When looking at the works of Alfred Hitchcock there are many recurring themes. Wrong man, classic Hitchcock villains, and the use of staircases are just three of the many attributes you see when watching a Hitchcock film. My favorite, however, would have to be Hitchcock’s portrayal of the mother. Whether she is there for comic relief as we see in Shadow of a Doubt, or as the root of all evil as you see in Strangers on a Train and Notorious, the mothers he creates are far from ordinary. Either their naïve nature or pure hated for others help to link these movies to one another.
Notorious, which was produced in 1945 but not released until 1946, has an extraordinary mother figure. She is a skinny frail woman with a heart of lead. She is controlling and evil at heart and seems to be the cause of all trouble yet never gets any of the blame. When they discover that the girl is working for the FBI, the mother takes matters into her own hands and convinces her son to do away with the girl. You never see her saying much, yet you can see what she is thinking as she stares with those vacant eyes of hers. You can actually see the evil which is inside of her with one look in her eyes. She is by far one of the scariest and uncaring mothers we have seen thus far.
The mother in Strangers on a Train (produced in 1950, released in 1951) has a slightly less aggressive role. Even though she is less active in what Bruno does now that he is grown, she is still the reason and cause for the way h...
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.
Alfred Hitchcock is known for his masters of works in the film industry. The film he is most famous for is Psycho. Alfred Hitchcock`s Psycho was critically acclaimed not only in the horror genre but within the entire film scene. It encompasses several key themes, which are portrayed through cinematic devices such as camera movement and sound, sound, lighting and costume and set design. The subject of madness becomes increasingly evident as the film progresses, centering on the peculiar character that is Norman Bates.
Though “conservatism” and “conformity” were the catchphrases of the period there were nonconformity too. Dysfunctional families were there. Youth who were not satisfactory revolted against norms.
Now we will address a few of these from the film. First, Drawing parallels between characters with a difference, usually a negative one, is a repeated concept in Hitchcock films. Such as in the film “Strangers On a Train”, where Bruno ends up killing Guys’ wife while Guy had himself been desiring to be rid of her somehow. Here in “Rear Window” early in the film we can see this between Lisa and Jeff to Thorwald
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
In Shadow of a Doubt, Hitchcock utilizes and stretches the ambiguous line between comedy and suspense by utilizing smaller characters in the film to keep the story line moving, and to help break sequence or rhythm of what the audience had been perceiving at the time. Many of the minor characters were used as “fillers”, such as the waitress in the bar when Uncle Charlie and Charlie are sitting in the bar, and makes the comment “I would die for a ring like this”; or the quiet, gentle neighbor Herb who is fascinated with the process of homicide and murder. It brings to the audience an immediate comic relief, but similar to all of Hitchcock, leaves an unsettling feeling of fear and suspense with the viewer. Shadow of a Doubt is a film that hits very close to home for me, primarily because of the small town feel very similar to Orono that I have grown to know so well. There is a brutal irony that lurks through the film, especially during the time period that the film was made. The picturesque stereotype of small town life in the 40’s is brutally torn apart by Hitchcock wit and creative ingénue, putting the viewer in an uncomfortable mind stretch of reality.
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.
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
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
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.
In nearly all of Hitchcock’s films, behind many male characters lies a strong mother figure. In keeping with Freudian psychology, the mother plays an important role in our understanding of the characters. During his career, Hitchcock’s own mother had passed away and many critics speculate that he crafted these mothers to express those repressed emotions. Three films with particularly interesting mother characters include Notorious, Pyscho, and The Birds. Each have a very unique backstory but remain a central part of the movie’s storyline and our understanding of the son. In Notorious, Madame Sebastian is a vicious and controlling mother figure. Pyscho features a mother that controls half of Norman’s mind, and The Birds displays a mother with
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.
The relationship between a mother and her family is one of strength and commitment. A mother will go through long anything to make sure her family is safe. In 1982, in Lawrenceville Georgia, Mrs. Angela Cavallo saved her son, Tony Cavallo,who was pinned down by his Chevrolet Impala. The Chevrolet slipped off his car jack and fell on Tony. Angela was able to lift the car and then provide CPR for her son and saved his life. Family is the most important thing, and Ma demonstrates her maternal characteristics throughout the book to show that sticking together saves families.
...are influenced by Although the uneasiness of relationships at the conclusion of Hitchcock’s films is a common theme, it is the deformation of sound and language by Hitchcock that creates the suspense and anxiety that his films are infamous for, allowing the female to become the centre of the discrimination, meaning that its only solution is the pursuit of “human communication”, an ideal that through careful analysis of both films, seems impossible for the female to ascertain.
Mommie Dearest, best selling autobiography, turned motion picture, depicts the abusive and traumatic adoptive upbringing of Christina Crawford from her Hollywood famous mother Joan Crawford. Joan, despite her problems with alcohol, men, and the pressures from her job, decides to adopt children. However, when these problems begin to combine, Joan turns into a mentally and physically abusive wreck.