motel that he and his mother owned (Bates Motel).
Hitchcock employs plenty of unique visuals, including camera tricks that confuse depth perception, invasive close-ups, film noir lighting, and rapid cuts to show nudity with out showing nudity or extreme violence / killing without much blood. The movie “Psycho” was a first for several filmic elements making it sometimes more notable than effective. At its heart, however it’s a extreme thrilling murder/ mystery that boasts a climax unlike any other before its time. The suspense and anticipation are almost unbearable, keeping the ultimate, answers brilliantly stowed until the very
The two films Psycho and The Birds, both directed by Alfred Hitchcock, share similar themes and elements. These recurring themes and elements are often prevalent in many of Hitchcock’s works. In Psycho and The Birds, Hitchcock uses thematic elements like the ideal blonde woman, “the motherly figure”, birds, and unusual factors that often leave the viewer thinking. Hitchcock’s works consist of melodramatic films, while also using pure cinema to help convey messages throughout the film.