Alfred Hitchcock Class - CCSF with teacher: Denah Johnston

Hello Visitors. Please leave comments or critiques, they are appreciated. Click where it says no comments then add one. Thanks, Ida Z.

Most video links below were from our San Francisco City College class Cinema23a and sourced by professor Denah Johnston Ph.D. My gratitude to her for this wonderful class where I not only learned about Hitchcock but also about film, film writing and cinematography.

p.s. Guillermo Del Toro wrote a book on Alfred Hitchcock during his film school days. This is an interview on a Canadian station where Guillermo Del Toro talks in depth about Alfred Hitchcock films.

Click here for Video

A wonderful 9 minute documentary on "Alfred Hitchcock's Cinematic Language" made by MUBI
Click here for Video

Final Exam based on Psycho and Marnie

The final exam question was challenging. I did the best I could not knowing if I understood the question correctly.

Here is the question:

CINE 23A FILMS OF ALFRED HITCHCOCK

FALL 2016 FINAL

Choose 2 of the following Hitchcock films we’ve explored in the second half of the semester:

Rear Window; Psycho; Vertigo; Marnie; The Birds; Rope;

Choose 2 themes and elements from the list below and explore them in a 4 full page, double spaced (minimum) analysis inclusive of story, camera, mise en scene, editing, acting, use of color, symbology, psychology, sets and other elements essential to filmic storytelling to explore the trajectory of Hitchcock’s later career:

• Changing identities

• Criminal Behavior

• Changing point of view

• Attraction vs. repulsion

• The wrong man/woman

• Spectators/voyeurism

• Corruption

• Moral ambiguity

• Chaos vs. order

• Identity and relationship politics

• Dubious/problematic relationship between parent and grown child

• Sexual symbolism/fetish

• Innovative narrative structure

Your paper should be MLA formatted with a Works Cited/Bibliography including the films, class texts and any other sources referenced or reviewed even if you don’t quote from them.

Cine 23a Final Exam

The two themes of changing identities and criminal behavior are two of the many motifs Alfred Hitchcock has explored during the trajectory of his career. The themes have evolved over the years and it can be seen comparing older films to Psycho (1960, Paramount) and Marnie (1964, Universal).

Criminal behavior is a theme that Hitchcock has used since the beginning of his career. In earlier years Hitchcock had criminal behavior involving espionage and war. In The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935) there is the killing of Anabelle and tracking down to kill Hannay so that a message can be taken out of the country through Mr. Memory. In The Lady Vanishes (1938) Miss Froy is kidnapped in order to be murdered so as to stop her hidden political message memorized in a tune. In Notorious (1946, Selznick, RKO) Alicia Huberman is being killed to protect the secret of uranium ore the Nazi’s were sourcing in Brazil.

In Psycho (1960, Paramount) and Marnie (1964, Universal) the criminal activity is very personal coming from a dark psychological place. There isn’t a global event but a personal tragedy that creates a psychological reason for the individual committing these crimes.

In the film Psycho (1960, Paramount), Norman when young committed matricide and lost his sanity to the point of having a dual personality. He incorporated his mother’s critical voice and spoke out loud in her condemning tone to himself and dressed up like her. An example of Norman’s split personality happened when he receives a new lodger, Marion Crane, to his motel. He is attracted to her but knows in his mother’s part of his brain that she would not approve of it. He has an argument in his mother’s voice from the house where she says, “As if men don't desire strangers. Oh, I refuse to speak of disgusting things because they disgust me. Do you understand, boy? Go on, go tell her she'll not be appeasing her ugly appetite with my food or my son. Or do I have to tell her, because you don't have the guts? Huh, boy? Do you have the guts, boy? Norman: Shut up! Shut up!”

He then dresses up as his mother and kills the woman in the shower dressed as his mother. Mother doesn’t approve of a female stranger so she must be vanquished. The Mother-side repeatedly stabs her in the shower. The Norman-side then cleans up her mess and disposes of Marion and the evidence.

The shower stabbing scene “took a full week to complete, using fast-cut editing of 78 pieces of film, 70 camera setups, and a naked stand-in model (Marli Renfro) in a 45-second impressionistic montage sequence, and inter-cutting slow-motion and regular speed footage” (Dirks).

In the film Marnie (1964, Universal), there are deep psychological scars from Marnie’s past that led her into criminal activity. To save her prostitute mother from a sailor/client beating her, Marnie killed him with a fireplace poker. In her grown up years that caused her frigidity against men and kleptomania. She had a pattern that she repeated. She would work at a job until she had the chance to steal money from them. She would then move to a new town and do the same.

As she did when she was young, she feels a pathological need to protect her mom and so she sends money back to her mom after stealing it. Another theory about compulsive theft is that it is “a substitute for mature love” (Spoto 382). Mark Rutland in the film says “When a child – a child of any age – can’t get love, it takes what it can get, any way it can get” (Spoto 382).

Due to the blood that soaked the sailor during the stormy night, Marnie has phobias against the color red and stormy nights. These phobias were shown through clever cinematography in the film. An example is shown one weekend afternoon when Marnie works at the Rutland office with Mark. The clouds were grey when she walks in. The storm begins as they start working. The storm escalates and the lightning blinds the room, it’s as if we are seeing it subjectively through Marnie’s eyes. Then perhaps subjectively or really, the lightening begins having a red tone the color that traumatizes her. She yells, “The colors, stop the colors”. He replies, “What colors?” A branch breaks through the window and she gets into an altered state and become entwine in each other’s arms and he kisses her. He perceptively asks her after the storm, “What is it about colors that disturbs you?” She doesn’t understand and says, “colors? what colors?” Her prior trauma had transported her back to a her original crime in youth.

Changing identities is a theme used in Hitchcock films. In The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935) Hannay has to change identities to protect himself from being discovered while he is on the run. In Notorious (1946, Selznick, RKO), Alicia Huberman changes her identity from a Nazi daughter to an American spy. In Vertigo (1958, Paramount), Judy Barton changes her identity to Madeline in order to con Scottie.

In the film Psycho (1960, Paramount) and Marnie (1964, Universal), their changes in identity again go deeper than the earlier pictures. Their various identities are due to their deep psychological problems.

In Psycho (1960, Paramount), the police psychiatrist explains how he became his mother. Summarized, “Norman had an incestuously possessive and jealous love for his mother, so he poisoned both her and her lover after he discovered them in bed together ten years earlier. To wipe clean and obliterate the unbearable, intolerable crime of matricide from his conscience and consciousness, a remorseful, devoted and loyal Norman developed a split personality” (Dirks).

One scene where we finally see the two personalities is towards the end of the film when Norman dressed as his mother tries to kill Marion’s sister Lila. The Mise-en-scène in the fruit cellar is simple but effective: The mother in an arm chair, a light bulb and a door. Lila is in the cellar because she is hiding from Norman. She had come into the house to try to find and talk to Norman’s mother. She finds her in the cellar with her face towards the wall. When Lila taps on her back the chair slowly turns around and we see that it is his mother’s corpse. As Lila screams her hand hits the light bulb. We then start to hear the shrieking, stabbing-like music from the shower scene as Norman enters with a knife. Sam rescues Lila and we see Norman dressed as his mother, but the wig and dress start to slowly fall off. It is a nice touch to physically reveal Norman as the two people in one.

These are some cinematography notes that Janet Leigh wrote in a behind the scenes book about the making of Psycho. “The scene in which the mother is discovered required a complicated coordinating of the chair turning around, Vera Miles (as Lila Crane) hitting the light bulb, and a lens flare, which proved to be the sticking point. Hitchcock forced retakes until all three elements were to his satisfaction” (Leigh 87).

Spoto also notes, “Lila’s hand hits a suspended light bulb, and as we gaze at Mother’s empty eye sockets the swinging bulb cast shadows that give the illusion of eyes darting back and forth in mockery (Spoto 320).

Marnie’s everyday personality is a woman who loves horses and is a dutiful daughter, although a liar and a thief. She changes her identity each time she goes to a new job. She adopts a new personality by changing her hairstyle, social security, name and clothing. She also reverts to her frightened childhood self when there is a psychological trigger of knocking, storms or the color red. These signals were all present on the night the sailor was murdered and they haunt her.

An example of her reversion to her childhood self is shown cinematographically in interwoven flashes of red colored objects that frighten her and trigger a regression. These scenes are delivered in pure cinema without words or dialogue to tell the story in the scene. We see this when Marnie accidentally spills red ink on her blouse while working the screen also tints red. “Red dots are present on a horse rider’s shirt when Mark takes Marnie to the race track” (Mata). it causes her to want to escape. When on a hunt with Mark’s family, one of the rider’s has a red jacket. It causes her to ride away frantically and too quickly on her horse. “This sighting of the color red and her loss of control lead to the death of her horse” (Mata). She shoots the horse and afterwards says “There, there” as was spoken the night of the killing of the sailor. She has reverted back to that night again.

Through these examples we see that Hitchcock’s themes continued yet changed to more complex psychological thrillers. The crimes or changes of personality are based on psychological trauma. One understands the characters at the end of the films when the psychosis is revealed. This understanding of the troubled personalities and the psychological background is what changes in Hitchcock’s themes through his career. We get to know the characters that have various identities and commit criminal activities because we have followed their traumatic story. It gives us a sense of understanding and compassion toward them more so than in the earlier pictures.

  Works Cited

Dirks, Tim. “Psycho(1960).” AMC Filmsite. http://www.filmsite.org/psyc3.html . Accessed 8 Dec. 2016

Dirks, Tim. “Greatest Movie Plot Twists, Spoilers and Surprise Endings.” AMC Filmsite. http://www.filmsite.org/greattwists34.html . Accessed 8 Dec. 2016.

Leigh, Janet, and Christopher Nickens. Psycho: Behind the Scenes of the Classic Thriller. New York: Harmony Books, 1995. Print. pg 87-88.

Mata, R. “HitchcockCinema.” http://www.oocities.org/vogler10/marnie.html. c2000. Accessed 8 Dec. 2016.

Spoto, Donald. The Art of Alfred Hitchcock: Fifty Years of His Motion Pictures. New York: Anchor Books, 1992. Print.

Your FINAL: A

Feedback from Denah about my final. I had asked her if my use of pure cinema was correct.

"I don't see any issue with your use of pure cinema here discussing Marnie. One of the issues with Hitchcock and his use/reference of "pure cinema" is that it changes a bit through the years (like many things with him!). I always like to focus on the earlier manifestation and idea that it is communicating information to the viewer by purely visual means, that is - not reliant on dialogue or monologue."

Frenzy (1972, Universal Pictures)

Frenzy (1972, Universal Pictures)

Rope (1948, Warner Brothers)

Rope (1948, Warner Brothers)images - the circle shows the Alfred Hitchcock profile cameo.

The Birds (1963, Universal)

The Birds (1963, Universal).

The visual effects of The Birds explained on the AMC Filmsite web page.

Alfred Hitchcock's most expensive film to date featured a stylized sound track - composed from a constant interplay of natural sounds and computer-generated bird noises. The stark film about an unexplained and seemingly-organized bird attack also played without background music.

Ub Iwerks was nominated for an Oscar for Best Achievement in Special Effects, but lost to Cleopatra (1963). Real birds and animatronic birds were used throughout the film.

One of the film's most famous scenes was the one of dozens of birds slowly gathering on playground equipment - a complex special-effects shot that optically combined over two dozen separate elements.

Shortly later during the scene of the bird-attack at the school, special effects combined the shot of the schoolhouse in the background with kids running on a treadmill in the foreground.

In another frantic scene of flames and flapping, screeching birds, the female protagonist sought shelter in a telephone booth where she became trapped

Advanced rotoscoping and male/female traveling mattes were used in the 20-second scene of hundreds of birds flying over an aerial view of the town - a combination of real live-action footage with hand-drawn matte paintings.

Source: Film Milestones in Visual and Special Effects .Click here for web link

There was originally a different ending to The Birds.

Here is a video that explains the original ending. .Click here for Video

Marnie (1964, Universal)

Marnie (1964, Universal)

See final exam above. Will try to put in more content in here later.

Psycho (1960, Paramount)

Psycho (1960, Paramount)

See final exam above. Will try to fill in more here later on.

Vertigo (1958, Paramount)

Vertigo (1958, Paramount) Analysis & Review form

11/7/2016

Describe your assessment/opinion for each category below Do NOT write generalized statements without examples from film or examples without statements clarifying them

1). Screenplay/Storyline:

A police officer, Scottie, falls down from a very tall ledge after a chase and develops a case of vertigo. He retires due to this problem but is hired by an old friend to do investigative work on his wife Madeline. She is having black outs where she loses time and becomes another person in between. During his investigation he falls in love with Madeline. She commits suicide by throwing herself off a tall tower. Scottie’s vertigo stopped him from saving her. Scottie has a mental breakdown that takes a year to recover. When he does he is still haunted and looks for Madeline in all their old places. He finds Judy who looks like her and begins to transform her look into Madeline to fill his empty need for her. The twist is that Judy really was playing Madeline. Scottie’s friend set him up knowing he had vertigo and would not be able to save Madeline. Madeline never died; the real wife was thrown off the tower so that her husband could inherit her money. Eventually Scottie finds out about the set up. He takes Judy back to the tower and forcibly gets her to the top and lets her know that he knows the scam. He takes her up to the top of the tower to see if he can make it up this time. Through an accident Judy falls off the tower and dies.

2). Hitchcock‘s Direction/Style (use of editing/montage, composition of shots, camera angles)

The composition of the kissing scene between Judy as Madeline#2 and Scottie takes a Hitchcock pattern from other films but reverses it. In Notorious and North by Northwest there are long uncut rotating kisses where the camera stays steady and the actors rotate down a hallway. In the set-up of this shot it is in reverse. It is still a long uncut rotating kiss, but the actors are standing still and the camera is rotating in a perfect circle around them. The camera keeps going faster and faster giving a feeling of vertigo.

3). Performances and Characterization:

James Stewart/John Ferguson (Scottie)

It’s impressive that James Stewart played such a humbling role and played it very well. It is a role that needs an average looking man who is older than middle age to be set up as a fool. It’s not a James Bond character at all. I think James Stewart aged well, but he is not like he was in Rear Window where the most beautiful women would want him. He is susceptible to being set up and seduced as an average retired man. They make his look more average by giving him dull brown outfits most of the time. He did a good job as a mentally disturbed man throughout the movie in various different scenarios. Watching him in these states was the major plot in the movie and he did an excellent job.

Kim Novak/Madeleine #1 Elster, Judy Barton and Madeline #2 This is one of the most complicated characters I have seen be played. Kim Novak was able to mold herself into three distinct personalities. The character of Madeline Elster requires her to be a millionaire’s sophisticated wife. As this character she holds herself as an elegant woman who is seductive in very subtle way. This character sounded like she almost had an English accent.

The Judy Barton character is a scrappy woman who works retail and probably works pay check to pay check. She lives in a small one room hotel and wears make up that is a little over done. Her clothes make her sexy in an overt way. Her sweater tops are extra tight and unbuttoned. Her language is crass, revealing to a man that she knows his type as she has been picked up before.

Madeline #2 is full of angst and a guilty conscience. She is miserable most of the time as she is getting remolded into Madeline #1. She knows how to play this part and knows why he wants her to become that, but she protests and anguishes that he does not love her. She finally submits and lets herself die in a sense and become the person he wants.

Kim did a wonderful job distinguishing and changing her facial expressions and manner for each part.

Barbara Bel Geddes /Midge Wood

Midge is a sensible career girl that is intelligent but average looking. She is best friend material but not sexually alluring. Scottie treats his motherly best friend . Barbara is well cast as this character as a woman who accepts her role but is not happy about it. She acts well as both happy fun friend and heartbroken ex-girlfriend.

4). Cinematography and color analysis:

1) The falling down in a spiral, Scottie's vertigo feeling, is shown cinematographically through the film in many scenes. His police officer friend lands in the shape of a twisted spiral. There is a zoom done on two matching hairstyles. One is the spiral in the bun of Carlotta’s hair in her painting which matches the bun swirl in Madeline’s hair. The little flowers in Madeline’s bouquet spin in Scottie’s insanity dream. Carlotta’s necklace had four swirly ovals. The cross section of the grand sequoia trunk has swirls. The bell tower staircase is a square swirl when seen down.

2) There was a different way of filming the feeling of vertigo was in an up and down manner. The shot would show Scottie’s face looking down with fear in his face. Then we are seen the straight down view. Then we feel the vertigo with the simultaneous camera zoom in and track-back “that makes the vast drop telescope out before our eyes” (Wood 79). This happens when he is on the initial gutter hanging, then when he is on step ladder at Judy’s house and also when he is looking down the staircase as he stops to look down.

3) Hitchcock maximized the contrast of black and white colors in his black and white films. In this color VistaVision film, Hitchcock maximized the use of primary colors with brilliant red, blue and green.

4) Color symbolism I could not figure out on my own but I found an article by Jim Emerson on Roger Ebert’s memorial website. He says in an article titled Verdant Vertigo: Dreaming in Technicolor; “Say ‘Vertigo’ and I see green” Emerson writes. His article is so in-depth that it describes almost every instance of color per scene I picked some of his top ideas to review.

Green is associated with Madeleine. Here are some some examples: deep-green stole, Madeleine's car, the green lawn in front of the Palace of the Legion of Honor, the florist shop, the garden graveyard, the green-blue waters which she jumps into and the sequoias. Emerson calls it ‘Edenic bliss’ of his infatuation with Madeleine.

He describes Ernie’s restaurant as blood red, “a place in which a bloody romantic obsession is born” (Emerson). There is a reappearance of red in the red robe that she shows up in after waking up at Scotties it “reminds us of the decor of Ernie's restaurant” (Emerson). Red is also a cautionary color or a color meaning stop.

There is a “nightmarish, deep-indigo” in the beginning of the movie when Scottie’s police officer friend flips over the roof. Emerson says the blue is associated with Scottie’s guilt. The sky is also this color at the very end of the film after Judy falls from the tower. James Stewarts’ eyes are piercing blue “pained eyes”.

Here is an excellent summary of the colors and the dream sequence by Jim Emerson:

“In Scottie's dream, Hitchcock splashes the screen with saturated colors that represent the conflicting psychological forces at war within Scottie, bombarding him (and us) with bursts of pure color and emotion: blue (guilt), red (caution, danger), green (Madeleine, romance, illusion), purple (Judy), yellow/pink (Midge) -- the explosion of colors reminding us of the florist's shop and the still-life flower arrangement in a painting to the left of Carlotta's portrait” (Emerson).

5). Film Score/Sound and/or Visual Effects:

1) There are scenes that are emphasized by a hazy foggy look on the screen. One is when Madeline is in the Mission cemetery a place of mystery. The ground and the flowers look hazy. In another scene with Madeline #2 steps out of the bathroom completely transformed, she is also in a hazy green filtered light.

2) There are scenes imposed on other scenes. One is when Judy is writing a letter to Scottie about the set-up. As she writes the scene as it really happened in the bell tower, the images are imposed over the writing images.

3) The composer of the soundtrack is Bernard Herrmann. The music companions all the dramatic scenes very well.

4) When Madeline #1 and Scottie are in front of the ocean, there is a dramatic clash of waves sound effect when they kiss.

5) Midge plays classical music twice from her record player to Scottie. Once he is irritated and she turned it off. The second time she becomes irritated when she realizes that she could not reach through his catatonia and revive him.

6). Hitchcockian Themes and Motifs:

1) There is a strong psychological theme. This is the most overt psychological plot from the very beginning. James Stewart’s character goes through a large range of psychological problems to the extent of being catatonic in a psychiatric hospital. Judy has to create a psychologically deranged woman and then pretend to not have any recollection of the past as she goes mad knowing what is happening.

2) Madeline #1 is a cool blonde. She is beautiful and can seduce a man by having her worship her and choose him if she wants.

3) The detective chooses love over duty. Just as in Blackmail and Sabotage, the detective courts the woman he is supposed to watch and falls in love despite being on assignment.

4) There are varied social classes interacting. Scottie is a working class man who interacts with his millionaire friend. The friend’s office is nicer than Scottie’s apartment. He goes to visit him for an update at his gentleman’s club. Madeline #1 is a millionaire’s wife and she interacts with Scottie who is working class. Judy acts as two people first as an elegant sophisticate and then as a cheap retail gal.

5) The disillusion and complications of love is a theme used. Midge is an unrequited love relationship with her ex-fiance and sees him almost every day. Scottie begins an affair with his friend’s wife. Judy and Scott have a complicated love relationship as he doesn’t love her but an image of who she pretended to be.

6) There is a mother/son type of relationship. Midge, although attracted to Scottie is motherly towards him. She is protective and caretaking. She watches him take baby steps up a ladder to practice ridding his vertigo and is there to catch him in her arms when he falls. Regardless of how he feels of her, similar to a parent, her motherly love is unconditional. In the hospital she says “Mother’s here”. She knows him so well she knows when he is in love and not with her.

7) Scottie is a man wrongly accused. He was set up to be a detective to follow Madeline #1 around and then witness her suicide. A court had to decide whether he was responsible for not advising her husband that she was suicidal.

8) Carlotta Valdes was a MacGuffin. It started the plot but then drifted away until the necklace was reintroduced into the plot.

7). Influences evoked from or inspired (film/literature/art/political/social):

The original book that the film is a based upon is a French book named D'entre les morts (From Among the Dead) by Thomas Narcejac and Pierre Boileau.

Famous graphic designer Saul Bass created the opening title sequence.

Famous costume designer Edith Head, designed another wonderful wardrobe as she did for Grace Kelley in Rear Window. She created a sophisticated city society woman in the clothes she made for Madeline Elster.

The dream sequence into madness was designed by Abstract Expressionist John Ferren.

8). Overall impressions of film (positive/negative) and additional comments:

It occurred to me that the film plays with life and death within the same characters. The film begins with a Scottie, a live person holding on and thinking about his death. Madeline fantasizes about a dead person while she is a fantasy person wanting to die. Judy is a live person who is created into a dead fantasy. In the end Judy as a fantasy person is dead as Judy.

In the deconstruction of Judy and the creation of two Madeline’s I thought of Hitchcock as a director or films in general that require a person to strip back their own personality and then be built up in the director’s image. This is what two men emulated; they stripped Judy down and built her to be what they wanted.

Every time I watch this film I always laugh to myself about the parking in San Francisco. It really is a suspension of belief need that one can park anywhere right in front. Madeline parks her car in a pedestrian walkway at the Legion of Honor. Visiting Mission Dolores they both park right in front of the mission this is very improbable especially today. There are three parking spots in the courtyard of the Brocklebank luxury apartments and Madeline’s car is one of them. They both are able to park in front of the McKittrick Hotel or Scottie’s apartment. What a wonderful world it would be if this were possible.

Works Cited

Wood, Robin. Hitchcock's Films. Place of publication not identified, 1965. Print.

Emerson, Jim. Verdant Vertigo: Dreaming in Technicolor, 2012. Internet resource. Date of access 11/5/2016. click here

Images and Trailer from Vertigo (1958, Paramount)

Vertigo (1958, Paramount) Official Film Trailer Click Here for Vertigo Trailer

Video On How Alfred Hitchcock Blocks a Scene. Click Here

Rear Window (1954, Paramount)

Rear Window (1954, Paramount)

FILMS OF ALFRED HITCHCOCK Analysis & Review form

10/31/2016

Describe your assessment/opinion for each category below Do NOT write generalized statements without examples from film or examples without statements clarifying them

1). Screenplay/Storyline:

A documentary photographer is injured on the job and is in his NY apartment recuperating for six weeks. He is visited by his girlfriend and his health care worker. To pass the time, he observes the tenants in the other buildings as they carry on with their lives. Over the course of a few days he believes that he has seen a murder. His girlfriend and health worker become interested in solving the case with him as his police friend does not believe it. His girlfriend goes into the suspect’s apartment to find a wedding ring as evidence. She is caught and the police take her away. She signals her boyfriend pointing out the ring on her finger. The suspect looks down and then over to the photographer, figuring out that he is behind the snooping. The suspect comes over when the photographer is alone and tries to kill him by throwing him out the window but is saved by the police and the suspect is caught.

2). Hitchcock‘s Direction/Style (use of editing/montage, composition of shots, camera angles)

The camera angles are shot from the point of view of the photographer’s gaze looking into the tenants in the apartment complex in front of him. The editing goes back and forth from what he sees to his facial expressions. A lot of times there is no dialogue we just see what his faces expresses.

There is an exception to the movie being shot from his POV. It is when the little dog is killed and there are close ups from many angles of the tenants as they react to the owner screaming.

3). Performances and Characterization:

Grace Kelley is convincing as a high society fashion expert. Her manner is flirtatious but not overly. She is beautiful and a good actress. She started out playing a stuffy society girl and domineering in her beliefs of their coupledom and she becomes a more open minded and understanding of her mate and his lifestyle.

James Stewart is able to convey wonderful facial expressions. His facial expressions drive most of the movie as the camera keeps switching back to his face. He is a good actor and plays an uninterested boyfriend to an enamored one.

Thelma Ritter adds fun comedic elements. She was a good choice for her comedic timing. They cast the right age for being a reasonable mom-ish person to Jeffries. She also has a bit of a New Yorker accent which adds to her working class persona.

4). Cinematography:

A clever use of integrating close ups into the scenes is that we see most close ups when Jeffries uses binoculars or his zoom photography lenses.

The lighting of the film many times is done with the light coming from the lamps as Lisa moves around changing the dark room into light before the full lighting comes on.

We also see the use of lights in the apartments across the way to show beginning and endings of scenes. A great use of light is the view of the murderer in many scenes just by the light of cigarette in the dark.

There is also a clever use of a shadow from the window frame. He is able to to step back from the light to hide himself or the people in his apartment by going into the shaded area.

5). Film Score/Sound and/or Visual Effects:

The creation of a musical score throughout the film fits in with the building of the score the relationships and storyline. It works very well with the love story of Jeffries and Lisa. There is a struggle to create the music as they struggle to define their relationship. Once the composition has a breakthrough in its completion, Lisa and Jeffries also have a breakthrough in their relationship. The musician not only completes his music but his happiness is also complete as he begins a relationship.

Grace Kelley has special lighting on her face that makes her eyes sparkle and makes her look extra glamorous.

6). Hitchcockian Themes and Motifs:

Stella is a mother figure to Jeffries. He is able to confide in her about Lisa and his spying on the neighbors. She talks to him realistically and disapprovingly in a kind way. She scolds him about sleeping in his chair and peeking on the neighbors.

There are many birds in the beginning shots of the film. There is a small canary and then lots of pigeons on the rooftop. It is possible that he used this as he usually does as a sense of foreboding over a pleasant little neighborhood.

There is a psychological motif. There is a view into the psyche of the tenants and what drives their behavior. Ms. lonely heart is aging and is depressed about being single and pretends to have a boyfriend at her meals, then goes into desperate measures to get a man. A man struggles with his creative abilities to compose music. A couple begins a marriage and we see a bit of its development. Each window is a window into the minds of the tenants.

There is moral grayness in the fundamental set up of the film. Jeffries is spying on the neighbors and invading their privacy, even a female neighbor who dances around in her underwear.

Varied social classes interacting is a theme Hitchcock uses. The documentary photographer is a well-known in his field. Lisa is a wealthy society girl wearing thousand dollar outfits. The cop and the masseuse are blue color workers. The tenants are mainly middle class, but the composer has a more stunning apartment and wealthier guests.

The disillusions, disappoints, and complications of love and marriage is a theme used. We see newlyweds begin their relationship in bliss and then end up arguing about the husband quitting his job. There is a frustrating marriage that ends up in murder. Jeffries and Lisa are in love but have incompatible life styles. They struggle through the story on their relationship.

7). Influences evoked from or inspired (film/literature/art/political/social):

The movie is based on a story by Cornell Woolrich.

I also see the paintings of Edward Hopper in the film: Night Windows (1928); Room in New York (1932); Room in Brooklyn (1932); Office in a Small City (1953); and Nighthawks (1942). We are all voyeurs into windows or in apartments in these paintings.

8). Overall impressions of film (positive/negative) and additional comments:

I love city life and the interesting characters that one can find there unlike most of American suburbs. The characters in this film are interesting city-types and artists in Greenwich Village. The protagonist is given a fascinating career as an international documentary film photographer. His apartment shows this interesting career with a collection of photos and paraphernalia of different travels. There are masks, a Japanese chest, a Chinese chest and interesting photos of the world.

Lisa is beautiful with a glamorous society life with lunches and cocktail parties. In her character we view the high life and excitement that one can have in Manhattan. I could never do it, but it’s nice to think about possibly being able to jump into that life for a few days.

As in other films that Hitchcock does, there is usually a put down to a woman which I don’t like. In this case there is a police officer that denies the theories of Lisa because he doesn’t believe in women intuition. That is a demeaning comment. He has wasted time in the past over following misdirection from women’s intuition.

Video Links from/about Rear Window (1954, Paramount)

Rear Window Trailer .Click here for trailer

Rear Window Timelapse .Click here for Video

Rear Window Analysis Opening and Closing Sequence.Click here for Video

How Alfred Hitchcock Controls the Audience | Rear Window Dissection .Click here for Video

Strangers on a Train (1951, Warner Brothers)

Strangers on a Train (1951, Warner Brothers)

Posters from various countries

Video interview. Strangers on a Train (1951, Warner Brothers)

Strangers on a Train (1951, Warner Brothers)

Patricia Hitchcock talks about Strangers on a Train . Click Here For Video

Link to a 90 page analysis on the film. Best analysis I've ever seen on any movie.

90 page powerpoint on every aspect of Strangers on a Train .Click here for Power Point

The only reference to an author name is T. Clark.

Notorious (1946, Selznick, RKO)

Notorious (1946, Selznick, RKO)

Describe your assessment/opinion for each category below. Do NOT write generalized statements without examples from film or examples without statements clarifying them

1). Screenplay/Storyline:

A man is convicted of being a traitor to the U.S. His daughter, Alicia, leaves the courtroom somber but goes on to have a party at night. At the party there is an American Intelligence Officer, Devlin, who is there with the purpose of asking her to be on a secret mission for the government. However, he does not disclose who he is and they both begin coy flirting with each other. The following day Devlin convinces Alicia to go to Rio de Janeiro on the secret mission. Before the assignment the two spend time together and during some sightseeing end up kissing. They are happy and going to enjoy a meal when Devlin returns from the embassy with the news that they want her to seduce a German and get information from him. There is an uncomfortable round about discussion of whether or not she should do it and what about them. Devlin chooses career over love. He is also testing her to see if she will accept the assignment which he later describes as a “love test.” Alicia marries the German and gets information for the U.S. She is discovered and is being poisoned to death. Devlin finally comes in to rescue her from death choosing love over duty.

2). Hitchcock‘s Direction/Style (use of editing/montage, composition of shots, camera angles):

The car speeding scene from the beginning is an interesting editing montage. In the first scene there is a view from the car hood toward the inside. It shows a close up of the two inside while they speak in the car seats. The next point of view is from the inside of the car capturing the swervy road. There is then a close up of Devlin’s hand almost grabbing the steering wheel inside the car. When a policeman stops in front of the car, there is first an interesting close up of the front hood ornament of the car. The police car is in front of it. The road is a back lit scene.

All the Rio street scenes including the café scene are backlit location shots. They aren’t filming in Rio at all.

3). Performances and Characterization (Minimum of 2):

T. R. Devlin / Cary Grant has the qualities needed for this role. He is a man who can charm a woman with just a look, stare and his half smile. He is good lucking enough to be a seducer. He is always in beautiful suits and looks professional. He could also be cold with just a change in his tone of voice and delivery of his monologue.

Alicia Huberman / Ingrid Bergman has the most camera time. It is a pleasure to look at her beautiful face and perfect skin. She does a convincing job as a woman who is a misunderstood woman who is supposedly a slut but she is a dignified elegant lady. She plays a range of a party girl to a dignified society woman.

Alexander Sebastian /Claude Rains plays an evil Nazi scientist. Yet, he is a short man who lives with his mommy. He is well cast as a dignified wealthy man. One feels sorry for him for his naivety and puppy love. He does turn into a cold character when he tells his wife, “Dear, why don’t you drink your coffee?” He doesn’t seem remorseful about killing her slowly.

4). Cinematography & Color Symbolism:

The film uses the black and white contrasts making a most spectacular black and white film. When Alicia begins her assignment at the Sebastian house she walks in with a beautiful white outfit and stoll. It’s as if she hasn’t been soiled by the Mata Hari process yet. After she is married to Alex, she sets him up at his own party for disclosure of his Nazi work. At this party, most of the women are wearing light colored outfits and she is wearing a long black gown. It works for clearly seeing her in the crowd and it is also a dark dress of betrayal and danger.

During the party there is a lot of suspense around the number of champagne bottles left over ice. The ice is looks bright white and almost glowing. It contrasts with the dark bottles and heightens the dramatic look as the large white ice area keeps expanding.

One of the most beautifully shot scenes is at the big party before Devlin comes in the door. Alicia is waiting for him with the stolen key to the wine cellar. Hitchcock used a huge crane so that every part of the large entry hall and staircase can be viewed. The shot starts at the top of grand staircase. The camera crawls slowly down the grand stair case down to a big close up of Alicia arm where she has a black long sleeve and a huge sparkling diamond ring on her finger. There is an extreme close up then as she opens her palm a bit to expose the secret key.

The lighting is beautiful in the final shots of the film. It is dark outside but there is a lot of light from in the house that it is cascading down the stairs making a carpet of light. There are also large black and white grated patterned outdoor lanterns along the walkways. The men back in the house are wearing tuxedos back lit also with light of the entry. The action of the scene happens right down the middle of this lit area. Devlin gets Alicia in the car and Alex is locked out. He turns around in horror at the men up the stairs in the bright light. He knows that he is walking up this flooded gauntlet of light up to his death. In the final shot a big black door is closed covering all the light and there is a clash of cymbals.

5). Film Score/Sound and/or Visual Effects:

The movie had about 50/50 soundtrack and no score. When there was sound it was mainly waltzy music or crescendo violin music. Sometimes there was a little Brazilian music as a location reminder.

I liked the first use of music at Alicia’s party which came from a record player. Once she has a hangover there is no music in the background which is fitting. After Alicia hears the recording of her patriotism there is waltzy music as he convinces her to take on her assignment. It is like the spirit of patriotism is romanticized. The work conversations in the embassy never have a sound track.

Once they are in Rio there is a lot more music as there is suspense. For example, when Alicia gets the keys and is snooping around there is violin music. The violin music heightens as she goes from lock to lock and heightens when she finds the one room to which she doesn’t have the key, the wine cellar.

There are two uses of camera angles effects to show Alicia in inebriated states. At the beginning of the movie she is hung over and the camera view is from her drunken eyes point of view where she sees him first upside down, then sideways as she rotates around on her bed to an upright position.

Towards the end of the movie, Alicia is poisoned and we also see things from her perspective as she sees things blurry and swaying in front of her. We see from this viewpoint as she fights to walk toward the staircase.

6). Hitchcockian Themes and Motifs: (Minimum of 4)

1) Domineering Mother to son relationships. “You've always been jealous of any woman I've ever shown any interest in!"

2) Use of a macguffin. There is something secret that the Germans are hiding. It is the uranium ore.

3) Suspense throughout Alicia’s spy scenes the night of the party and her retrieval from the house.

4) Love over duty. Similar to the detectives in Blackmail or Sabotage, Devlin at the end of the movie choose protecting the girl over the job.

5) War is a theme. The U.S. is fighting German misdoings in the U.S. and South America.

7). Influences evoked from or inspired (film/literature/art/political/social):

The of war during the time with Nazi’s against the U.S. Also in particular at this time Nazi’s had fled Germany to South America to escape or continue their work from there. The films centers around the fled Nazi’s in Brazil.

German expressionism is an influence with the stark contrast of whites and darks. Staircases were also used in German expressionist films. A scene that shows these two aspects well is when the drugged Alicia is being semi-dragged up the staircase. The long shot shows black and white marble tiles below and above. In the middle is a staircase with very white rails contrasting against very dark carpeting.

8). Overall impressions of film (positive/negative) and additional comments:

It is a beautiful visually suspenseful experience. I enjoyed how the manufacturer names the key being Unica which translates to the word unique or exceptional. The tracing of the key is all visually observed. Alicia has the key in her hand and her husband grabs her palm to kiss it, He luckily grabbed the wrong one and she throws her arms over him to stop him from opening up the other hand with the key. She drops the key on the floor and then kicks it under the table. We next see the key in a close up of her hand at the party. The betrayal is then shown with Alex finding the return of the key to his nightstand. It is all visual and suspenseful without words.

The wardrobe from Edith Head is amazing and Ingrid Bergman fits in all the clothes beautifully. They accentuate her beauty.

I enjoyed the comedy of the horrible mother-in-law having had one myself. She meets Alicia with suspicion right away and unsmiling. She turns out the lights and dismisses the servants for the return from their honeymoon. When Alex finally comes to his mother to tell her there is something very wrong regarding Alicia, she becomes so happy. “I have expected it. I knew, I knew!” Later as her daughter-in-law is in bed dying of poisoning (which she suggested), she complacently looks on at Alicia’s suffering from a chair as she does needlecraft.

The negative I found was in the drunk driving at the beginning of the film. It might have been a funny thing back then. I also didn’t like watching Devlin knock Alicia out with a punch in the same scene. These things were probably funny back then.

Images and film link to Notorious (1946, Selznick, RKO)

Images and film link to Notorious (1946, Selznick, RKO)

Film link to NotoriousClick Here for the Film

Lifeboat (1944, Twentieth Century Fox)

Lifeboat (1944, Twentieth Century Fox)

FILMS OF ALFRED HITCHCOCK Analysis & Review form

10/10/2016

Describe your assessment/opinion for each category below Do NOT write generalized statements without examples from film or examples without statements clarifying them

1). Screenplay/Storyline:

A freighter with civilian personnel is shelled by a Uboat. There are only a few survivors which end up on a lifeboat together. There are two wealthy people, four crew members, an American Red Cross nurse, a mother with a baby and the German Uboat captain. The human interactions make it a psychological and sociological class drama. One person commits suicide as her baby is dead and two people are murdered. The group fights the elements and friendly fire and is finally saved.

2). Hitchcock‘s Direction/Style (use of editing/montage, composition of shots, camera angles)

There are three pieces of the boat for being able to get close conversations. One is a close up of the front of the boat, another one is a close up of the back of the boat and one is full shot of the boat. It is a good way to edit the close and the group conversations.

A key part of the story is shown through a close up of Willy’s hand. In this close up, the camera stays on the compass in his hand. This is an important secret we know and the passengers do not.

The seating of the passengers tells a lot about social class in the movie. The two wealthy people are sitting and managing from the comfortable back of the boat. The working class is in the middle. The German is forced to sit at the front where everyone can watch him. In one scene he keeps moving his position towards the center of the boat. As if he is testing to see if he can change his status with them.

3). Performances and Characterization:

Tallulah Bankhead / Connie Porter does a lovely job as a celebrity journalist and Hitchcock cool blonde, even though she may not be blonde. She is also able to change as the character is stripped of her wealth and status. The beginning when she is sitting in the boat comfortable in a mink and snarls at a snare is a great comic relief. She did the understated comedy well.

John Hodiak/ John “Kovac” is a convincing dark street smart character. His character has some of the most truthful comments. In the beginning he is trying not to have people trust the German. He senses with his street smarts that you don’t trust this guy. He tells Connie in his way that she is an insensitive sensationalist. “You think this whole war is like a Broadway play for you to cover. If enough people die, maybe you’ll give it a 4 star rating.”

Hume Croyn/ Stanley ‘Sparks’ Garrett has a mild mannered face and he is likeable honest character. I would have cast someone a little more attractive for the romantic lead.

Henry Hull/ Charles S Rittenhouse has the face of someone who could be an arrogant millionaire. He overacts a little bit in his pompousness when he acts better than the crew handing out tasks or plays cards with Kovac. He does do a good job in the character shift from elite to “one of the mob.”

Mary Anderson/Alice Mackenzie is a beautiful female that has the warmth needed for a care worker. She makes a great change from the girl who says “I don’t know why people hurt each other.” To the girl who starts the mob kill at the end. She wasn’t that convincing as a killer though.

William Bendix/ Gus Smith played the half German amputee. He played the part of a gullible guy well. His face looked convincibly naïve.

Heather Angel/ Mrs Higgins did a good job as a traumatized woman dead behind the eyes. She had a good range of expressionless and hysterical.

Canada Lee/ George “Joe” Spencer had the face as a humble man. He played a humble if not subservient character well. He was also convincing as a spiritual man.

Walter Slezak/Willy could look both unthreatening with his chubby face and also fierce when he squinted his eyes. He was light haired but he wore black clothes giving him a confusing hue of good or evil. His character was completely responsible for the attack on the freighter and lifeboats. He didn’t have that menacing of a look, but showed his cold hearted character when he spoke about killing Gus.

4). Cinematography:

The beginning scene is of a large cylinder leaning to the side with black smoke and fire coming out of it. It keeps tipping over until it is submerged. This is a so simple but it tells that there was a whole ship that submerged without having to show the whole thing.

After the submersion we see the camera scanning the water with an American Red Cross crate, playing cards, A New Yorker Magazine and checkers. This without other dialogue shows that it was a not a military ship except for some Red Cross supplies but with plenty of passengers of leisure.

An amazing use of shadow was when at a key time, a mast slowly shadow’s the German’s face. We intuit from this that we don’t know if he is honest or has a dark side.

5). Film Score/Sound and/or Visual Effects:

There is no traditional soundtrack except for music in the beginning and ending scenes. The soundtrack is the splashing, crashing waves. There is also flute music and Willy singing.

The absence of sound during most of the movie felt very natural. I can’t imagine it any other way.

One great use of sound was when Kovac wanted to kill Willy after finding the compass on him. The passengers were all debating Willy’s life and that was when the peak storm and turbulence takes place with great storm and crashing wave sound effects.

After the storm peaks, Willy starts to yell in English to the passengers. This is a surprising sound effect also.

The maintained visual effect was having the waves and sky move while the passengers were on a stationary boat. The waves and sky were all visual effects.

In one of the later scenes, it appears that the lifeboat is in the middle of a warship battle and they are almost crushed by a Uboat. This was a wonderful visual effect knowing that this was all done in a studio.

6). Hitchcockian Themes and Motifs:

There is a cross section of society on the lifeboat. A Hitchcock theme is class differences in society. There are wealthy, pompous famous people. There are also variants of working class. There are also race issues with the German race and an African American.

Psychology is another theme. The stress of being cramped on a lifeboat with varied personalities and being unsure of the chance of survival pushes people into complete psychological make overs.

War is a Hitchcock theme. This is set during World War II on an unexpected aquatic battlefield. Throughout the film there are occurrences which bring up the senselessness of war and how no one wins.

Adulterous love affairs are a theme. Miss Mackenzie is dating a married man.

Connie is cool blond who is sophisticated and confident. She is a vixen and morally ambiguous.

7). Influences evoked from or inspired (film/literature/art/political/social):

The movie is inspired by the political times. It is a war movie during World War II.

Social class distinctions and their point of views are shown. There is a millionaire capitalist that owns ship yards but doesn’t know how to operate a ship. Alternately, Kovac is an extreme working class character. He’s worked in meat packing plants and risked his life laboring on merchant marine ships and is a dirty card player. Watching these two play cards in one scene is very interesting. The capitalist is about to win everything even though Kovac has marked the cards. The wealthy always seems to beat the poor. Yet, the wind comes and takes all the cards away. Nothing is guaranteed in this war climate when either can easily die regardless of class distinction.

The literature is taken from a small novella of John Steinbeck.

8). Overall impressions of film (positive/negative) and additional comments:

The symbolism and message I received from the film is that we are all human beings and not a “we” and “they”. At times both sides appear to be winning but the woman crying “my baby is dead” is the sickening reality. People die.

It is a powerful movie that I’m sure has many more meanings than the ones I found and I want to read a lot more on the messages that others have found.

The negative is what Steinbeck addressed in his letter to the studio. It was difficult to watch a black man marginalized and calling other people sir. Joe is surprised when people ask his opinion and he asks, “I have a vote?” It was indicative of the times, yet it would have been nice to see Steinbeck’s version of a black man in the picture.

Poster and Video extras from Lifeboat (1944, Twentieth Century Fox)

Poster and Video extras from Lifeboat (1944, Twentieth Century Fox)

Lifeboat Video Extras Click Here for Video Link

Shadow of a Doubt (1943, Universal)

Shadow of a Doubt (1943, Universal)

Essay assignment question: The notion that "the image doesn’t lie" is a traditional cultural platitude, but Hitchcock would probably argue that "the image is deceptive." Indeed, Hitchcock's films often explore a disjointed relationship between "image" or "appearance" and "truth." Offer a careful analysis (segmentation) of the dinner scene(s) in Shadow of a Doubt

Charming home-cooked dinners

In the following dinner scenes from Alfred Hitchcock’s film Shadow of a Doubt we see that reality is not as it seems. Dinners are reunions of loved ones and they are meant to bring joy. The reality of these dinners is that they are not charming, but interactions of deception among personalities.

In Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Uncle Charlie has just moved from Philadelphia to live with his sister and her family in Santa Rosa. We learn further in the film that he is a murderer and knowing this on re-watching of the film one can see the faux reality that Uncle Charlie’s creates. We see in the first dinner scenes how he wants to be seen. At the dinner Uncle Charlie presents himself as a wealthy man who has travelled and lived on a yacht. The truth is that we saw him living in a seedy one room boarding house in Philadelphia and he is a bitter murderer.

He bestows gifts on the family that appear to be from a kind and generous uncle. The reality is that the items were purchased with money he stole from wealthy widows he seduced and killed. One present is even a ring engraved with a dead woman’s initials.

Instead of having happy Uncle Charlie that Niece Charlie dreamed of having and bringing happiness to her family, Uncle Charlie begins talking about how the world was a wonderful place then and is not now.

This pessimistic attitude is countered by Charlie’s ear to ear smiles that they are all happy now. They are happy now, but soon more dark shadows will come to the family via Uncle Charlie.

There is a second dinner scene. Between the first and second dinner scene Charlie was talked to by a detective. He starts to crumble her happy bubble as he informs her that her uncle is one of two men that they want to arrest. He does not specify the criminal activity. He has cast a shadow of a doubt that causes her to investigate her uncle. At the library she finds an article about the Merry Widow Murderer and sees one widows initials on the inside of Uncle Charlie gifted ring to her. She knows he is the killer.

Charlie’s attitude begins to darken and change as she has the weight on her shoulders of being the only one that knows that her uncle is an evil presence in the house.

The second dinner scene begins with Charlie snapping at her mother who is humming the merry widow tune. It is a sweet tune just as Uncle Charlie was supposed to bring happiness; the happy tune is now horrific as she knows her uncle is the Merry Widow Murderer.

Little Ann feels the undercurrent of something being wrong with her uncle when she asks to switch seats and not have to sit next to him. These are foreboding signs at the start of the second dinner. The truth is out and now Charlie has to sit at dinner with her family and uncle knowing that he is a murder but she can’t say or do anything about it. It is a kind of trapped nightmare.

Charlie’s first comment to her uncle in fact is about her dreaming ‘perfect nightmares’ about him. “I slept alright, and I kept dreaming perfect nightmares about you, Uncle Charlie...You were on a train, and I had a feeling you were running away from something. And, and I saw you on the train and I felt terribly happy...Well, he has to leave sometime. I mean, we all realize he has to leave sometime. We have to face the facts.”

This is Charlie’s first negative jab at her uncle. The second is when she tells him he can throw away the newspaper, “we don't need to play any games with it tonight." At this time he senses a change in her attitude as he looks down and thinks after this comment. She has changed and is darkening but he is smart conman and can pick up on things about people.

Her mother is giddy over Uncle Charlie bringing wine for dinner and that he promised to give a talk to the ladies in her club. This begins his diatribe against women. He says women here keep themselves busy but city women are different: “middle-aged widows, husbands dead.” He says the widows are left with a lot of money that their husbands worked for all their lives. The widows waste the money on the best hotels, on bridge and jewelry. They are “Horrible, faded, fat, greedy women.”

Charlie raises her voice and declares, "They're alive! They're human beings!" He nastily replies, "Are they? Are they Charlie? or are they fat wheezing animals, ?” She looks away from him, he is confirming to her what she already knows but hearing it from him disgusts and worries her.

As Charlie sits there tormented, her father and his friend talk about murders. Charlie finally loses her composure and yells at both of them, “Do you always have to talk about killing people?”

“Can’t we have a little peace and quiet here without dragging in poisons all the time?” The Charlie at the beginning of the film talking sweetly to her parents in her bedroom would never have talked to her family that way.

Charlie runs out of the house and her mother is worried that something is wrong with her. Uncle Charlie takes this chance to run after her to confront her about his suspicion that she suspects him. The scene concludes with him confessing to her but asking for her silence. She replies,” How could you do such things we thought you were the most wonderful man in the world.” She had illusions of who she wanted him to be but the reality she found was a nightmare.

There is in this film the obvious image of deception which is Uncle Charlie who is a murderer. The second deception is the image of the peaceful family at dinner. Every person has inner depth and tensions. They may be unexpressed tensions such as Ann wanting more attention for her reading prowess or Charlie wanting something more of her life than suburbia.

“For Alfred Hitchcock family relationships are a source of endless provocation. The family, in course of its natural and normal existence, produces the most oppressive of tensions and the calm matter-of-factness with which it does so is what it so is what makes it so frightening” (Deutelbaum 153). The reality is that there are no uncomplicated meals as humans we are too complex. Although unmeaning, there are deceptions we hold deep inside.

Works Cited

Deutelbaum, Marshall, and Leland A. Poague. A Hitchcock Reader. Chichester, U.K: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Print.

Feedback from Denah. I agree with her assessment however to me it seemed to me like it was more of a story-driven question. It would have been an enormous paper if I included all the camera visuals and editing.

Your PAPER: B

"While your paper is perfectly written, it is not clear that you are talking about a film (it could be a play, a novel, etc.) - as your focus is on the story and what happens not so much HOW it is presented and constructed via editing, perspective or point of view and framing (the size of people or things in the image and what impact they have). Otherwise, nice work!"

Posters and images from Shadow of a Doubt (1943, Universal)

Posters and images from Shadow of a Doubt (1943, Universal)

Rebecca (1940)

Rebecca (1940)

Analysis & Review form

9/25/2016

Describe your assessment/opinion for each category below Do NOT write generalized statements without examples from film or examples without statements clarifying them

1). Screenplay/Storyline:

A simple paid personal companion to a wealthy woman meets a millionaire in Monaco. They marry and she moves into his mansion. His prior wife had died in a boating accident. She was a glamorous wife with Pedigree, p and p. opposite of the new wife who is a young, modest unsophisticated orphan. The house oozes of Rebecca memories and monograms everywhere. The maid raves about the former Mrs. de Winter. There is a lot of tension about the previous perfectly pedigreed and glamorous Mrs. de Winter. The new one is opposite. A boat is discovered with the dead body of the first Mrs. de Winter. The court needs to decide if it is a suicide or murder. Mr. de Winter is innocent, but the evidence looks like he killed her. There is blackmail and suspense but finally Mr. de Winter is cleared. He rushes back to his bride and sees that his maid who was obsessed with his first wife has gone insane and burned down his mansion. His bride escaped and they find each other on the front lawn of the burning mansion.

2). Hitchcock‘s Direction/Style (use of editing/montage, composition of shots, camera angles)

In the opening sequence Maxim is on a precipice looking down using cutting in the camera (Spoto 83) when he looks down looks and can see his toes above with the water below, then at Rebecca and then down the precipice again.

Spoto (p.83) mentions a long shot of the mansion in the beginning was all done in one single take.

Spoto (p. 83) discusses the sitting arrangement in Monte Carlo. Mrs. Van Hopper and Maxim are in the central in the camera frame and Joan Fontaine’s character is squeezed off to the right almost off the side. This has a diminutive effect.

In the final cottage scene Maxim reveals the truth about Rebecca’s death. The camera pans as he talks about Rebecca approaching him as if her ghost is following him as he speaks. The camera gaze walks towards him as he describes Rebecca having done. It follows through to the opening of the door and focusing on the spot where she fell and died.

3). Performances and Characterization:

Joan Fontaine has a beautiful young and fresh innocent looking face with blondish hair and a very simple haircut. It makes her look uncomplicated and innocent. She also hunches over a lot and looks down at the ground. It’s as if she is still a girl and not a woman with posture. These were good touches physical touches that Joan did as an actress.

Laurence Olivier has a look that smacks of arrogance good person. His upper class accent and confident acting made him a good distinguished heir.

Ben has a great old sailor face. He carried off his part well with bulging his eyes and delivering the dialogue with a poor accent.

Nigel Bruce (from the old Sherlock Holmes movies) played a cheeky old gent who is naughty and says the wrong things. He had great timing with his quips. “Good thing she doesn’t sail.” He looks the part of old money and has a great deep aristocratic voice.

Beatrice his wife also has good timing with under handed put downs and delivers them well. “Of course anyone who looks at you could see you don’t give a hoot about how you look. Have you ever thought of doing something with your hair? Oh now you’ve made it look worse.”

Mrs. Danvers was one of the best cast. She had a mean and stoic face unflinching face. She was able to act like just as much of a snob as Beatrice. It was a nice touch that she did the same thing and scan her with her eyes up and down disapprovingly.

4). Cinematography:

There are some foreshadowing visual elements done that glimpse towards an unhappy future for the couple. After the marriage Maxim buys his bride flowers. Half are black and the other half are white. As they are drive up the path to the house, it ominously starts to rain torrents on them in an top down convertible. It keeps raining while she is getting to know the house.

The whole mansion has huge doors where the door knobs are at the height of her shoulders. It dwarfs the new Mrs. de Winters. As does Rebecca’s room which is three times a normal room in width and height. It dwarfs her symbolically.

The filming was done in a way where there is always a cut of Mrs. Danvers appearing in rooms. One doesn’t see her walk in, she just starts talking it is a terrifying, jarring effect (Truffaut p. 129-130).

Pinpoint spotlights are used on the faces of Joan Fontaine and Mrs. Danvers. It brings poignant emphasis on key moments. Especially when Mrs. Danvers crazed look is brightly highlighted at the end (Spoto p. 83).

In Truffaut, Hitchcock says that the house was one of the main characters. He makes it a character through the sweeping views of the outside and the beautiful interiors. It is large enough for her to get lost and not know about the existence of a morning room.

5). Film Score/Sound and/or Visual Effects:

The sea is so never sounds relaxing. It always has extremely loud with crashing abnormally high waves. The harsh and dangerous sounds make the sea sound like a vicious killer.

The mansion Manderlay and the path leading up to it are miniatures. The new Mrs. de Winter speaks eerily in a haunting voice as the camera scans the first views of the burned estate. It has a spooky effect that she is talking about the past of where she used to live.

This is first Hitchcock movie with a score throughout the movie. The music is very literal and punctuates all the dramatic points with dramatic score. This was due to Selznick forcing this style on Hitchcock (Spoto 83).

6). Hitchcockian Themes and Motifs:

The film is a psychological thriller which is one of the themes Hitchcock uses. The torture of the new Mrs. de Winter by Mrs. Danvers is all mental. The picture that she built of Rebecca was all built up in her mind. She was tortured psychologically.

In his earlier films, Hitchcock shows horrible trapped marriages. This is another trapped marriage where Mr. de Winter took the offer of a fake marriage and had a trapped horrible life with an adulterous wife.

There is a class differences theme. It is showed through the whole film as the new Mrs. de Winter is always wearing sweater sets instead of furs and jewels like Mrs. Von Hopper or Rebecca wears. The movie contrasts the innocent orphan girl with the spoiled and unpleasant wealthy women.

Maxim is an innocent man accused of the crime of murder when it was an accidental murder that he only disguised.

Similar to the movie Blackmail (1929), blackmail is used in the plot.

7). Influences evoked from or inspired (film/literature/art/political/social):

The book is inspired from the novel of the same name by Daphne du Maurier. The genre is Gothic Romance. Someone is dead and they may be watching you (Spoto 84). It is like a gothic haunted Cinderella tale.

It is a mocking glimpse at how high society live when they must be so bored, bored, bored in Monte while they are staying in the best hotels in an exciting city. The only concern is that “I haven’t seen anyone worthwhile”. The brother-in-law cannot understand that she doesn’t ride horses. “We all ride horses” assuming that everyone is rich and has horses.

8). Overall impressions of film (positive/negative) and additional comments:

I didn’t like the demeaning behavior Maxim showed to his bride to be in the beginning of the film. He treated her like a child. “Eat your eggs!” “Don’t bite your nails!” “If you think I asked you hear out of pity, leave the car right now!”

It is also painful to see Rebecca have a half step toward happiness and then have it wiped away. A simple walk with her husband turns into a harsh yelling session. She creates a beautiful costume dress and it is the same one his ex-wife wore. One expects the worst to happen throughout the movie and even when she finds out that he loves her and not Rebecca, he may be going away to jail for murder.

I loved the use of monograms throughout the movie that were haunting reminders of Rebecca. Almost every room had R monograms; her dinner napkin, her handkerchief, her writing paper and all the items in the cottage. After dealing with this embossed memory of the past, it was a great scene when the new Mrs. de Winter finally tells Mrs. Danvers to remove the monogrammed stationary because, “I’m Mrs. de Winter now!”

Images and film link to Rebecca (1940)

Image and film link to Rebecca (1940)

Film RebeccaClick here for movie

The Lady Vanishes (1938) and Quiz

The Lady Vanishes (1938)

My midterm analyzing Hitchcock's British Film making era

Midterm

NAME: _Ida Z. 9/19/2016_ CINE 23A THE FILMS OF ALFRED HITCHCOCK QUIZ – UK HITCHCOCK Please answer each question with a minimum of one well developed paragraph. Download and use the MLA template posted on Insight which provides 1.5” spacing. Be sure to cite sources if you note details from either course textbook or PowerPoints. No outside sources should be needed to complete this quiz. A printed hard copy of this assignment is due at the beginning of class Monday September 19th, you are also required to submit a digital copy to turnitin.com. Enrollment info is printed on your syllabus, page 3.

1.Discuss Hitchcock’s innovative use of sound in Blackmail (1929) using 2 brief, yet specific, examples. (25 points) The morning after murdering her rapist, Alice wakes up to her caged bird chirping. It is the only soundtrack throughout the scene. The noise is extremely loud and shrill. There is one pause when Alice stops for a minute to look up at a photo of her detective boyfriend then there is the sound of her dropping and breaking her makeup container. It punctuates a feeling of guilt. Spoto describes Hitchcock’s sound as “lifelong correlative for chaos and disorder interrupting an apparently normal routine” (Spoto 23). He also says that birds are “the traditional symbol for danger from the medieval through Victorian art” (Spoto 23). The birds are used again in other films the same way as a foreboding of chaos (Johnston).

Alice used a knife to kill her rapist. In the morning during breakfast, a neighbor is talking about the stabbing murder. He wants us the audience to feel and hear from her point of view. The neighbor’s words are inaudible except for the word knife, which is repeated in a verbal stabbing way (Spoto 23). It is subjective sound/

2. Identify 3 elements of Hitchcock’s style by citing evidence of them in at least two of the following films: The Lodger (1927), Blackmail (1929), The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935). (50 points) Hitchcock explored the psychological aspect of why and how people behaved (Johnston). The Lodger (1927) shows a deeply disturbed and anxious person. He cannot have the portraits of blonde women in his room must be removed because they upset him. He also paces around his room. He does not have any peace of mind as he is haunted by his sister’s death. Others do not understand his psychological problems but once it is revealed at the end, his behavior makes sense.

In The Lodger (1927), there is the element of the mother’s power over the son (Johnston). The lodger’s mother created a pathological drive and quest for the London strangler named the Avenger. He vowed to his mother on her deathbed that he would bring the killer to justice. He was driven over the loss of his sister and his vow to his mother to not stop despite the danger and consequences.

Love versus duty (Spoto 24) is an element used in Blackmail (1929), Frank is Alice’s boyfriend and he is assigned to the murder Alice committed. He finds her glove at the murder scene and knows Alice is the killer. He decides to help her cover up the crime. He deflects the blame onto a blackmailer and has the police chase him to his death. Even when Alice tries to confess, Frank stops her. Spoto says her silence was effected by a passionate detective who places love above duty (Spoto 24).

3.What historical and aesthetic significance can we now see in two of Hitchcock’s final British films The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935) and The Lady Vanishes (1938)? Give at least one example per type of significance for each film. (25 points) Historical significance The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935) and The Lady Vanishes (1938)? are Hitchcock’s ‘travel/espionage’ films (Spoto 356). They delve into anxieties and secret terrors of pre-war English society (Johnston),

The British censors deliberately used censorship in 1937-8 “to maintain a steadfast neutrality about the events in Germany and about German expansion in Europe” (Spoto 72). There was an evolution of moralities in things that were done in the name of patriotism (Spoto 48). Specifically in The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935) the theme shows the hunting down and killing of Anabelle, Mr. Memory and the attempted murder of Hannay. It is all done to justify a political end. Just as Hitler was justifying his political ends.

In The Lady Vanishes (1938)?, keeping a war message secret is worth the enemy kidnapping a woman in an attempt to murder her and trying to kill a box car of passengers on a train in a big shoot out. Murder used for patriotism.

Aesthetic significance An aesthetic of Hitchcock’s is taking the aesthetic of the British comedy to another level. He showed a connection between humor and horror (Johnston).

There is romance and comedy in The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935) when Pamela and Hannay are in a bedroom handcuffed and they try to eat or take off her panty hose. It is funny and flirty. Yet they are hiding in this room after escaping two men that wanted to kill them and handcuffed them to stop them from escaping.

In The Lady Vanishes (1938)?, Iris and Gilbert are having laughing as they look through magic trunks in a train’s luggage room. They disappear in the trick cabinet and bunnies and birds are flying everywhere. Yet they are in the room to find a kidnapped victim and they soon will have a poisoning attempt on their lives.

The films have a bit of romance and comedy, but an underlying tone of horror.

4.Discuss something you have learned about Hitchcock’s filmmaking style or thematics that challenges ideas you had coming into this course. How have you been challenged? EXTRA CREDIT I did not know about Hitchcock’s filmmaking style was influenced by German Expressionism. The expressionist art wants to evoke feelings that may be strong and uncomfortable. In F.W. Murnau's Sunrise (1927) one feels the danger and suspense of a woman leading a man to murder his wife. Murnau was an influence of Hitchcock’s (Johnston).

Another element of German Expressionist film is extreme whiteness and darkness. In The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935) I can now see there is great contrast of white and dark and the feelings that it emotes. The spy wears black and Hannay wears light colors. As she enters his brightly lit apartment, she keeps closing the blinds and making it darker and darker. She is darkening his life. When he exits his apartment the next day his life is changed and he is now wearing black.

Works Cited Spoto, Donald. The Art of Alfred Hitchcock: Fifty Years of His Motion Pictures. NewYork: Anchor Books, 1992. Print.

Johnston, Denah.Cine-23A-501-74713 Films of Alfred Hitchcock, 2016. Internet resource. Date of access 9/19/2016. < https://insight.ccsf.edu/course/view.php?id=17359>.

Poster and Images from The Lady Vanishes 1938

The Lady Vanishes (1938)

Every Alfred Hitchcock Cameo

p.s. Shadow of a Doubt (1943, Universal) should have been here but I covered it above and out of sequence.

Short article and then video of every Hitchcock cameo .Click here for article and video