Alfred Hitchcock

Like many of his films, Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954) is an intense study in the sometimes-jarring idiosyncrasies of its main character, L.B. Jeffries (James Stewart). Jeffries is an observer by nature, a professional photographer confined to his apartment by an injury, with only insurance company nurse Stella (Thelma Ritter) and his girlfriend, Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly) for company. This limitation impels him to begin observing his neighbors, and he witnesses events that lead him to believe Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr) has murdered his wide. However, Jeffries’ watchful habit raises serious questions about the relationships between neighbors and ethics of observation in densely-populated urban settings. Rear Window uses set design and disparate camera techniques to codify the acceptable and unacceptable ways in which a city dweller might observe their neighbors, based largely on level on intent.

Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane is a revolutionary film. Although it might not look like much to the modern viewer, many aspects of the film were the first of their kind to appear and are still used today.

Francois Truffaut, when referring to Hitchcock said that “he exercises such complete control over all the elements of his films and imprints his personal concepts at each step of the way, Hitchcock has a distinctive style of his own. He is undoubtedly one of the few film-makers on the horizon today whose screen signature can be identified as soon as the picture begins.” Many people have used Hitchcock as the ultimate example of an auteur as there are many common themes and techniques found amongst his films. Even between the two films “Shadow of a Doubt” and “Vertigo,” many commonalities occur.

For this paper, I have decided to compare two Hitchcock films. Ever since I can remember, I have seen Alfred Hitchcock films; Psycho, The Birds, North by Northwest, I enjoy his work because I like the suspense, and visual effects that he was able to accomplish. Out of all of his films, I believe that my favorite Hitchcock films would have to be Rear Window (1954) and Vertigo (1958), because I think that the two incorporate everything that is “Alfred Hitchcock”. Hitchcock films are known for being mysterious, cynical, as well as suspenseful and they are all similar because of his use of symbolism, light, repetitive actors, and repetition of theme.

Alfred Hitchcock’s stance in the film business is something to be marveled. His prominent position as the “Master of Suspense” is due in part to the textbook blueprint he created in the thriller genre. His catalogue has many examples, but the two with the most similar psychological depth would be Vertigo and Rear Window. Not only do these two movies thrill on the surface level, but they also thrill from the character’s emotional and psychological stand point. This makes the suspense less abrupt and more of a gradual progression into the classic Hitchcock climax. Hitchcock puts his viewers on a psychological roller coaster due in part to his three useful components: fear, guilt, and redemption.

In the essay ‘“Oh, I see…’: The Birds and the Culmination of Hitchcock’s Hyper-Romantic Vision,” John McCombe attempts to connect The Birds to literary Romanticism. McCombe begins by citing a text from Robin Wood’s book Hitchcock’s Films Revisited. In the text, Wood discusses how Hitchcock controls the audience through editing and camera movement like a poet controls the reader through verse rhythms. To illustrate his point, Woods discusses how traumatic horror is conveyed in E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India and Hitchcock’s film. Woods conclude that it is better conveyed through visual images in Hitchcock’s film rather than through the text in the novel. Because of this, Hitchcock is considered to be more of a poet than a novelist.

Am I really awake typing a paper for philosophy? Did I just watch the Hitchcock film Shadow of a Doubt or did the “not so supremely good God” plant a reel of thoughts in my head (Descartes16)? That would be ironic since the themes of the film are based upon human understanding of doubt, dreams, good, evil, ignorance and knowledge. The film portrays a neat staircase that leads into the house of an all American family and a rickety set of stairs off the side of the house that are private and used for escape. After watching the deep hidden meanings and symbolism in the film, one could perceive the image of the parallel staircases like a metaphor for the human mind. This would bring the audience into a deeper place, dark,

In any neighbourhood, a sense of community is something that is quite often present. In fact, in Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller Rear Window, viewers witness a man progressively gaining a deep comprehension of his neighbours through his deeply-rooted voyeuristic desires to delve into their lives. In its entirety, the film demonstrates through its protagonist how this neighbourhood is too dispassionate and unconcerned to classify as a community. However, Hitchcock’s portrayal of how commonalities between individuals can assist in establishing new relationships, does suggest that on a minute scale, some individuals are more than just “people who live closely together”. Music, more often than not, is a form of art that intends to bring individuals

The greatest art in films is by the means of the ability to create an emotion in the viewers of the film and by the means of and imagery. Alfred Hitchcock, for long time, has been a household name since he began filmmaking. Hitchcock has been able to accumulate a well known and distinct cinematic techniques making him stand out as one of the best filmmakers around the globe. What makes Hitchcock’s films ‘must watch’ movies are how he draws his viewers’ emotion and leave them in suspense (Maher 246). Hitchcock’s The Birds is an American horror-film dropped in 1963. The film is loosely based on the 1952 story of Daphne Du Maurier and focuses on a sudden series, unexplained powerful and violent birds attacking the people of Bodega Bay (Maher 247). In this movie, the fact that viewers do not get to know the details of the birds makes it an interesting but a suspense film, which evokes thoughts of the audience to know much about the birds. On the other hand, Identity, which was directed by James Mangold in 2003, revolves around the life of ten people who seeks refuge in an isolated motel when a vicious storm breaks out in the desert of Nevada (Falsafi, Khorashad, and Khorashad 2521). As they seek refuge, a serious murderer, Taylor Vince awaits his execution for killing a group of motel guests. This paper, using terminology resources and cinematic techniques, seeks to expatriate the similar technique styles adopted in the two films to enhance suspense. The cinematic techniques

In Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, the stylistic elements utilized by the director create a unique availability the depth of information available to both the characters in the film and the audience watching. The entire film is from the perspective of the rear window of the injured photographer Jeff. Jeff, unable to move is stuck with nothing to do but look out his window. As the audience, we are given an objective view, looking over his shoulder as he stares at the lives of his fellow tenants. From the window, we watch as Jeff essentially invades people’s homes with his high-powered photographic lens. In the scope of the entire film this is an incredibly smart tactic because it gives the audience the same emotions that the characters feel. During

Billy Wilder’s work today remains masterful and memorable. From his skilled screenwriting to his directing, Wilder holds a key position in cinema history. Wilder’s stylistic and thematic elements are recognizable and give off a complex reflection of his American and European cultural influences. I think that Billy Wilder should be considered an “auteur” even if he is not already considered one, for his personal film style and the mere fact that his cynical vision allowed him to create many admirable films across a number of genre boundaries throughout his career. However, film critics tend to disagree and believe that Wilder was too cynical, while also complaining about the lack of

The Alfred Hitchcock film; Vertigo is a narrative film that is a perfect example of a Hollywood Classical Film. I will be examining the following characteristics of the film Vertigo: 1)individual characters who act as casual agents, the main characters in Vertigo, 2)desire to reach to goals, 3)conflicts, 4)appointments, 5)deadlines, 6)James Stewart’s focus shifts and 7)Kim Novak’s characters drives the action in the film. Most of the film is viewed in the 3rd person, except for the reaction shots (point of view shot) which are seen through the eyes of the main character.(1st person) The film has a strong closure and uses continuity editing(180 degree rule). The stylistic (technical) film form of Vertigo makes the film much more

The absolutely stunning film, Citizen Kane (1941), is one of the world’s most famous and highly renowned films. The film contains many remarkable scenes and cinematic techniques as well as innovations. Within this well-known film, Orson Welles (director) portrays many stylistic features and fundamentals of cinematography. The scene of Charles Foster Kane and his wife, Susan, at Xanadu shows the dominance that Kane bears over people in general as well as Susan specifically. Throughout the film, Orson Welles continues to convey the message of Susan’s inferiority to Mr. Kane. Also, Welles furthers the image of how demanding Kane is of Susan and many others. Mr. Welles conveys the message that Kane has suffered a hard life, and will

Citizen Kane brought the aspects of a newspaper tycoon in the 1940’s to life in a form of a dramatic narrative. This film is based on a true story of a newspaper magnate, William Randolph Hearst and based off of some aspects of Orson Welles(Writer and Director). This filmed has been named, “The best American film of all time” due to the fact that, during the time of its making, it was the first film to take on many new techniques of cinematography. Citizen Kane is a revolutionary film not only in the drama genre, but in filmmaking of all forms.

When Citizen Kane was first released in 1941 it was cinematically groundbreaking because first time director Orson Welles had taken various types of filmmaking, much of which had been used in Expressionistic German films in the 1920’s and incorporated them all into one film. Despite the fact that Welles did not create the techniques used in the film he revolutionized the way films were shot. When Welles was asked where he had gotten the confidence as a first time director to create a movie that was so different from its counterparts, Welles said, “ Ignorance, ignorance, sheer ignorance-you know they is no confidence to equal it, it is only when you know something about a profession, I think, that you are timid or careful” (Welles). This “ignorance” was important to the film as it resulted in the use of cinematography that had not been popularized yet, some examples of this are: