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Auteur Theory: Sir Alfred Hitchcock “The Master of Suspense”. Film Criticism. Auteur Theory. Auteur Theory suggests that the “author” of a film is its director and the best films will bear their maker’s “signature” with an expression of the director’s personal vision.
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Auteur Theory:Sir Alfred Hitchcock“The Master of Suspense” Film Criticism
Auteur Theory • Auteur Theory suggests that the “author” of a film is its director and the best films will bear their maker’s “signature” with an expression of the director’s personal vision. • “There are no good and bad movies, only good and bad directors.”—Francois Truffaut
A Director’s “Stamp” • Recurring Themes & Motifs: the treatment of an idea seen throughout a body of work that implies the director’s beliefs or attitudes • Narrative Structure: how the director tells the story—how the plot begins, unfolds, and concludes • Stylistic Devices: camera shots/angles/ editing, visual treatment, symbolism, wit/humor, similar character types, same actors
Hitchcockian? • Known as the “Master of Suspense” • Most imitated filmmaker of all-time • According to Hitchcock, the traits his films have in common: • “Murder, mayhem, violence, sex, beautifully, pictorially expressed, lovely costumes, perfect cutting, and err … a joke or two.”
Master of Suspense Hitchcock once said: “The element of suspense is giving an audience information. Now, you and I are sitting here, suddenly a bomb goes off. Up we go blown to smithereens. What have the audience had watching this scene? Five or ten seconds of shock. Now, we do the scene over again, but we tell the audience there’s a bomb underneath the table and it’s going to go off in five minutes. Now this innocuous conversation about football becomes very potent. They say ‘don’t talk about football, there’s a bomb under there!’ Then their anxieties will be as long as that clock ticks away. But, the bomb must never go off.”
Recurring Themes • Identity: mistaken identity, search for identity • Innocent appearing guilty • Guilty appearing innocent • Running from someone/thing • Voyeurism (watching others) • Being/feeling “trapped” • Mistrust for the justice system • Fear of authority/police/government • Coincidence/fate; being “out of control” in a situation • Illusion vs. Reality
Recurring Motifs • Ordinary Men • Likable Villains • Portrayal of Women: blondes, “Ice Maiden” aloof female characters (Grace Kelly, Kim Novak, Tippi Hedren) • Mothers • Stairways • Birds
Narrative Structure • Innocent man on the run, linked to a woman • Showing rather than telling a story—using visual medium (camera) to convey the story in place of dialogue • “Chaos-World” that is hidden under civilized society
Stylistic Devices • Cameo Appearances: appearing briefly in each film • Macguffin: a detail which, by inciting curiosity and desire, drives the plot and motivates the actions of characters within the story, but whose specific identity and nature is unimportant to the spectator of the film (the statue in The Maltese Falcon, the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, Carlotta Valdes in Vertigo); cf.Red Herring—diversion or distraction, completely insignificant to plot ($40,000 in Psycho) • Hitchcockian Zoom (camera is pulled away from a subject whilst the lens zooms in, or vice-versa to create an unsettling visual effect)
Other Stylistic Devices • “Ultra-Realism”: Melodrama (heightened emotion—especially through musical score) and Surrealistic Images (conflicting with reality) • Bold Montage Editing (the shower scene in Psycho—less than 1 minute long with 70 different shots) • Aerial Shots (at the end of a sequence to signify ironic detachment from the subject—post-shower scene in Psycho)
On Film Mission in Life: “To scare the hell out of people.” On Audience: “Always make the audience suffer as much as possible.” On Film Duration: “The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.”
On Filmmaking “Everything is decided on paper. I do not improvise while the picture is being made: if you don’t make your picture on paper ahead of time with all the desired effects, if you cannot visualize or hear, then this will be like a musician composing with a full orchestra in front of him.” –Hitchcock
On Fear “I’m frightened of eggs, worse than frightened, they revolt me. That white round thing without any holes … have you ever seen anything more revolting than an egg yolk breaking and spilling its yellow liquid? Blood is jolly, red. But egg yolk is yellow, revolting. I’ve never tasted it.”–Hitchcock “I’m scared easily; here is a list of my adrenaline-production: 1) small children, 2) policemen, 3) high places, 4) that my next movie will not be as good as the last one.”
On Actors “When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say ‘It’s in the script.’ If he says, ‘But what’s my motivation?’ I say, ‘Your salary.’” “I didn’t say actors are cattle. I said they should be treated like cattle.”
Heroines Kim Novak Grace Kelly Janet Leigh Eva Marie Saint
