Themes Of Birds In Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock (1899 – 1980), the “Master of Suspense”, was a English film director, who was well known for his use of suspense and psychological elements to shock and surprise his audience. Hitchcock was known for his use of recurring themes, motifs and plot devices, such as the use of birds, hand motifs, the audience as a voyeur, mothers, blonde women, and sexuality. He was also very technical in his editing, using filming techniques such as deep focus, point of view, close up and wide, tracking shots. Montage was also a technique he used frequently in his films. He believed that by using visuals, he could convey thoughts and emotions just as well as dialogue could.

clever camera techniques which create tension and fear. The camera shots also pay close attention to detail. For example, when the man with the dog throws a stick for his dog to fetch into the sea, the camera

Psycho is a 1960 American film directed by Alfred Hitchock. The screenplay of the movie written by Joseph Stefano was inspired by the novel of the same name by Robert Bloch on the year 1959. This film is categorized into the horror-thriller genre of film. The starring was Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates, Janet Leigh as Marion Crane, Vera Miles as Lila Crane and John Gravin as San Loomis.

Shocking audiences of the 1960’s, Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ is one of the most influential films in motion picture history, often being referenced to as the the origin of thriller films. Hitchcock successfully incorporates cinematography, music, and multiple techniques, rendering the perfect amount of tension and suspense right until the climax of the film. Thus, evoking the thrill after which the genre is named.

Cinematic perception can be understood using the metaphor of cinema as a window and frame.  Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window is an concrete example of this metaphor from both a critical viewpoint as an audience member, and from the perspective of the protagonist, L.B. Jefferies.  Thomas Elsaesser believes that the cinema of the window offers a “special, ocular access to an event” and the screen is transformed from a two dimensional narrative into a three-dimensional environment within which the audience is absorbed (14). Because the plot contains an actual window and also involves L.B Jefferies looking through a window, Rear Window is an exemplary illustration of this metaphor. The two observation points are similar in that they are both ocular-specular,

Over the 50 years that he directed films, he has developed a very distinct directing style that is noticeable among many movie lovers today. One of the most distinct directing styles he acquitted over the years was the use of camera movement that acts to mimic a person’s gaze. This sense of voyeurism, which is described as the act of spying on people when they’re engaged in actions that are generally considered to be private nature. However, it is important to keep in mind that the voyer does not actually have to come into direct contact with the subject of his or her interest, since they are usually not aware that they’re being watched (Hirschfeld). This directing style is something that’s evident in both Psycho and The Birds.

Personally to us, the director’s intention was to show how the psychology state of a man depending on his condition can affect his life and those around him. In this case, Norman Bates is affected by the various scenarios that happens in his life. His mother’s passing affected him the most as he murdered her. He took over his mother figure to get rid of guilt and started being her. He was in need of help, but he isolated himself from the outside world and this ‘mother’ personality had a very dominant role in his personal life which resulted in the murders he

Not only were the viewers placed there as onlookers but also in the form of the character. Jeffries, is always looking through binoculars searching for clues and information about his neighbor, his wife, and both of their whereabouts during the film. When watching his neighbor come home one day we are placed in the scene as Jeffries, looking through the binoculars with his eyes. Another time we are placed in the scene as a detective. The camera places us there and guides us through scenes. Each time, we are unintentionally and unconsciously looking for information and answers that we were unaware of existing or at the scene in general. The camera even guides us around Jeffries’ neighbor’s room through the binoculars. As his neighbor comes home we view him talking on the phone. While looking at him through the binoculars or Jeffries’ eyes we read his lips trying to read what he is saying to the other person about the mystery on the other line. We are forced to look at him fondling his wife’s jewelry and wedding ring while asking the person on the other line what to do about it. Here, we as the viewer are presents information about the mystery, or the disappearance of the neighbor’s wife and we concluded that there was something inevitably wrong about the situation, proving Jefferies’ assumptions about his neighbor and the murder of his wife to be shockingly convincible. We are led to believe Jefferies’

In the film Rear Window, voyeurism is the most prominent theme. Hitchcock presents this theme by using different effect such as sound and camera angles and suspenseful characters and scenes. In Rear Window, Hitchcock reveals to the audience that Jeffries', Lisa and Stella are not the only voyeurs in the film, the audience are involved as well in the events that unfold in the movie and we are caught observing them. As a director, Hitchcock believes that being voyeurs can end in a tremendous disaster and it is best to not get ourselves involved. The audience experience the emotions Jeffries', Lisa and Stella feel throughout this film because of how Hitchcock has used effects and the theme of voyeurism.

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.

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.

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film, Rear Window, explores many dimensions in cinematography. The phenomenal film is well known for proclaiming its voyeurism issues that goes on in today’s society. Even though voyeurism is an act that should not be done, this film portrays it in an affirmative way. Rear Window introduces primary structural components in the first act which sets the mood for the audience to interact with J.B. Jefferies in a way as it is the audiences duty to help him solve the mystery on whether Thorwald murdered his wife or not.

asks if she is OK. I think most people would if you saw this woman

Before the Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock made its way into theaters across the world, film was produced in a completely different way. Some of the elements that were in Psycho were things that nobody saw in movies before. According to Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman, when the movie came out, it took place in “an atmosphere of dark and stifling ‘50s conformity” and that the elements of the film “tore through the repressive ‘50s blandness just a potently as Elvis had.” (Hudson). Alfred Hitchcock changed the way that cinema was made by breaking away from the old, “safe” way of creating a movie and decided to throw all of the unwritten rules of film making out the window. The main ways he accomplished this task was by adding graphic violence, sexuality, and different ways to view the film differently than any other movie before its time.

Alfred Hitchcock is widely considered one of the most essential directors of all time and has undeniably revolutionized the cinematic art form and horror genre movement. A key ingredient to his productions is the psychoanalysis of the movie’s villains and the deceivery at comes with deep psychosis. These elements are what have taken Hitchcock from a good director to a legend. Hitchcock layers his movies in ways in which every time one watches his films they can pick up on a new detail that deepens the meaning and effects of the storyline. This is exactly what he does in his 1960 film, Psycho. By layering Freudian psychoanalysis, creating a twist ending and suspense, and giving the villain of the story, Norman Bates, a deeply rich background story, Hitchcock creates phenomenon in the audience arguably scarier, then Norman’s murders. Through this use the psychoanalysis and backstory, the audience also feels sympathy for Norman. This duality is what makes Hitchcock a wonderful artist and Psycho, a piece of art.