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Cinemaic Techniques In Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho

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Alfred Hitchcock’s complexly powerful psychological slasher thriller, Psycho (1960) became the pioneer for Hitchcock’s successful directing career and also for a new genre of film. Psycho started a new era of 'slashers' with never before seen blood-letting and graphic, shocking killings. With his meticulous directing style, being well known as an Auteur, paying attention to every inch of detail in each frame of his films that no only create filmic masterpieces but also slyly manipulates and guides the audiences to identify the hidden message of duality in human nature and the struggle between right and wrong. This will be explored by focusing on Norman Bates the antagonist of the film and how his two sides are exposed through the filmic techniques …show more content…

In the opening credits, which are simply black, white and grey, already starts to set up the idea of duality and emphasises Hitchcock’s meticulous attention to detail. As violins play in time with the slashing action of grey lines on screen that reveal the names of the actors and practitioners a part of the film, the audience already starts to feel uncomfortable and anticipation. As the music rises and descends, almost jumpy, used along with black and white and mirror images, resembling the duality within the film with the contrasting sounds, colours and shapes. This could perhaps symbolise the splits and two sides of the personalities of character as when Anthony Perkins’ (Norman Bates) name appears it is slashed into two which does not happen to any other name, this foreshadows his dual personality. The busy and frantic credit animations set the audience up to already feel uncomfortable and overwhelmed, which is perhaps the way Hitchcock wanted the audience to feel before the film started as well as to set up the idea of duality within the coming characters. Further, the opening credits are alike to the title, Psychotic and don't fit normal film conventions, intentionally done to hint at the duality and the conflicting good and bad sides within the characters soon to be seen in the

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Hitchcock uses Rear Window to examine the U.S.’s global Cold War strategy. The films use of many paranoia scenes such as when L.B. Jefferies discovered Thorwald making many late-night trips and noticing the missing wedding ring of Mrs. Thorwald encourages viewers to consider the post-war anxieties and personal surveillance of politics in the construction of the U.S’ s ideas about the world and possible consequences. In the film, L.B Jefferies, the protagonist, spies on the insides of many nearby apartments during a heat wave. L.B Jefferies observed people that were happy and jolly but he also saw sadness and loneliness in homes. For instance, in the film, there was a scene where a lady was having a romantic dinner with herself at night.

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Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) is said to be the film that set the stage for horror/thriller movies. It is a perfectly timed classic with little to no room for improvement. What makes this film so fantastic is Hitchcock’s use of mise-en-scene, which include lighting and camera angles. Psycho is a film full of suspense, despair, and tragedy. There are three scene in which I find most iconic based on the use of mise-en-scene.

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For example, the use of upbeat, romantic music underscores the moments when Harry and Sally are falling in love, while the use of melancholy or contemplative music conveys their periods of introspection and self-discovery. The film also uses visual editing techniques to highlight the character arcs. For example, when Harry and Sally are first introduced, the film employs fast-paced cuts that convey their youthful energy and

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Released in 1958, Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo was a film centering around lies and obsession. After being released from his job as a detective after he got acrophobia, John “Scottie” Ferguson is asked to follow his friend’s wife, Madeleine. Scottie starts up an affair with her, being drawn to her mystery. After she commits suicide, Scottie struggles with guilt. When he sees another version of Madeleine, his obsession pushes him to remake the woman into Madeleine.

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In the beginning of the movie they used suspenseful music and imagery to keep the viewer more interested and make the viewer want to know what the “Secret” is and this is part of the logical chain of reasoning known as Pathos. Pathos is

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To the unknown eye, Hitchcock has carefully and skillfully used Mise-en-scene to his advantage, causing the audience to feel fear and a sense of caution towards the character of Norman Bates. It isn’t until we reflect back on the scene and notice how intelligently Hitchcock uses the positioning of props and the characters, lighting, camera angle and staging, that we notice how he has added meaning to his characters but has also to the film, creating suspense and fear from one scene to the end of the film. Ultimately proving the point that Hitchcock “the master of suspense” uses Mise-en-scene to not only help make a brilliant film but also uses it as his disposal to add meaning in his

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Is Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Rear Window’ an appropriate text for VCE English in 2018? A speech delivered by a young feminist teacher to the Victorian Department of Education Conference on VCE text selection. October 17, 2017—Speech—Jemina Smith Good morning, my name is Jemina Jade Smith, and I am thrilled to have been given the opportunity to speak at this conference, to share my thoughts on the department’s selection of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window as one of our Year 12 English prescribed texts. I have not taught this text previously, and last month, I decided to watch a re-release of the film.

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“Thriller,” just like Michael Jackson’s hit song, has become one of the most popular genres amongst movie audiences. The thriller genre consists, “…of films known to promote intense excitement, suspense, a high level of anticipation…anxiety and nerve-wracking tension” (Tim Dirks). Thriller movies take viewers on an emotional rollercoaster ride by making them unsure of what will happen next and whether or not the main character will complete their goal. One of the most influential directors in the thriller genre was Alfred Hitchcock. Since the start of his career 1927, Hitchcock directed many thriller movies, such as Rear Window, and soon became known as the, “auteur master of the thriller or suspense genre” (Tim Dirks).

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Alfred Hitchcock went through so many hard challenges to make this film, watching Psycho you understand why. The movie is disturbing, scary, it's unlike any movie we've ever seen. Given the many incredible films Mr. Hitchcock has directed, Psycho is by far his best work it's breath taking. Janet Leigh was a tour de force, Anthony Perkins was spellbinding in this terrifying role of Norman Bates. Innkeeper at the Bates Motel.

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His use of music, frame, angles, colors and other techniques engage the makes the audience feel as part of the movie. The question now is not the beauty of Hitchcock’s work but is more about investigating the techniques he used to understand the way he thinks and work. In this essay, two movies, “Strangers On A Train” and “Rare Window,” will be studied. The opening scene in Rare Window tells a lot

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How did alfred hitchcock create suspense in his film psycho? Alfred Hitchcock is known as the master of suspense; and for good reason. He is a innovator of the film industry and his 1960 film ‘Psycho’ revolutinised the film industry choice of using black and white photography film music he used throughout use of camera to lead the narration lack of dialogue in many scenes use of his plot - $40,000 theft is only a small part of the film but begins the story Normam bates character (duality) hints early on of his two indenittites - you never see them together except when he carries her down to the cellar and that is a bird’s eye shot the conversation revealing Norman’s mother’s death 10 years ago the fact that Norman appears to get away with

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This scene completely diminishes the fear and horror suggested by the manipulative title. For instance, you would not expect a horror movie to start out this way, yet this film does exactly that. Moreover, the tone of

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Early in the film, the importance of background music and its use can be seen. The music is used to create the mood, whether it be the eerie violin audio that often can be heard at times where suspense is anticipated or the same music to create sorrow for the overall significance of the film. The film being built upon a murder case creates fury and differing viewpoints between the main characters which often can be related to prejudice. The use of details not only makes the murder more interesting but also the overall scene more intense. The detailed dialogue among the characters is so precise it offers minute details such as the witness statement of the time of the crime, the entry way of the weapon, and the witness testifying without her glasses.

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Like, we can see that the use of red and black color adds suspense and thriller elements in the movie. Mostly, the characters in the movie can be seen wearing red color dress and when Cole gets thrilling experiences of ghost it is mostly shown under the red light. Some of the scene of darkness and low-light are also shown to further thrill the viewers. Mostly the picture of fear and terror can be seen through Cole's eyes. In most of the part of the film he can be seen scared and nervous.

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However, film critic, Robin Wood, argues that ‘since Psycho, the Hollywood cinema has implicitly recognised horror as both American and familial’ he then goes on to connect this with Psycho by claiming that it is an “innovative and influential film because it supposedly presents its horror not as the produce of forces outside American society, bit a product of the patriarchal family which is the fundamental institution of American society” he goes on to discuss how our civilisation either represses or oppresses (Skal, 1994). Woods claim then suggests that in Psycho, it is the repressions and tensions within the normal American family which produces the monster, not some alien force which was seen and suggested throughout the 1950 horror films. At the beginning of the 60’s, feminisation was regarded as castration not humanization. In “Psycho” (1960) it is claimed that the film presents conservative “moral lessons about gender roles of that the strong male is healthy and normal and the sensitive male is a disturbed figure who suffers from gener confusion” (Skal, 1994). In this section of this chapter I will look closely at how “Psycho” (1960) has layers of non-hetro-conforming and gender-non conforming themes through the use of Norman Bates whose gender identitiy is portrayed as being somewhere between male and female

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