Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock was possibly the leading director in the genre of Thriller and this blog is dedicated to the man himself!! Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born 13 August 1899, in Leytonstone, London. His film career started int the 1920's. Hitchcock made many film's here in the UK using the expressionist form of cinema he was shown in Germany. In 1939 Hollywood came calling and he went out there and made his first Hollywood movie "Rebecca" and this won the "Best Movie" Oscar in 1940. Hitchcock made his last film in 1976 , "Family Plot" and then died 29 April 1980. In most of Hitchcocks films he likes to present his characters in a visual way rather than through the use of dialogue. We then anaylised further the open sequence to "Shadow of a Doubt".

• The "Merry Widow" song that is in the credits continues when we get shown the first shot of the industrial area this is a 'Sound Bridge'.


• Most of the shots in the start of this film are edited using dissolves.


• Throughout the scenes of the industrial area and then a poor 'down town' street there is music and it get more dramatic as we see shots of a house, then a window in that house and then a man lying on a bed (which we find out later is the Protagonist - Uncle Charlie).


• The man is holding a cigar in his hand whilst laying on the bed and this porves he is sophisticated and has plenty of money. this is further conformed by pin-striped suit he is wearing.


• There is low key lighting in the room where this man is lying.


• The camera starts moving aroudn to show character detials such as lots of money, some of which is on the floor. This proves that he has money but does not care about it.


• As the blind is closed on him the music once again builds up and becomes much more sinister.


• Later in the clip we saw there is a high angled shot of the 2 men chasing the protagonist and this is also from the protagonists point of view which show the he has the upper hand.


• Then we can see some mirroring because we are then shown a total different place called Santa Rosa which is the opposite to the poor down town city we were just shown. It is the perfect suburban town with big white hoses, expensive cars, everyone look joyous and happy and the music that goes with this scene is very cheerful and light.


• We then see the same set of shot of the house, then a window then (this time) a girl laying on the bed the same way the man had done. This is mirroring the protagonist Uncle Charlie and his nice Charlie.

We then analysed the opening sequence of another Hitchcock film "Vertigo"....

• We see a woman's face and then a eye. This women must have some significant in the film later on.


• The opening credits are full of swirly patterns to reflect the feeling of vertigo.


• The same woman's face then reappears but then goes red which has connotations of passion and danger which also gives us some idea of what may happen later.


• The first shot we see is a close-up of a hand. This hand is then followed by a body of a main, then this man is followed by a police officer, then a detective. The action then starts with a chase and music the music builds up, pace wise.


• The detective is our protagonist and when he falls off the roof we see his fear of heights and this is shown using a "reverse zoom" whereby everything towards us and moves away at the same time.

We then anaylised another Hitchcock film "North by Northwest"...

• Opening credits are lines across the screen that then dissolve and become the side of a building.


• Unlike most of the other Hitchcock this film is heavy on dialogue at the very start of the film.


• We meet the protagonist who is a cocky, confident character. He has alot of women that he doesn't really care about. He has alot of money and a very good relationship with his mother, who is dominating character and this is present in most Hitchcock films.