The Master Of Suspense And Alfred Hitchcock

In this essay I have chosen to analyse two key scenes, each from two of Hitchcock’s most critically acclaimed films, ‘The Birds’ (1963) and ‘Psycho’ (1960). Both of these scenes from both films display the female protagonists at their most vulnerable, facing the threat and fear of death.

What makes Hitchcock an Auteur is that he uses styles in his films in which in that if it was found in another movie the watchers would in a split second realize that he made it since he generally adheres to his one of a kind styles.

Hitchcock uses many techniques throughout the film “Rear Window” to convey suspense. The major theme of the film regards Jefferies voyeurism. His intrigue in the everyday lives of his neighbours is viewed as intrusive and morally wrong on principle. However, without this voyeuristic tendency the crime committed by Thornwald would never have been solved. Thus, the audience is lead through emotional turmoil in questioning whether it is wrong to invade someone’s privacy, or just and heroic to solve a crime. We see the climax of the film when Lisa and Stella venture out of Jefferies apartment to investigate the murder of Mrs Thornwald. This leads to a confrontation between Thornwald and Jefferies. These scenes build suspense through the use of detachment, the use of ‘split-screen’, ‘red-herring’ plot devices, lighting, music and diegetic sound.

Alfred Hitchcock uses many techniques throughout the film “Rear Window” to convey suspense. The major theme of the film regards L. B. “Jeff” Jefferies voyeurism. His intrigue in the everyday lives of his neighbours is viewed as intrusive and morally wrong on principle. However, without this voyeuristic tendency the crime committed by Thornwald would never have been solved. Thus, the audience is lead through emotional turmoil in questioning whether it is wrong to invade someone’s privacy, or just and heroic to solve a crime. We see the climax of the film when Lisa and Stella venture out of Jefferies apartment to investigate the murder of Mrs Thornwald. This leads to a confrontation between Thornwald and Jefferies. These scenes build suspense through the use of detachment, the use of ‘split-screen’, ‘red-herring’ plot devices, lighting, music and diegetic sound.

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

Alfred Hitchcock in the film Psycho and Peter Shaffer in his stage production Equus both explore the true nightmares that manifest from sexual and emotional repression. The writers emphasise the motives and the reason for the characters actions opposed to how the causations of this repression occurred. Conversely, both works draw on the common theme of the disturbed human psyche, offering a critical perspective on the upbringing of each individual with regards to their early development, each characters subcontious fixations and abnormal behaviours through the use characters behaviours and representations. The characters Norman Bates and Marion Crane in Psycho and Allan Strang and Martin Dysart of Equus all face internal struggles against

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born on August 13, 1899 in London. He worked in engineering for a few years before he entered the film industry 1920. In 1939 he won an Oscar for his first American film, Rebecca, and therefore moved to Hollywood. He’s made over 50 movies, including Psycho, The Birds, and Vertigo. These films were the first to really introduce and combine suspense with sex and violence. This was essentially the reason that he was coined the term “Master of Suspense” because no other director had explored these themes previously (bio.com). Many of his movies allude to moments and scenarios not only from when he was growing up, but also have similarities within each other – most notably Psycho (1960) and The Birds (1963).

A thriller is a type of film that usually instills excitement and suspense into the audience. A thriller is commonly described as a tense edge of the seat environment. The movie, Vertigo, is one of the most famous thrillers ever made. However, Vertigo does not fit into the stereotypical genre of thriller. Vertigo, often viewed as an experimental film because it was one of the first major thrillers of that time that used many different and innovative camera techniques. These techniques used in this film are different types of lighting, montage, intense music, etc. Vertigo is known to be one of Hitchcock’s best movies because of his unique sense of style and his famous

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,

The first half of this course focused on Alfred Hitchcock and how his techniques are now recognized as iconic. From class discussions and film screenings, it is clear that Hitchcock pays every attention to detail when he crafts a scene. Many Hitchcock films we have seen this semester highlight how he builds suspense through cinematic elements such as shadow, dialogue, and composition. While many of his suspenseful scenes stir feelings of intensity and uncertainty, Alfred Hitchcock builds a more romantic suspense in his 1955 film To Catch a Thief in the fireworks scene (1:06:35-1:11:00).

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.

When people think of Alfred Hitchcock people usually tend to think about his later work, most notably Psycho, North by

In Vertigo, Hitchcock begins with building credibility and composure in Scottie’s character. The film starts off with a chasing scene in

In his trajectory, Hitchcock was called by many the father of suspense. Usually, his films would contain a deep level of psychological thrill that would captivate his audience. Similarly, Nolan was perhaps influenced by Hitchcock and integrated the same degree of suspense and psychological thrill to his films. Nonetheless, the question becomes why would they choose this route, and the answer we find in psychology. There are people with adrenaline-seeking behavior, which means such individuals enjoy the adrenalin released through fear experiences. Nevertheless, real life dangerous situations could lead to death; as a result, people found a way to experience, to some extent, a similar level of fear without jeopardizing their lives. Possibly, both Hitchcock and Nolan had at least a basic understanding of how the human psyche works and incorporated the suspense