1930-1961: Vertigo: Alred Hitchcock considered an Auteur

  Auteur: A director with a specific style.

Common theme: Red

Hitchcock always uses red as an auteur:

    - Blood

    - Murder

    - Love

Religious views

Hitchcock attended a catholic school as a child, his films occasionally include religious iconography

Hitchcock started making films in the silent era which allowed him to develop the importance of Cinema Pur (French term: means pure cinema)

He spent time working in Germany and was influenced by German expressionism. The films were known for surrealism, psychological, warped style and expressionist set designs. (mise-en-scene and cinematography)

He was influenced by the Soviet montage movement including the Kuleshov effect and Eisensteinien montages (Intellectual montages).

Hitchcock cinematic style:

    - Cinema Pur: Henri Chomette

    - Meticulous design

    - Perfectly balanced compositions

    - Perfect editing

    - Surrealism

            Montage sequence breaks conventions

    - Experimental cinematography

            High angle shots shot on a crane

Mise-en-scene and narrative:

    - Stairs

    - Doorways

    - Falling from high places

    - overbearing mothers/mother figures

    - Perfect murder

    - Charming villains   

    - MacGuffins

            Something that is insignificant and is used to throw the audience off.

    - Dream like logic.

            Obsession with madelleine. 

Quote from Hitchcock:

"Im never satisfied wit the ordinary. I cant do well at the ordinary"

The wrong man:

    -An inocnet man is falsey accused -, pursued or persecuted

    - Mistaken identity

    - A hero must aim to provetheir innocence

    - This comes from Hitchcocks fear pf police after his father sent him to jail as a child.

Voyerism:

(sexual pleasure)

    - Scopophilia

    - The love of looking/watching

    - The fetish of looking

The Hitchcock blonde:

    - Ice cold blonde

    - Mysterious

    - Puzzles

    - Pursued/tamed by the hero

Sexual Taboo:

Mise-en-scene

    - Incest - Psycho (1960)

    - Necrohphilia - Vertigo (1958)

    - Psychoanalysis - Castration Anxiety, fetishism, Oedipus Complex.

            

Iconography:

Auteur style and cinematography

    - Famous landmarks

Cameos:

    Hitchcock liked to be in his own films

Technicolour:

Mise-en-scene

Aesthetic effect- links to auteurism

Colour used for metaphors and meaning rather than just to look pretty.

Frequent collaborations:

    -Famous actors

James Stuart

Cary Grant

Grace Kelly

Tippi Hedren

Opening:

We learn about Scotty and he is hired to follow Madeleine

First scene:

When scotty first sees madelleiene there are themes of red such as the wallpaper and carpets, which connotes love.

Religious iconography

Headstones connotes death

Madelliene is obsessed with Carletta, she wants to be just like her. 

    - bouquet

    - hair

Intro, stalking, initial murder, ending

Analyse how mise-en-scene creates aesthetic effects.

Vertigo was directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1958.