Alfred Hitchcock's Visionary Cinematic Language

this video is brought to you by mubi a curated streaming service showing exceptional films from around the globe get one month free at mubi.com discarded image alfred hitchcock is arguably the most important figure in the development of today's film grammar pioneering techniques that had their origins in silent cinema where he began his 50-plus year career he is perhaps most known for his iconic set pieces like the shower scene from psycho [Music] and the crop duster attack from the north by northwest sequences that stand out for their bold graphic nature yet even in the simplest of moments you will notice that it's the visuals that are primarily telling the story you can watch his films with the sound turned off and still understand what he's communicating whether it's using enlarged glasses to tell the audience these characters are being drugged or even more dramatic putting a light inside a glass of milk to suggest it's poisoned introducing a character from behind in silhouette to show he has a hidden motive for being there how about you handsome haven't i seen you somewhere before or the billowing smoke from a train as the villain comes to an innocent suburban town this is hitchcock's cinematic language [Music] even with relatively simple scene construction you can set up important character dynamics outside of the dialogue how do you do how'd you do miss daniels like hearing the birds where the camera holds on the face of the mother daniel's brought us some birds from san francisco oh establishing the conflicts you will bring to the relationship of the romantic leads in vertigo the introduction of scotty's object of desire madeleine is intensified by the size of the image the close-ups create an immediate this mysterious side angle of madeleine is also a consistent visual motif in both this film and others when you only see one side of her face you're only getting half of the story this is at it's most dramatic here in shadow of adele with the duplicitous uncle charlie who the audience and the main protagonist suspects is criminal faded fat greedy women they're alive they're human beings and at the end of his speech are they he looks directly into the camera it breaks the fourth wall startling the younger charlie and the intensity of the moment lets us understand how she's feeling hitchcock is famously a subjective filmmaker always aiming to put the audience into the shoes of his characters typically with shot reverse shot techniques and these directed camera moments are only used sparingly at pivotal moments to heighten our engagement what are you where did you come from [Music] i think you're the cause of all this it can also put us in the shoes of a monster like here in strangers on a train where this shot reminds bruno of a girl he murdered and it's repeated later with even more severe consequences mr anthony was saying to him somebody come quick somebody come quick the repetition of visual motifs is also common in hitchcock's work most notably in vertigo where it ties in with the narrative cyclical structure represented by these swirling lines in the opening sequence which foreshadows scotty's obsessive ritualistic nature it can also create a connection between characters like here in shadow of adele where charlie and her uncle are both introduced by similar imagery and psycho not long before her murder marion looks up at this sinister house and then the setups are repeated when another character goes to meet a similar fate [Music] at the height of this famous murder we get this bold high angle shot which is also repeated later hitchcock uses high angles frequently often to give a sense of dread and to accentuate tension this matter is best disposed of from a great height colonel kristen does the word topaz mean anything to you like here in topaz in what context where it suggests the character is being deceptive or in the man who knew too much where a couple's child is being threatened and after a first wave of carnage it gives a god's eye view of an impending apocalypse these ultra wide high angles are often used to punctuate the end of a set piece sometimes instead of establishing a location at the beginning he will leave it until the end [Music] so you only get fragments of information about a place's geography preserving the mystery until the final moment where the suspense is over and the characters fates are sealed of course hitchcock is known as a master of cinematic montage splicing fragments of imagery together for a cumulative effect but just as often he will use longer takes for a similar dramatic purpose in rope before it was fashionable he created a film that was meant to appear as if it was one long take but he didn't want to reinvent his grammar it was an experiment to see if instead of using a cut to move to a close-up for a dramatic moment you did it all in camera in reverse of this here in north by northwest to establish this scene's conflict he starts on the back of eve's head with the film's villain possessively stroking it and then pulls back to reveal the location where the drama will unfold as well as the lead protagonist who is part of this twisted romantic triangle notorious is packed full of shots like these most notably in a sequence involving the theft of a key first alicia walks from a wide shot into a close-up followed by her pov which is a dolly into the item in question [Music] and echoing that but far more grandiose is this high angle that moves down to reveal alicia with the key in her hand [Music] then later in the sequence from a wide the husband goes down to the basement to retrieve some more wine and then walks into this big close-up of the keys as he realizes one is missing when eventually the key is returned and he goes to check the wine cellar we get another extended shot here that moves into a close-up of a bottle and after this revelation what comes next a high angle of course but one that turns into a closer shot of alex and when he goes to tell his mother all about it we get possibly the most intense close-up high angle hitch ever shot to study hitchcock's work is to develop a keener sense of visual literacy one of his innate gifts was being able to intuitively know where to put a camera in order to maximize the impact of the action on screen his films were built from the ground up with everything designed and orchestrated in pre-production before even stepping onto a film set just like a musician composing a score whether it's something as big as a chase on the top of mount rushmore or just a guy sitting at a tennis match and not following the crowd these are cinematic ideas that can only be interpreted visually [Music] it's safe to say that not only was alfred hitchcock a major pioneer of the cinematic art form but also the horror film with psycho arguably giving birth to the slasher and with halloween coming up this video sponsor moobi has put together an eclectic collection of horrors from all over the world under the title trick or flick in the movie library in the us there are a number of films from one of my favorite horror directors and the so-called italian hitchcock dario argento who made the original suspiria argento was a true disciple of the master of suspense evolving his techniques with more bombastic camera work gordy lighting and graphic murder scenes every day movie premiere is a new film from timeless classics to cult favorites and acclaimed masterpieces so if you're looking for some film experts to help create your movie watching then i highly recommend you check them out they're real champions of the art form you can try movie free for 30 days at mubi.com slash the discarded image and get a whole month of great cinema for free [Music] you

Channel: The Discarded Image

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Keywords: alfred hitchcock movies, alfred hitchcock video essay, psycho explained, psycho shower scene, the birds alfred hitchcock analysis, psycho analysis film, north by northwest, vertigo explained, vertigo hitchcock analysis, notorious hitchcock key scene, notorious hitchcock analysis, film school, film theory, alfred hitchcock, cary grant, video essay, rear window, the birds, pure cinema

Id: Pl-kaL6kemo

Length: 9min 5sec (545 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 12 2020