![]() ![]() Each line of dialogue is thus "covered" up to 16 to 20 times, under a variety of angles. Then, the director shoots various closer shots, and finally close-ups The actors move through the decor, they speak, and the camera films them in entirety (the master shot). To describe this "mise-en-scène" that makes Hitchcock so superior to the majority of directors today, let us say that it is less a question of technique than of écriture, a personal means of expression.įor example, almost all Hollywood directors arrange a scene as if it were theater. That it gives these tales a symbolic significance-that of a struggle between the sacred aspect of life, which is given to us, and the impure use we make of it. Us feel and recognize in ourselves insecurity, fear, compassion and relief.Ī man has killed, how will he be caught?-there you have "Shadow of a Doubt," "Stage Fright," "Dial M for Murder," "Psycho" and "Frenzy." A man is innocent of the crime he is accused of, how will he beĪble to clear himself?-there you have "The Thirty-Nine Steps," "I Confess," "The Wrong Man" and "North by Northwest."Īll these intrigues would not have left such a profound mark on the history of cinema had they not been fashioned by a rigorously masterful "mise-en-scène " in other words, Hitchcock's direction is not simply efficient, but so stylized Unlike the other great filmmakers-Chaplin, Lubitsch, John Ford-Hitchcock hardly puts forth a humanist message: He does not lead us to like "sympathetic characters" who are thrown into situations that ennoble them. On a Train," "The Man Who Knew Too Much," "Vertigo," "North by Northwest," "Psycho," "The Birds" and "Marnie," you will have listed merely one-fourth of a staggeringīody of work-the richest, longest, and most complete filmography of the directors who began in silent film. "The Lady Vanishes," "Notorious,"Īnd "Rear Window" would have been enough to assure the glory of any director, but if you add "The Thirty-Nine Steps," "Rebecca," "Suspicion," "Shadow of a Doubt," "Strangers Hitchcock - His True Power Is Emotion By FRANCOIS TRUFFAUT he career of Alfred Hitchcock, who will receive the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award on Wednesday, proves that a filmĭirector can be successful while remaining true to himself, while choosing his own subjects, treating them in his own way, and making his obsessions accepted by the entire world. ![]()
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