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essay: hitchcock's movies and techniques
essay: hitchcock's movies and techniques
alfred hitchcock intdoductions to film
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Alfred Hitchcock's Specific Audience Reached by Psycho and The Birds
For this piece of coursework I am going to compare and contrast two
Alfred Hitchcock Films in order to show how Hitchcock reached a
specific target audience. The films, to which I will be referring are
'Psycho (1960)' and 'The Birds (1963)', I will illustrate the
techniques, which the director (Alfred Hitchcock) used to appeal to
specific audiences. In particular I will be paying close attention to
"the shower scene" from "Psycho" and "the school scene" from "The
Birds".
I will firstly give you an overview of what happens in each film.
"Psycho" is a horror/thriller. It stars Janet Leigh, John Gavin, and
Anthony Perkins. Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is an office worker from
Phoenix who is in a relationship with Sam (John Gavin). She is asked
by her employer to deposit £40,000 dollars (a great amount of money at
the time when the film was made) in a bank. Since she is unhappy with
life due to the fact that she has to meet Sam in secret, she decides
to take the money and start a new life. She heads towards California
but tiredness and a storm force her to get off the main highway and go
to the Bates motel. The motel is owned and managed by Norman Bates
(Anthony Perkins) who appears to be under the control of his mother.
In fact Norman has a Multiple Personality disorder, he kills Marion
and disposes of her body and the money, which is in a newspaper, in a
bog.
"The Birds" is also a horror/thriller. It stars Tippi Hedren and Rod
Tailor. Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) is the daughter of a rich San
Francisco businessman who seems to like to play practical jokes. She
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...llers of all time with Psycho being at number
1. I think this is a huge achievement taking into consideration the
fact that Alfred had much greater restraints placed on him by the Hays
Code. He has created films which will be watched by generations to
come simply because he achieved something which most people would
think was impossible. He cleverly used editing and music to symbolise
things that he could not legally show. Alfred Hitchcock himself sums
up how he created such effective thrillers when he simply says: "I
ensure that terror is accompanied by suspense". So basically Alfred
Hitchcock reached a specific audience by staying within the limits of
the rules and working around them where possible. The audience's
imagination was of great help to him as he triggered it in scenes such
as the shower scene from "Psycho".
men arguing by the truck, and then when she turns to pay her bill, they're gone. She finds Ren
she originally planned, getting anxious to finally be free from the horrible city, she stays
Development of Suspense by Hitchcock in Psycho 'Psycho,' the somewhat infamous film by Alfred Hitchcock was produced in 1961, a time when the American censors, The Hays Office, still dominated the film industry with their strict rules and principles. It earned its notoriety by defying the traditional cinematic convections of that time and pushing the boundaries of what could be shown in mainstream cinema. The rules implemented by The Hays Office were far stricter than they are today, and Hitchcock uses all available means to reach and go slightly beyond the set limit. Using clever and different camera angles, he implies things that are not shown. He proves that innuendoes can portray the same image and retract the same audience responses as blatant actions and pictures.
And last but not least is the villain in these movies. Most of the killers in these films are portrayed as mentally deranged and/or has some type of facial or bodily deformation and who have been traumatized at an early age. Even though these characters terrorized and murder people they have taken on the persona of anti-heroes in pop culture. Characters like Halloween’s Michael Myers, A Nightmare on Elm Street’s Freddy Krueger and Friday the 13th’s Jason Voorhees have become the reason to go see these movies. However, over time,”their familiarity and the audience’s ability to identify and sympathize with them over the protagonist made these villains less threatening (Slasher Film (5))”.
“Poor decisions and bad luck are contingencies of most horror films” (Wesley Morris). The 1960’s thriller, Psycho, is no exception. It has been acclaimed as one of Alfred Hitchcock’s best films because of its use of psychopathic elements to create what has come to be known as a “slasher films”, a subcategory of horror films. It evolved the horror genre from monsters and the supernatural to the human condition and the monster living inside. The motion picture Psycho tells the story of a Marion Crane, a secretary who flees Phoenix, Arizona with $40,000 she steals from her boss. Days later she arrives to the Bates Motel in Oregon. At the isolated, vacant motel, she meets the owner Norman Bates who shows her hospitality. Later, however, we find
How Alfred Hitchcock Makes the Viewing of Psycho a Frightening and Worrying Experience I am currently studying Alfred Hitchcock Psycho. Psycho is such an important film because it redefined the genres of thrillers and established the genre used by many film writers today such as Wes Craven (Scream 1/2/3) of stalk and slash movies, using camera angles and other techniques. Hitchcock creates tension in a variety of ways using specific camera angles and high and low pitched music. Although the film proved a big box office success, only gradually did this macabre experiment in black humour become the object of closer scrutiny and more intense analysis. The consensus today is that Psycho is a classic of cinematic art and admiration worldwide.
For this paper I chose to explore Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho because it has remained the only horror movie I’ve seen to date. I went into a couple others but immediately left; let’s just say horror is not my favorite genre of film. People may or may not always call Psycho a horror film, it may be more of a thriller to people nowadays, but I still believe the correct genre analysis is horror because it should always refer to the genre at the time the film was created and released. I chose Psycho because I spent multiple weeks in high school studying Hitchcock, and Psycho specifically, so I feel comfortable writing on it. I also thoroughly enjoy the film, its backstory, and the character development. Plus, it’s been roughly adapted into one of my favorite shows: Bates Motel, which I will also briefly explore.
Everybody knows Alfred Hitchcock is the master of suspense and is known for inciting fear in the hearts of his audience. His multiple, fast cuts directs his audience to what he wants them to see and feel. Close-ups of the actors faces clearly shows what the characters are feeling and forces the audience to feel the same emotions. With all his expert directing skills, is there any meaning behind what he chooses to portray in his films or is it all for show? Could there be a deeper meaning to his films? The answer to these questions is a firm yes. Hitchcock’s past experiences guided him to be the director he was. The inadequateness of the police, control of all details in his films, and long stretches of no dialogue all portrayed in his films are all directly correlated to Hitchcock’s early life and early professional life.
Cinematography of Hitchcocks Psycho Alfred Hitchcock is renown as a master cinematographer (and editor), notwithstanding his overall brilliance in the craft of film. His choice of black and white film for 1960 was regarded within the film industry as unconventional since color was perhaps at least five years the new standard. But this worked tremendously well. After all, despite the typical filmgoer’s dislike for black and white film, Psycho is popularly heralded among film buffs as his finest cinematic achievement; so much so, that the man, a big
While she might think that her plans are working, they only lead her down a path of destruction. She lands in a boarding house, when child services find her, she goes to jail, becomes pregnant by a man who she believed was rich. Also she becomes sentenced to 15 years in prison, over a street fight with a former friend she double crossed. In the end, she is still serving time and was freed by the warden to go to her mother’s funeral. To only discover that her two sisters were adopted by the man she once loved, her sister is with the man who impregnated her, and the younger sister has become just like her. She wants to warn her sister, but she realizes if she is just like her there is no use in giving her advice. She just decides that her sister must figure it out by
.... Maloney would leave to be with the other women. This thought though, became a reality for Mary Maloney. Mary Maloney has testified to happening to “stumble across” a will, which mentioned Mary Maloney receiving three quarters of Patrick’s fortune if he were to pass away. Being the wife a detective, Mary Maloney new how to plot a scene. First she would murder Patrick, receive his fortune to care for the unborn child, never have to face him again after he said to her face that he loved another women and had been having affairs with her. Secondly, she would need to dispose of the murder weapon secretly, and create an alibi that would testify for Ms. Maloney. Thirdly, pretend that it was all a dream and that it never happened. Sadly, it was an incredibly easy task for a clever woman such as herself. How is it that money is what shapes our world but also destroys it?
she is able to meet her twin sisters that have been missing from her life for over 30 years.
Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock is a horror film that debuted in 1960, starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh. (IMDb) This horror film changed the horror movie genre, helping to develop it into what it is today. This film tells the story of a woman who runs off with $40,000 stolen from her boss. On the run, she checks into an abandoned motel for the night where she dines with the owner, a young man with an overbearing and controlling mother. She never checks out. Her family and friends embark on searches for her, and come across the abandoned hotel where she checked in, under a false name. The movie ends with the revelation that the hotel owner’s mother died, and he suffers from multiple personality disorder. Both he and his mother share his body, with the mother personality becoming more dominant. When he dined with the lady who checked in, the mother became jealous and kill her, leaving the son to clean up the mess left behind.
Alfred Hitchcock, the incredible director who brilliantly integrated sex, humor and suspense in his movies passed away over three decades ago. Despite the thirty years since his death, the legacy of films he made continues. His work has influenced many of the great directors today, and inspired the foundation of the spin off television series Bates Motel. To better interpret the films he created, it is essential to understand the creator of them and examine how his past life traumas and deep inner-thoughts in reality transpired through the fictitious worlds that he created on the big screen. Hitchcock, whether consciously or subconsciously, portrayed his frustrations, fears, and fantasies with the opposite sex through his leading actors and films. This ultimatley allows us to take a look at his past.