Alfred Hitchcock
Director as
Auteur
Bio Basics
 B. 1899,
Leytonstone
England
 Long career in
silent films
(Britain)
 Moved to
Hollywood in
1940
 Made lots of
movies
Early Years
 Began illustrating
title cards for
silent films
 Learned editing,
art production
and scripting
 Made The
Pleasure Garden
(1925) His First
film
Early Years
The Lodger (1926) introduced
classic scenario of an
innocent, unjustly accused,
then caught in a web of
intrigue
Blackmail & Murder (1929)
introduced connections
between sex and violence
Hitch Heads for
Hollywood
Rebecca (1940) introduces
another theme: woman losing
her identity
Lots of experimentation with
Hollywood money
Auteur Theory in America
Lifeboat (1941) Takes place in
a boat
Films and Concepts
Rope (48): the
perfect murder
Spellbound
(44):
Psychoanalysis
-- Dali dream
sequence
Psycho (60)
voyeurism
More
The Birds (63):
Manifestation
of evil is
naturally
occurring
Rear Window
(54) Genre
blending/voyeu
rism/ viewing
Quotes
"Always make the audience
suffer as much as possible"
"The length of a film should be
directly related to the endurance
of the human bladder"
Quotes
"Some of our most exquisite
murders have been domestic,
performed with tenderness in
simple, homey places like the
kitchen table”
"There is no terror in the bang,
only in the anticipation of it."
Innovations
Unique camera
placements/movements
Suspense over surprise/ Use
of dramatic irony
The MacGuffin
Gallows Humor
Examinations of sexuality,
violence, neuroses
Themes
Moral dubiousness…in particular regarding the
camera and voyeurism
Transference of guilt from guilty to innocents
Deceptiveness of Appearance
Unclear demarcation of good/evil
The institution of marriage
Sexually or tabooed areas assume central
places
The Doppleganger
Stylistic Consistencies
Expressive editing
Creative/challenging camera
angles
Shifting modes of
narration/deliberate omniscient
moments used for creation of
suspense
Works Cited
 Rohmer, Eric and Claude Chabrol,
Hitchcock: The First Forty-four Films
(New York: Ungar, 1979)
 Sarris, Andrew, The American Cinema:
Directors and Directions:1929-1968
(New York:Da Capo Press, 1996)
 Fabe, Marilyn, Closely Watched Films: An
Introduction to the Art of Narrative
Technique (University of California Press,
Berkley, 2004)
 Buckland, Warren, Film Studies (Hodder
Educational Press, London, 1998)