It is a concurrent agreement in the film industry that Alfred Hitchcock is nothing less than a legend when it comes to the suspense and thriller genres of film. That being said, many filmmakers unsurprisingly aspire to adopt his style in more recent films. Movie critique Andrew O’Hehir suspects that this is the case with Mark Pellington’s production, Arlington Road, which follows the story of a man taken with the idea that his neighbors are terrorists. Although Pellington’s production possesses distinctively Hitchcock-styled qualities in its editing, storyline, and themes, O’Hehir argues that it is “…ultimately just another maddeningly ill-conceived tribute placed at [Hitchcock’s] feet.” However, it cannot be determined if Pellington meant for Arlington Road to be a tribute at all. The film may have a multitude of resemblances to Hitchcock film, but its finale fundamentally distinguishes itself unique to O’Hehir’s assumption.
The first, most visually established element in Arlington Road that likens itself to the films of Hitchcock is the editing style. From the opening scene, a suspenseful soundtrack paired with images of a stumbling child dripping blood that something is amiss, while the unsuspecting protagonist, Michael Faraday, drives up in complete ignorance. This technique in which the audience is exposed to fatal details detained from the protagonist is typical of Hitchcock films, as seen in works such as Psycho, where an unaware young woman takes a shower while the audience watches an approaching murderer helplessly. Another example can be taken from Rear Window, in which Lisa Fremont breaks into the believed murderer’s apartment to gain evidence, entirely oblivious to his return. Again, this tactic, often recog...
... middle of paper ...
... comes to restoring order for the sake of a satisfying conclusion. However, this is nowhere close to the case of Arlington Road, which ultimately kills off its protagonist, frames him, and has his child handed over to the alleged terrorists. This demoralizing “dénouement” alone is enough to support the case that Arlington Road is indeed not a film designed to follow in the steps of Hitchcock.
Overall, while Arlington Heights may have possessed a great deal of elements popular to the Hitchcock-styled film, its ending is the final word on deciding that it is not so. Andrew O’Hehir, with his frankness and brutal word choice, appears to have jumped too quickly to a conclusion in deciding that Arlington Road was meant to mimic Hitchcock’s style. But in the end, the similar editing techniques, plotline, and thematic elements are only the coincidence of a shared genre.
{ Hitchcock never explicitly referred to or mentioned developments of the period or the ongoing political machinations that made daily news; and while he hardly stove to substantiate David Lehman’s claim for the overriding theme in Hitchcock’s America, that “paranoia is sometimes a reasonable response to events in a world of menace” (qtd in Pomerance 12). As pointed out by Marshall Deutelbaum Hitchcock’s films were diligently faithful in their representation of the look and style of American everyday reality and it repeatedly focused on the
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,
In the film Rear Window directed by Alfred Hitchcock, a significant shift of power is portrayed. This shift occurs between the protagonist of the film, L.B Jeffries and his romantic partner, Lisa Freemont. This shift also aids in outlining the main theme of the film, which is marriage, as all aspects of marriage are observed and taken into account by Jeffries. The change of dominance within Lisa and Jeffries relationship can be broken down into three stages, which develop and change throughout the film. At the beginning of the film Jeffries is shown to have the power within the relationship as he dictates the parameters of the relationship, however he is also intimidated by Lisa 's social standing. Towards the middle of the film the possession
Throughout Hitchcock’s 1954 movie rendition of Frederick Knott’s play, Dial M for Murder, the audience is subjected to a “romping plot...where the action is constricted to one room” (Barnes). Even though everything, including the murder and criminal investigation, happens in the room, Hitchcock employs a variety of techniques such as blocking, camera angles, and prop making in order to add a unique twist to a seemingly straightforward murder. This twisted and almost confusing plot ultimately helps to keep the audience absorbed in the film. Hitchcock’s unique costuming decisions, especially with characters with costumes that are contrasted with different colors, add to the dimensions of the plot. This increase in complexity ultimately allows
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.
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.
...ncept of being defined by their actions, Hitchcock shows the effect our actions have on our perception and on others around us. This concept added to the film allows the audience to think about how they are living their lives and how we can positively change our perception.
In this essay I am going to be analysing the themes, which have been used in the film Red road (2006) and compare it to rear window (1954). I will also be looking at the CCTV surveillance. I will also be looking at misery and love and how does this change the characters objective along the film. I will also be looking and explain the directors decision and techniques which she has used in this film.
“Kill List”, a bleak and violent tale released in 2011, was an auspicious directorial debut, but it was with the pitch-black comedy “Sightseers” that he really got my attention, punching me hard in the face with witty dialogues, provocative weirdness, and the unpredictability of its story. In 2013, Wheatley changed direction when he released the black-and-white art-house horror-drama “A Field in England”, which kept a stabbing sarcasm on top of the stunning visuals. “High-Rise”, a somewhat blurred adaptation of J.G Ballard’s 1975 novel of the same name, divided both film critics and fans. Yet, I was still fond of all its oddness.
Alfred Hitchcock’s film Shadow of a Doubt is a true masterpiece. Hitchcock brings the perfect mix of horror, suspense, and drama to a small American town. One of the scenes that exemplifies his masterful style takes place in a bar between the two main characters, Charlie Newton and her uncle Charlie. Hitchcock was quoted as saying that Shadow of a Doubt, “brought murder and violence back in the home, where it rightly belongs.” This quote, although humorous, reaffirms the main theme of the film: we find evil in the places we least expect it. Through careful analysis of the bar scene, we see how Hitchcock underlies and reinforces this theme through the setting, camera angles, and lighting.
Alfred Hitchcock) explores Linda Williams’ idea of home in melodrama, where it begins and wants to end in a “space of innocence.” Despite the establishment of right and wrong between the main characters and the birds, ultimately the birds do end up rising over them. Even though they are not humans, the birds’ position in the movie still remains clear, based on their sudden attacks against the town of Bodega Bay. Most of the action happens during the daytime, in which the aesthetic brings some sort of a combination of terror and a colorfully rich melodrama that evokes Douglas Sirk-directed movies. However, the final scene where the main characters quietly move out of the house is in a dark aesthetic, just in the brink of dawn. The main characters may have wanted to be in their “space of innocence” by protecting their house, but realized that this space could be achieved by getting out of town instead. When it comes to the part when the characters are walking past a very large group of birds without trying to disturb them, their silence is as much as displaying exaggerated emotion, since it is a matter of life and death. After they leave town, this space of the house they thought they would be staying in would end up being invaded and occupied by the birds, which does bring up a bleak ending. However, this does not mean that this movie subverts the melodramatic element, since the sentimental ending could be seen in such melodramas like
This paper has attempted to investigate the ways in which Alfred Hitchcock blended conventions of film noir with those of a small town domestic comedy. It first looked at the opening scenes of the film in which the two conventions were introdruced. It then went on to analyse the film with the aid of Robin Wood's article Ideology, Genre, Auteur. From these two forms we can see that film noir and small town comedy were used as a means of commenting on the contradictions in American values.
The parallel between Alicia’s dependence on Devlin and Alex’s on his mother is prominent in the final scene. The scene takes place on the grand staircase of Alex’s mansion. Influenced by German Expressionism, stairs serve an integral role in this and subsequent films. Alicia, propped up by Devlin, and Alex, shadowed by his over-bearing mother, all descend the grand staircase in the mansion under the eyes of the Nazi party. Outside of the house, Alicia and Devlin make their escape to freedom while Alex reluctantly returns up the stairs to his fate with the Nazis. Ending the film on the stairs attests to Hitchcock’s style.
In the article “Psycho and the Priming of the Audience,” the author James Kendrick argues that the defiance of classical norms in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho established a new way of engaging audiences in a narrative.
Throughout our short film, I used elements of many of Hitchcock’s techniques such as the suspense model, ‘the chase’ and secrets. We didn’t use the techniques as a whole, but picked parts of them that suited our story and used them to develop our film, making it more in the style of Hitchcock. Elements such as withholding information from both the audience and the main character, someone having a secret plan and the hero doing something wrong and