Tension In Woman In Black By Alfred Hitchcock

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.

Fourth, Robin Wood tells us, "A Hitchcock film is an organism, with the whole implied in every detail and every detail related to the whole" (Boyd 6). Through these four aspects, we can see that Hitchcock typically opts to show unsettling scenarios that can be seen as much in the intricacies of the film as in the entire premise. So, this sets the stage so that we, the audience, may know to look deeper into his films than just what is portrayed on the surface.

Alfred Hitchcock has a very unique style of directing that he incorporates into many of his films. His style of editing, use of expressionism, and his techniques for creating suspense are amongst some of his many qualities that makes his films unique. The film Vertigo was a very technical film that displayed many different themes, and meanings. In Vertigo, Hitchcock dealt with themes like the fear of death, and the power of appearance. Alfred Hitchcock has a very distinct way of utilizing editing.

Alfred Hitchcock is widely regarded as a prime example of an auteur, a theory that emerged in the 1950s by Truffaut, in the ‘politique des auteurs’ of Cahiers du Cinema (Tudor 121). The auteur theory, as defined by Andrew Tudor, is premised on the assumption that “any director creates his films on the basis of a central structure”(140) and thus, if you consider their films in relation to each other, commonalities can be found within them. These commonalities work to demonstrate the view of the director as “the true creator of the film” (Tudor 122). Evidence of an auteur can be found in examining a director’s creative tendencies, in their distinctive themes and motifs, stylistic choices,

Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is a true masterpiece of a horror film. It is perfect in everything from unpredictable plot to music. However, Hitchcock’s Psycho is a notable film of horror and thriller genres due to excellent actors’ performances, interesting use of sound effects, well-crafted mise-en-scenes and realistic and complex characters.

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

Whens the last time you read a great horror story? Have you ever been afraid of the unknown? Well, Susan Hill wrote The Woman in Black, a gothic novel set in the Nineteenth Century about the fear of the unknown. We all know we like a good ghost story here and there. Well, this novel is full of fear and the unknown that will keep you silent and wanting more. It will make you cringe with its supernatural events throughout the novel. The Woman in Black has an interesting background to it that makes is so horrific.

Tim Burton. Dubbed the golden standard for film making, because of his exotic use of various cinematic techniques; he can truly bring a piece to life. From Willy Wonka, to Edward Scissorhands, to Big Fish, Burton proves that the use of music, lighting, and camera angles are the ingredients to a cocktail of magic, with just the right amount of, “Whoa.” In this essay, I will bring forth how Burton utilizes these techniques of the cinema world, to create the masterpieces we all know and love.

Nominated for seven academy awards for his work in cinematography, and propelled by Wilder’s film noir style, we see the excellent use of lighting and camera work that is almost lost on modern cinema. The more sinister characters are silhouetted, obscured by clouds of their own cigarette smoke, or viewed from a slightly upward angle, as to make them appear looming and threatening. The protagonist of our film is always well lit, shot from a level surface, and is often wholly visible in every frame he inhabits. Less serious and goofy characters often take up very small portions of the screen, and are shot on a downward angle, as if to make us literally look down upon them. As important as the use of angles with characters are, the score to the film is a character all its own. Franz Waxman is the mastermind behind this very

Alfred Hitchcock outdid himself once again when releasing, Vertigo, in 1958, which coined a new camera movement respectfully still referred to today as the “Vertigo Shot”. In this mysterious and disturbing love story, drawn out characterization tied with a specific repetitive camera movements, highlight the fantasy world the obsessively in love main character, Scottie, descents into when falling for a forbidden love. Through this alignment with Scottie, in Vertigo, Hitchcock brilliantly traps the audience in Scottie’s fantasy world along with him, where his illicit desires plausible, until Hitchcock cleverly employs certain point-of-view and narrative sequences allowing the audience by the end of the movie to come back to reality and realize

Auteur theory proposed during the 1950’s and 60’s argues that the director is the most important element in the making of a film. Alfred Hitchcock is an example of a well-known and highly successful director, whose audience appeal can be contributed to by his use of recurring themes and techniques throughout his films, including those such as voyeurism, use of the mother figure, lighting techniques and point of view camera shots. Psycho, Vertigo, Marnie, The Birds, and Strangers on a Train are all popular Hitchcock creations that are easily recognisable due to the inclusion of these elements, rendering the films unique and unmistakeable, with engaging characters, storylines and messages.

Alfred Hitchcock on the other hand was influenced by German expressionism and Soviet montage. Alfred was known as the “Master of Suspense”. His goal was to take the audience on a journey to escape the

The movie Citizen Kane was produced in 1941 and it’s a drama film produced by Orson Welles. This movie has won several awards such the best writing while nominated in the Academy awards. Many filmmakers, film critics, and fans consider it as one of, if not, the greatest film ever made; winning the votes of all the Sight and Sound categories it was nominated for. The cinematography, narrative structure, screenplay, and music involved in the movie were praised since it was one of the kind during its period in time. The film is about the rise and fall of a successful newspaper tycoon who is played by Welles himself. This paper entails a figurative research of the film entailing how various filming styles have been used in the entire production

Alfred Hitchcock has been noted as one of the best directors and film producers to ever live. Hitchcock raised several issues within his films and took risks such as filming the first ever toilet-flushing scene. Hitchcock was a director during the silent film era, and the era of “talkies”; even after films began to utilize dialogue to tell the story, Hitchcock uses music, costume design, lighting, shadows, and camera movement to tell his film’s story in addition to dialogue.

The narrative of fiction, the fixating structure of secrets and suspense is intertwined with plot, to a limited extent it is escapism. These concealment’s, the hiding of character traits, the structure of a sentence (as in Henry James Turn of the screw where the very kernel of sentences are left to the last word) secrets only we the audience and not the characters know. Perhaps epitomized in Hitchcock style the bomb beneath the table with its timer ticking down providing the audience with 15 minutes of suspense rather than a few seconds of surprise. This distinction in narrative is just as clear with suspense being the preferred mode of writing rather than surprise. That is of course excluding the “twist” scene the cinema classic scene of surprise.