North By Northwest Essay

In the 1953 film Shane directed by George Stevens, mysterious hero Shane helps settlers in the west claim their property against land owners who are greedy for land. The film follows Shane as he meets the Starrett family who are fighting to keep their land. This film is an example of a classic Western film, with elements that reflect a uniqueness about the film in comparison to other Westerns, both cinematically and thematically.

Alfred Hitchcock’s film North by Northwest (1959) is famed as a classic man-on-the-run thriller, following protagonist Roger Thornhill as he flees across state lines in a mad dash to save his life and unravel the mystery to his extraordinary predicament. However, mid-way through the film Thornhill’s quandary is further complicated by the introduction of Eve Kendall, a beautiful yet mysterious woman he encounters on a train during his escape from the authorities and people trying to kill him. During the dining room scene on the train, Hitchcock expertly uses the camera to convey the characters thoughts and feelings. Interestingly, in a film that has several sequences with complicated cinematography and editing, the dining car scene is

In the beginning of the opening scene, the film shows the skyline of Phoenix before zooming into the window of a hotel room. Hitchcock cleverly uses these camera angles to build up the theme of voyeurism, giving the effect of curiosity to the audience. The first appearance of voyeurism is when the camera zooms in from the establishing shot of the city to reveal the window of the cheap hotel room, where the couple, Marion and Sam stayed in. The use of a high angle shot looking down towards the window of the hotel creates the feeling that the couple is being watched or possibly being spied on. This leaves an effect on the audience, as the angle gives a sense of judgement making the audience to judge

This hugely increased the despair and shock, the feeling of loss even when a character is brutally murdered. Straight away Hitchcock begins to build our sympathies for Marion Crane. He uses several cinematic techniques to create a mise-en-scene. Mise-en-scene is everything a viewer can see within a certain frame and consists of many aspects. For instance, Hitchcock uses a high-angle, mid range establishing shot to put Marion in her context, and highlight her vulnerability.

The directors chosen camera technique, a simple two composition that progresses the scene a steady pace, forces the audience to feel a part of the awkward exchange; obviously, a quality of film that could not be as profoundly achieved through the narrative in the novel.

According to Vertigo’s screenwriter, Samuel Taylor, he mentioned that Hitchcock never really liked to see the story in a full view. Instead Hitchcock was more focused on viewing each scene like a mosaic. In order to view the full story, he believed he had to first complete each part of the mosaic. Hitchcock creates each scene as a form of artwork. As seen in several scenes throughout Vertigo, we clearly see how he creates scenes by focusing on every aspect of cinematography to tell a deeper sinister narrative through each characters.

Hitchcock’s Rebecca’s opening sequence displays strong use of gothic conventions though characterisation and thematic concerns of both Rebecca and Maxim. By displaying non-diegetic music as well as film techniques presented between the two characters, different gothic conventions are established throughout the opening sequence of the film. The entrance of the opening scene where credits are placed has non-diegetic music as well as the different background images presented to symbolise a romantic story behind the film. This foreshadowing music presents the romantic elements, which is typical of the gothic genre. Furthermore, at around the fourth minute of the film presents the two characters at the same shot, where Rebecca commanded Maxim to

Used to clearly communicate that an object or person on screen is central to the story. Called ‘Hitchcock’s rule’ is the visibility of an object on screen should signify its importance to the story (Brown, 2012, p. 29), for example: in the Touch of Evil, the gun is the most important object in the scene because of the danger and suspense it signifies. Although this may seem like a basic concept, Hitchcock kept this is mind for each scene he directed. Reference: Hitchcock interview

In classical Hollywood cinema, style, space, and time are unified and uninterrupted. These elements come together to match the viewer’s sense of time and space in reality. This is achieved through the use of many techniques such as the 180-degree rule, point-of-view shots, a lack of jump cuts, and other unobtrusive filmmaking techniques. Using these techniques allow the audience to associate with the main characters in the film. For example, the use of point-of-view shots allow the viewer to see the action from the characters’ perspectives giving the audience a sense of connection with the actors. Similarly, obeying the 180-degree rule allows films to have continuity in which there is no disruption in the viewers sense of location or

Each play an important factor in the story-telling. Both movies hold an important conference scene in the beginning. In Notorious the group of detectives hold a meeting to discuss the Nazis. The camera starts off with a medium shot with a slightly high angle focusing on the main man and slowly panning out so the audience can see who he is talking with. Once all the characters are on screen we get a full shot, being able to look at their conversation and body language. We then are sent back to see the whole room. The room is very closed off and tight with symmetrical objects framing both sides of the room. Then we are pulled back to the end of the table. This long shot with a slight high angle lets us see what Hitchcock’s view on the whole conversation is. Similar in North by Northwest, the ‘script-writers’ of the movie hold a meeting as well. The scene starts off in the same way with the camera’s focus on the head of the table, panning out to the whole table. In this high key lighted scene we are met with numerous over-the-shoulder shots, as well as close-ups and medium/two shots. Once the camera pans and shows the whole table, we see two symmetrical lamps lining the back equally once again. The scene comes to a close when a high angle, almost nearly a birds eye view shot over the characters. With Hitchcock being the director, he is given the last say in the script making process and this is his way of

Scene: In order to properly discuss and describe the various techniques the film utilizes, it is essential that a specific scene is analyzed. In the opening scene, we are introduced to the main characters. We follow the characters as they happily and

One of his most famous works that I chose to analyze was the shower scene from Psycho. In this film, a real-estate agent named Marion Cane steals $40,000 from her employer and manages to skip town and ends up at the secluded Bates Motel run by Norman Bates and his mother. Norman Bates has a split personality and becomes attacked to Marion when his “mother” personality overcomes her and makes him murder Marion while she showers. In this scene, Hitchcock utilizes the moving point of view camera shot. The camera follows Marion into the shower as she gets undress.

As demonstrated in Interstellar, establishing shots reveal extreme landscapes and the vast emptiness of space, so both the audience and the characters feel amazed and shocked. Since the mission was to find a habitable planet for humans to repopulate, the establishing shots symbolize the isolation humanity faced. Comparably, Inception introduces the notion of dream-manipulation through an establishing shot, in which the landscape curves upward to form a dome above the characters. However, instead of representing solitude, these establishing shots provoke shock, as the idea of bending a city seems absurd.

In this scene, Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is with the his black car in the woods meeting Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) and her white car after his “death.” In the film, it is planned that Eve shoots Roger with blanks and that they would meet elsewhere after Roger was pronounced dead. As Roger exits the car to meet Eve, the audience can see that compositionally the scene is divided down the middle. The trees in middle divides Roger’s world from Eve’s world. Hitchcock purposely had the scene set up to be parallel and symmetrical. Having Roger and his car on the left side and Eve and her car on the other side.

Christopher Nolan is an intelligent, intricate director who has created many highly acclaimed films in his relatively short career, not only is Christopher Nolan a director who has caused much buzz for his film he is arguably one of the best directors of our generation, his style of filming using the mix of commercial and indie styled films has created many well- balanced films whilst still having the integrity for how Nolan wants to be perceived in the film industry. Some characteristics of his directorial style are; Camera work, symbolism through props to symbolise characters emotions and use of sound to create tension and mood to emphasis a point that the character is trying to convey. I have chosen Nolan’s 2006 film; The Prestige and the 2002 highly acclaimed movie; Insomnia to study and analyse. Each films has scenes that incorporate all of Nolan 's directorial style. Nolan uses these techniques to match how a modern audience views this film, Looking back, the picture’s themes of obsession, means justifying ends, and self-deception fit nicely into the director’s body of work, but here he explores them in such emotionally engrossing and suspenseful ways that it catches the audience off guard, if only because on the surface the material looks so typical. Just when we think we’ve seen every psychological thriller about a cop chasing a killer, here’s a film that has more in common with a film noir tale.