HITCHCOCK as AUTEUR

HITCHCOCK’S BODY OF WORK

Auteur Theory

• What is an ‘Auteur’?• A director’s personal creative vision strongly conveyed in

body of work - they are the author of the work• The auteur exercises creative control over his or her works

and has a strong personal style• The creative voice is distinctive enough to shine through all

kinds of studio interference

• What is ‘Auteur Theory’?• Truffaut, 1954 – Cahiers du Cinema / French New Wave• The method of analyzing films based on this theory or, the

characteristics of a director's work that makes him an auteur.

FilmographyTHE EARLY YEARS / PRE-WAR BRITAIN HOLLYWOOD

1920s – Developing a reputationThe Pleasure Garden (1925) The Mountain Eagle (1926) The Lodger (1927) Downhill (1927) Easy Virtue (1928) The Ring (1927) The Farmer's Wife (1928) Champagne (1928) The Manxman (1929) Blackmail (1929) 1930s - The Early PeriodJuno and the Paycock (1930) Murder! (1930) The Skin Game (1931) Rich and Strange (1931) Number Seventeen (1932) Waltzes from Vienna (1934) The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) The 39 Steps (1935) Secret Agent (1936) Sabotage (1936) Young and Innocent (1937) The Lady Vanishes (1938) Jamaica Inn (1939)

1940s - Embracing AmericaRebecca (1940) Foreign Correspondent (1940) Mr and Mrs Smith (1941) Suspicion (1941) Saboteur (1942) Shadow of a Doubt (1943) Lifeboat (1944) Spellbound (1945) Notorious (1946) The Paradine Case (1947) Rope (1948) Under Capricorn (1949) 1950s - The Golden YearsStage Fright (1950) Strangers on a Train (1951) I Confess (1953) Dial M for Murder (1954) Rear Window (1954) To Catch a Thief (1955) The Trouble with Harry (1955) The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) The Wrong Man (1956) Vertigo (1958) North by Northwest (1959)

1960s - The Later YearsPsycho (1960) The Birds (1963) Marnie (1964) Torn Curtain (1966) Topaz (1969)  1970sFrenzy (1972)Family Plot (1976)

Hitchcock as auteur...

• Extensive body of work • Considered by critics to have a signature style:

“a Hitchcock film” despite working with Studios

• Signature style established using film form, plot devices, use of characters, manipulation of audience

• Worked almost exclusively on crime and suspense genre films, with comedy hybrids

Hitchcock as auteur...

BBC Hitchcock interview, 1964

Audiences tension amusing film canon

Talkies pure cinema the fright complex

avoiding clichés Emotional response

http://www.hitchcockwiki.com/wiki/Interview:_Alfred_Hitchcock_and_Huw_Wheldon_%28BBC%2C_05/Jul/1964%29

MASTER OF SUPENSE

Word search answers...

S T Y L E J P S M N C A Y E C Z F I O A R Q B C W E F I T U F S E M E H TT P I D Y M S V R I U D F I L C G J T T M Y S E C I H E L P O I U N V N P K J H G F D C K EE N I G M A S S E R W L O X B C N Z A

Hitchcock as auteur...• Motifs

• Staircases / houses / birds /national landmarks / portraits & paintings / jewellery / blondes / catholic iconography / confined space / mirrors

• Audience • let the audience “play god” / manipulation of spectatorship

• Style• ‘Pure cinema’ - film should communicate without dialogue / all formal elements were

scripted & storyboarded

• Themes • Ordinary people / mistaken identity/ love / sexuality / psychology/ trust & betrayal/

murder & crime as intelligent / voyeurism

• Enigmas• McGuffins / false plateaus

• Repetition • formal elements / plot devices / cast / themes / cameos

Vertigo’s canonical status• What is a canon?

• rules or principles established as valid and fundamental in a field or art or philosophy

• Examples that are deemed by critics to meet those rules and principles then take on canonical status

• What is a film canon?• A limited group of films that serve as the measuring stick for the highest quality in

the genre of film.• Chosen by critics and therefore elitist but, different groups of critics will have

different opinions

• Why has Vertigo achieved canonical status?• Seen to exemplify the achievements of studio system Hollywood film production• Mastering of film form - camerawork, editing, special effects, score and use of

mise-en-scene• Complexity of narrative, plot and themes