Auteur Theory Proposed During The 1950 ' S

Hitchcock makes use of a number of techniques in Vertigo and brings them together to make a film that is considered to be one of his greatest masterpieces. Through the use of colour, lighting, camera movement, dialogue and characterisation, Hitchcock produces a film that fascinates and intrigues us.

Alfred Hitchcock, in his critically acclaimed horror movie “ The Birds “, uses his camera shots metaphorically as a person rather than a weapon, in a way to add suspense, inner themes of the film, and to express the character’s emotions or intensity.

How auteur theory can be applied to the study of Hitchcock’s North by Northwest and Vertigo

Voyeurism in its generic form, has long been considered unethical due to its invasive nature. Most people would agree that spying on others is an invasion of privacy, and would look down on those peering into other’s lives. This viewpoint is expressed in the opening scene of the film by Jefferies’ insurance worker, Stella. She makes her entrance stating that ‘‘The New York state sentence for a peeping tom is six months in the workhouse...’. She goes on to say that his behaviour has her smelling ‘trouble right here in [his] apartment’ and mimics his hypothetical court appearance. Lisa Freemont, Jefferies’ girlfriend, also comments on the issue, first when Jefferies’ tells her of his suspicions of Lars Thorwald; labelling his ‘wild opinions’ as ‘diseased’ while defensively giving alternate reasons for all of Jefferies’ questions about Thorwald. Including these women, no character in the film, initially, encourages Jefferies’ voyeurism. Instead they explicitly downplay and dismiss it. Both Stella and

Documentarians often want to get as close to their subject matter as possible. Some documentarians have an insider perspective which ignites a spark to create a piece that illuminates a specific topic or area of study. There are also documentarians that have no affiliation with said subject matter, but want to explore the topic in question. Finally, there are documentarians that have a foot in both worlds. Insider/outsider is a theory in which a documentarian can be close to a subject, but also possess characteristics or traits that make them distant from the topic in question (Coles, 1998). Such is the case with the directors of both Stranger with a Camera and The House I Live In. Due to their own location, both Eugene Jarecki and Elizabeth Barret exhibit characteristics that make them fall into the insider/outsider roles as directors. Robert Coles defines location by stating, “We notice what we notice because of who we are” (Coles, 1998, p. 7). Included in this is, a person’s education, race, class, and gender. Both directors realize they are outsiders and utilize a lens into a world in which they are not otherwise a part of. Jarecki’s lens comes in the form of Nanny Jeter, his family’s nanny from when he was a child. Barret’s lens for her documentary is the community that she shared with Ison. The two directors enter into a world that they are not a part of because of their location, but forge a connection to the subject matter through means of a lens.

In the film industry, there are directors who merely take someone else’s vision and express it in their own way on film, then there are those who take their own visions and use any means necessary to express their visions on film. The latter of these two types of directors are called auteurs. Not only do auteurs write the scripts from elements that they know and love in life, but they direct, produce, and sometimes act in their films as well. Three prime examples of these auteurs are: Kevin Smith, Spike Lee and Alfred Hitchcock.

In this essay, I shall try to illustrate whether analysing the movie Rear Window as a classical example of the Freudian concept of voyeurism, is appropriate. Voyeurism is defined in The Penguin dictionary of psychology as:

Hitchcock is known for the “meticulousness of his preproduction, shooting, and editing strategies” (Sterritt 9). An example of this is the filming technique Hitchcock used to illustrate Scottie’s Vertigo; to represent the sensation, the camera would physically move away from the subject while simultaneously zooming in on the subjects. Thus this specific shot was used whenever Scottie went through that experience, creating a specific motif for his reaction. Another strategy of Hitchcock is “his celebrated use of point-of-view shots”, which he employed to unite “physical and psychological identification between spectator and character” (Sterritt 11). This is exemplified in Rear Window, which is seen from almost entirely Jeff’s perspective, thus uniting audiences more with Jeff, and therefore the subjective narrative. This increases solidarity with Jeff, and makes it easier for the audience to adopt Jeff’s discoveries as the truth. Additionally point-of-view shots allow viewers to understand characters more, as seen through Judy’s point of view on her walk in the park with Scottie. Another camera angle favoured is the extreme high-angle shot, which in some cases marks a significant point in the plot; this shot is used to show Madeleine’s fall to her death in Vertigo, the point in the movie that serves as a climax that triggers the narrative

Alfred Hitchcock also used cinematography in a uniquely stylizing way. Hitchcock not only uses the camera to create dramatic irony, but he also uses the camera to lie to the audience and create anxious suspense. For example, in his film Psycho, when Marion is in the shower Hitchcock frames the scenes very tightly. Marion is in a confined and very personal space. This makes her incredibly vulnerable. Then Hitchcock heightens the suspense by creating dramatic irony with the reveal of a shadowy figure closing in on Marion, unbeknownst to her. This creates a lot of anxiety for the audience, knowing the protagonist is vulnerable and in danger with no way of altering the inevitable. Hitchcock then manipulates the audience by “revealing” a brief silhouette of an old lady as our shower killer. Hitchcock uses this “reveal” to lie to the audience, he makes the audience think they have more inside knowledge confirming their already growing suspicions, when in reality the audience is misled entirely and the murderer was Norman all along. The way Hitchcock uses the camera to reveal both inside information and misleading information truly keeps the viewer engaged and not knowing what to believe until the truth is finally revealed. By using this unique technique of controlling the audience by only showing what he wants you to see, Hitchcock masterfully defies expectations and creates suspense.

Hitchcock was born in England, in 1889, and moved to the United States to join the Hollywood film industry in 1940. He created over fifty films throughout his career citing “my love for cinema is stronger than morality” (Truffaut & Hitchcock, 1983, p. 20). Hitchcock’s passion was cinema; he excelled at it and redefined it. To tell the narrative Hitchcock did not rely on heavy dialogue, but strong visual elements. Where he positioned the camera, how it was angled, the camera movement, the actors’ movement, the lighting, were all elements Hitchcock had complete control of to tell the narrative.

Analytically, the film does not hide to viewers what message it is trying to portray. Unlike the other documentaries the film does not use rhetorical strategies to bounce around the point it is trying to make, it is blunt. The film connects deeply with the emotions of the viewer and uses many different methods like burst of cell phone footage, testimonies, news broadcast, and displays of photos with dramatic effects. The construction of the film and its scenes tell each tell a specific story but tie into the overall theme of the video, by using these methods to portray a blunt message engrains in the mine of the audience of what is happening and what the reality is for many people. The story is crafted to ignite intense emotion in viewers and

Many people may have a specific style in which they like to dress. A woman might have a signature lipstick she enjoys wearing, a man might have a distinct cologne that stands out from the rest. Movies are not too far apart in comparison. Sometimes people find films more enjoyable than others, and often do not realize they come from the same director. The Auteur theory is a that defines the director as the sole author of the entire film, adding his or her own personal style. When it comes to the world of animation, director Hayao Miyazaki is a pioneer in auteur. His specific directorial style is seen in many of his films in which he manages to make films enjoyable to adults of all ages. Kiki's Delivery Service was one of director Miyazaki's

For example, the entire film is about the gaze of the camera and how it perceives its “victims”, as cited in Carol Clover’s Essay “The Eye of Horror”. Mark is a photographer and whenever he goes to kill one of his victims, the POV shifts to that of the cameraman, and then the camera slaughters it victim. This is a direct metaphor about how the filmmaking process “murders” the actors and actresses during the filmmaking process. They are acting, but none of their true personality comes through on screen. In order to do their job, the actors of a film are asked to repress their true dreams and desires and take on the role of someone else, who does not exist, for the camera. The camera is an oppressive force, making its victims be who it wants them to be, not who they want to be, making them live in this world of make-believe. It also

All of the shots were filmed from an omniscient point of view except for shot 5, which was from the single character point of view of Mark. Since the only shot from Mark’s point of view was the repeated image of one of his tortured victims, it portrays how his overwhelming urge to fetishsize female terror through his voyeurism. The other shots filmed from an omniscient point of view are able to track Mark’s actions and reactions to other on-screen actions. Most of these shots in the series are taken from an eye level angle also as a method to track Mark. However, shot 4 is taken from a low angle which emphasizes his power and foreshadows his entrance to his fear workshop upstairs. On the other hand, the film strip of the woman being murdered in shot 5 is taken from an extreme high angle, which emphasizes the sense of terror. Mark’s harm towards women is also emphasized through the shot types. With a close up in shot 3, the camera zooms in order to focus on his inner intentions. In shot 4, the medium long shot shows more of his body in order to

This film contains qualities that are like that of an “attraction” like how Smith developed this film to work around the idea of the act of looking and point of view. The focus of this film was pleasure from looking at the woman’s ankle. The film displays its visibility because the images of the film helps the viewer focus on nothing else besides the moving image shown. An example this film adopts to produce a “diegetic space” is after the man looked through the field glass to spy on the woman’s ankles. It wasn’t shown the duo even noticed the man with the field glass was observing them.