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Alfred Hitchcock's Use Of Suspense In Film

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Suspense is a difficult art to master--that certain balance between nervousness and excitement is achieved by so few. Nonetheless, Alfred Hitchcock has the magic touch when it comes to keeping viewers on the edge of their seats. Fifty percent of the time, when an audience is taken over by suspense, its thanks to one of his original films--the other fifty percent is only just watching Hitchcock's tactics re-stitched into modern movies. His film North by Northwest is a prime example of Hitchcock's intelligence and experience in this form of art, being "regarded by many as the very quintessence of a Hitchcock film," critically acclaimed reviewer for Films de France, James Travers, notes (par. 1). Through critical elements of the mis en scene, …show more content…

Hitchcock employs suspense through the use of both small and wide open spaces throughout Thornhill's journey. Scott McGee, Jeff Stafford, Lang Thompson, authors for Turner Classic Movies, and David Ehrenstein, whom reviewed this film in The Criterion Collection, all equally praise Hitchcock for his placement of Roger Thornhill "at the tender mercies of a broad daylight film" (Ehrenstein par.3) along with open and defined spaces that slowly build up the tension (McGee par.9). In a fake attempt to help Thornhill, Kendall sends him to a vast, open, dusty plain lined with crops enclosing a single road passing through claiming Kaplan will meet him there to speak with him. The emptiness kicks in and each time a car speeds down the road, the audience is hoping just as much as Thornhill that it will be Kaplan; or anyone of the matter. Even towards the end of the movie, in the final chase scene upon the top of Mount Rushmore, Thornhill has a large amount of woods to run through, but both he and the viewers realize he's thousands of feet up when he ends up at the edge of the cliff. In the most free he has ever been in the movie, he still finds himself

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“Suspense combines curiosity with fear and pulls them up a rising slope,” quote by Mason Cooley summarizes the idea of how W.F. Harvey creates suspense in his short story, “August Heats.” Everyone likes a little suspense in their life so W.F. Harvey attracts his audience by using foreshadowing, “the use of hints to suggest events later in the plot,” (source 1) a reversal is involved, “a sudden change in a character’s situation from good to bad or vice versa,” (source 1) and the narrator withholds information from the reader. With these steps the author intrigues the audience to continue reading and cause them to feel frightened as they read. W.F. Harvey first begins to get the character interested in the reading by the way he signals hints towards the reader in order to get them thinking about events that could possibly happen. As the reader continues reading W.F. Harvey introduces more hints that might change the way of thinking of the reader.

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In the chapter one of the Scarlet letter, written on the 1850s, the author Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes the tones of suspense and somber. This two tones, refer to the description of the setting Hawthorne was trying to imply, by describing it as a frightful and dark place. Not only that, but the tones can also be determined throughout the entire chapter making the story more interesting and intriguing. Hawthorne begins the chapter by deploying a third person point of view, which creates a suspense during the introduction. However, as the chapter continues the third person cannot be concluded from the fact that there are no characters being introduced to the reading.

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Techniques To Create Suspense In Rear Window By Alfred Hitchcock

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Throughout the film “Rear Window,” Alfred Hitchcock uses a multitude of techniques to create and weave suspense into the plot. Throughout the film, viewers and characters are mostly aware that Mr. Thurwald is a shady person with a rocky relationship; there is no suspense about the actual murder, but the fact that they are living in the same complex as the murderer. One technique is through montages; to call attention to 1:35-1:42, or the break-in montage, the attention goes from Jeff to Jeff’s view, which shifts from the sleuthing woman to Miss Lonelyhearts, by the time he looks back to Lisa and Stella, Lisa is climbing into the apartment, then so on and so forth. Eyes are not always on the important moments, they shift with Jeff, so we get

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723 Words | 3 Pages

Alfred Hitchcock once said, “If it's a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on.” This quote entirely sums up the reasons I loved Hitchcock’s movie Rear Window. Made in the 50s, this film revolves around L.B. Jefferies, an adventurous photographer who has broken his leg and is stuck in a wheelchair, watching his neighbours out his apartment window for entertainment. In his last housebound week, Jeff becomes convinced that a murder has taken place in the apartment across from him. This film is visually stunning: Alfred Hitchcock’s use of light and dark, the actors’ way of communicating feelings without words, and the costumes in the film are three reasons why this movie

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Rear Window Mise En Scene Analysis

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Both of Alfred Hitchcock’s films, North by Northwest and Rear Window, were great movies with lots of suspense. The suspense, however, would not have been created without the entire mise-en-scene of the movies. Hitchcock was a master at using the elements of lighting, sound, and cinematography to heighten the suspense in his movies. The first key element of mise-en-scene that played a significant role in both movies was lighting.

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Suspense In And Then There Were None By Agatha Christie

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The History Of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

150 Words | 1 Pages

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791 Words | 4 Pages

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136 Words | 1 Pages

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