`` Oh, I See ' : The Birds And The Culmination Of Hitchcock 's Hyper Romantic Vision

it is the start of the story. The window fills the whole frame of the

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

In 1958 Alfred Hitchcock released what is considered the greatest film of all time, Vertigo. Vertigo is a film noir thriller that stars James Stewart and Kim Novak. Stewart's character, Scottie Ferguson, is sent to follow and investigate his old friend’s wife, Madeline. He spies on her strange actions and at the time falls deeply in love with her. The viewer is given a restricted narrative through the eyes of former detective, who suffers from vertigo, as he follows Madeline through San Francisco. The audience views the film from the same perspective as Scottie. Hitchcock pompously puts the viewer into Scottie’s eyes in scenes where he is following Madeline give Scottie a voyeuristic sense. The narrative is later switched to unrestricted as

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.

Rear Window and The Birds were both filmed around the 1960’s a time in which the film industry was experiencing a great downfall. Because there were so many movements going on around the world such as, feminist movements, racial movements, post war movements, political movements etc. many films were not successful and there were many different genres that were being used in films. There were also many different independent films that were produced; this had an influence on American film as well. It is surprising how successful Hitchcock was during this time period where film production was looking grim. In order to be successful in America during this period of struggle Hitchcock had to shy away from the usual style and production of film.

John James Audubon and Annie Dillard are two authors who both describe large flocks of birds in flight. Although Audubon describes pigeons and Dillard speaks about starlings, these passages can be easily compared. Both authors feel that the birds are beautiful and worthy of admiration, but Audubon is more curious about the birds than Dillard seems to be. Dillard feels more connected with the birds, as if they are a part of her, and she appreciates their mysteriousness more than Audubon does. These similarities and differences are clearly conveyed through the author’s use of diction, imagery, details, similes, metaphors, and level of formality.

Director David Fincher has cited Alfred Hitchcock as being an influence on his filmmaking style. Fincher’s films are thrillers that share similar subject matter with Hitchcock, including themes and motifs. Even the actors that Fincher casts habitually can be related to actors that Hitchcock frequently worked with. Unlike Alfred Hitchcock, David Fincher shies away from being considered an auteur or visual stylist; wanting the focus to be on the form and viewer comprehension (Knapp, 2014). Though Fincher would like

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

Alfred Hitchcock is arguably the greatest director of all time. Many of his films are considered standards of American cinema and inspired many of today’s directors. Even though Hitchcock is known as timeless director, he had an understanding of philosophy that was beyond his time. Hitchcock had a brilliant perception as to how the mind works and human reaction. Hitchcock’s understanding of philosophy can be seen in his film Vertigo and illustrates how many theories can be debilitating in everyday life.

Throughout Alfred Hitchcock’s filmography, there are conspicuous elements, such as murder and mystery, that make him the so-called “Master of Suspense.” Yet, Hitchcock’s films have other not-so-obvious elements that are shared in multiple of his films. His camera work is what captures the subtle elements, one of the most common implicit tropes are the challenge and switch of the gender norms and sexual ambiguity by the Hitchockian characters and it is not the exception in the film Strangers on a Train (1951). The main characters, Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker) and Guy Haines (Farley Granger), do not ever mention their sexual orientation, but it is implied through the camera that they are homosexuals concealing their identities in a critical

Coleridge sees the effect the writings of the Romantic Era has on those who are not writers which make the assistance of memory and dreams in the writings much more significant. Along with Coleridge’s significance to the Romantic Era, William Wordsworth also contributed to the movement of memory and dreams in the writings of the Romantic Era.

Donning the garb of a historian he could depict its crucial moments it sailed through. Thus he was able to encapsulate the cold war atmosphere prevalent in America through such films like Rear Window, Strangers on a Train and North by Norwest. Here we find the director’s cinematic screen as a site where various fears, suspicion and surveillance gets enacted through its characters like L.B Jeffries, Guy Haines, Bruno Anthony and Roger O.Thornhill. It was extremely difficult in the 1950s to procure a standpoint outside the paradigm of neatly arrayed binary opposition: United States/Soviet Union, East/West, capitalism/consumerism, freedom/tyranny, good/evil. If we take this as a cue for analyzing Hitchcock films in the fifties, it seems to

The thin line between duplication and adaptation in Van Sant’s Psycho generates a series of obstacles that led to the film’s failure in the box office. Van Sant’s embellishments fail to smoothly connect beside to the quintessential scenes from the original Hitchcock film. In an interview, Van Sant defends his film as an authentic modernization of the film Hitchcock already created, allowing for audiences hesitant of black and white films to reconnect with the genius of Hitchcock’s film by adding color as well as some minor modernizations (Tobias). However, audiences and film critics alike found that Van Sant’s film goes much further than inserting color and “minor modernizations” into the Hitchcock film. Van Sant’s motivation to add color to the film might seem minuscule in comparison to some of the major issues that Van Sant includes, but it is this particular inclusion of color that

Coleridge stated that poetry “gives us most pleasure when only generally and not perfectly understood”. He preferred to consider The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere a work of “pure imagination” rather than a textual construction representing a particular cultural ideology. However, his writing of the text as a Romantic poet, espousing all ideologies that the Romantic Movement represented, conditioned his work to be one of passion, mystery and imagination. Due to this, his “purely imaginative” work fosters the dominant discourse of a Romantic outlook on the universe; the protagonists of the text

Romance is a literary term that has remained shrouded in a cloak of ambiguity for centuries. Many scholars and critics believe that this is due to the frequent redefinition of the term by those attempting to use it as a genre, mode, or style to enhance their work. Due to this obscurity, a study in the poetics of romance is an extensive task that is frequently avoided but desperately needed. Patricia Parker, a professor of English and dramatic literature at Stanford University, eagerly accepts this task in her work Inescapable Romance: Studies in the Poetics of a Mode. Parker sets out to approach romance by focusing less on its content or material than on its form or ‘design’ – a form, above all, “which simultaneously quests for and postpones a particular end, objective, or object” (4). This is the “inescapable” quality of romance – its tendency to go on and on without regard for resolution. Her study covers five centuries by exploring the “implications of ‘romance’” in the time and works of four celebrated romantic poets: Aristo, Spenser, Milton, and Keats (7). Through this exploration of individual authors and their works, Parker is able to offer suggestions of what, poetically, became of them, their influence, and their significance within the variations of a recurrent mode. She is able to accomplish this