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The Master Of Suspense In Rebecca By Alfred Hitchcock

1831 Words8 Pages

Known as the “master of suspense”, Alfred Hitchcock was one of the most prominent and influential directors of the 20th century. His unique style, which utilizes situational irony as well as other cinematographic techniques, creates tension and discomfort in the audience and is seen in his psychological thriller, Rebecca. Though the movie lacks much of the modern technology seen today, it still effectively invokes feelings of unease due to Hitchcock’s masterful use of mise en scene, sound, and camera work. Firstly, the setting that Rebecca takes place in really adds to the sense of mystery that is felt throughout the movie and plays with the audience’s fear of the unknown. Taking place inside an isolated castle located far away from civilization …show more content…

Danvers, as well as the mysteriousness of Manderley, Hitchcock relies heavily on staging and camera work. For example, the presence of the “R” symbol which represents Rebecca’s post-mortem presence is a result of Hitchcock deliberately placing the symbol in locations that would appear next to Mrs. De Winters. In one of the scenes, Mrs. De Winters is crying on a bed and once she gets up, it is revealed she had been crying into a pillow with the “R” logo on it, emphasizing the feeling of entrapment she feels as the result of Rebecca’s influence even past her death. Furthermore, Hitchcock manipulates the stage in a way that creates worry in the audience by using objects to hide elements from the audience and the main protagonist, Mrs. De Winters. This is seen especially in the scene where Mrs. De Winters explores Rebecca’s room for the first time, where the clever use of curtains obscures parts of the room, leaving the viewer to feel nervous about what lies behind them. It amplifies the shock when it is revealed that the curtains hid a fully preserved makeup table that Rebecca used, with every item the way it was the day before she died. Moreover, this scene demonstrates one of Hitchcock’s common film tropes that he employs, where whenever one question seems to be about to be answered, another one arises as Mrs. De Winters seemingly discovers more about Rebecca, yet uncovers some more uncertainties about her as she explores Rebecca’s room (Falsafi et.al 2521). But beyond Rebecca’s symbol, Hitchcock also places a black dog in many scenes where tension might arise such as when Mrs. De Winters is exploring the old shack where Rebecca died and when she overhears Mrs. Danvers and Favell speaking about her. Since a black dog in media often represents death, the appearance of this dog in those scenes plays with the audience’s perception of the scene, making them worry about what is about to

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, “What is in the case?”, and “Why is he making so many trips back and forth in the rain?”. Hitchcock has drawn us into partaking in his film

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Alfred Hitchcock successfully performs suspense and shock in a number of ways. One way was when he reveals that the cop is following her, making us think that he found out concerning the money she stole. Another way is when we see Norman staring through the hole, examining her as if he is waiting to make his move. The last technique that Hitchcock constructed suspense is when we identify a shadowy character gazing at her take a shower, making us wonder who it could

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In the 1954 film, Rear Window, Alfred Hitchcock uses the depicted sequence of frames to evoke feelings of anxiety and suspense in the audience by portraying an invasion of privacy and the fear of being caught breaking that boundary that society tends to cherish and protect. When assessed individually, the chosen frames provide a partial, but incomplete evocation of suspense. In the first of the two frames, the audience is outside looking into an apartment building with three people in view, none of whom are composed in a way that would suggest they know where the others in the building are. Additionally, the woman on the upper floor is smiling and waving in the direction of the audience. Coon explains that Hitchcock draws on “societal anxieties

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A good example of this would be when Hannay and Pamela entered the hotel and talked to the hotel owners. Hitchcock zoomed into the owners face where no dialogue was needed to show that the characters were suspicious at first. Now, in order to show Hannay and Pamela’s marriage link through the film’s imagery, Hitchcock used a variety of imagery to suggest a romantic relationship link. The handcuffs could be seen as a symbol of wedding rings. Also the scene where they got into the car with the mistaken police, can be seen as the moment where they are off to their own honeymoon, which they later do go to a hotel and appear to be a recent married couple.

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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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Dreams are often viewed as peaceful escapes, but sometimes dreams make someone's worst nightmares come true. In a excerpt from Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, The narrator describes a dream where she walks up on a abandon house that has been consumed by nature. The author uses spooky diction to describe the many setting of the story. She used words like nightmarish, tenacious, and haunting to describe the gate the trail and the house. This setting created a very dreary mood.

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Alfred Hitchcock's cinematic adaptation of Rear Window maintains this psychological tension by visually presenting the protagonist, L.B. Jefferies' intense observation of his neighbors. The montage of different apartment windows weaves together a tapestry of urban lives unfolding simultaneously, enticing viewers to join Jefferies in scrutinizing and forming judgments. Hitchcock ingeniously uses the camera to simulate Jefferies' perspective, inviting the audience to participate in the act of close observation. We become complicit in his watching, our own curiosity piqued by the tantalizing snippets we glimpse. Yet, Hitchcock deftly subverts our assumptions with instances of dramatic irony—like the provocative dancer revealed to be a

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Due to his success in Britain, Hitchcock moves to Hollywood to direct Rebecca (1940), which wins the Academy Award for best picture and Hitchcock earns his first Oscar nomination for best director. This became the start to his lasting legacy as an Auteur in the film industry and companies start referring to his films as Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1953), Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), or Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963) and he became “The Master of Suspense”. According to Hitchcock, the traits his films have in common are “Murder, mayhem, violence, sex, beautifully, pictorially expressed, lovely costumes, perfect cutting, and err … a joke or two.” As an Auteur, he gives off recurring themes or running motifs in his films such as

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In the book Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier I am going to analyze the techniques De Maurier uses to build suspense around Rebecca's death, Maxim’s Confession, and the inquest when the boat is found. I am also going to tell you how Du Maurier uses techniques such as dramatic irony around Maxim’s confession to create suspense and a couple of other ways suspense has been built so far. In the Book Rebecca, dramatic irony is used a lot because when Mr.Danvers tells the Narroraot that he killed the late Mrs.Danvers we all know that but when Her ship is found and the courtroom is in session none else knows about what he did as it says on page 270 “The woman buried in the crypt is not Rebecca,” he said. “It’s the body of some unknown woman, unclaimed,

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Hollywood has always done a terrible job of depicting real women in film, and although his work has a somewhat misogynistic reputation, Alfred Hitchcock has done so much involving the progression of female roles in Hollywood cinema. Although many of his female victims wind up dead, the survivors have lots of power – and without reliance on their male counterparts. Women remain the central focus in many of Hitchcock’s films, not just because of their beauty, but because the narrative is dependent on them. When you look at his work in the context of this specific Hollywood era, Hitchcock’s female characters are very much out of the ordinary. Looking past the obvious presence of gender roles (male and female) that just so happened to be a part of the social norm during that time, Hitchcock sought to represent women with having more depth, realism, and independence than ever before in women in Hollywood.

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These were explored by the use of the motifs of birds, eyes, hands and mirrors (Filmsite.org, n.d.). Hitchcock skilfully guides the audiences through a tale

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