For the purpose of this essay, I will be demonstrating and evaluating whether the film director and producer, Sir Alfred Hitchcock was a “Metteur en scene” or an “auteur”, based on two of his films; Psycho (1960) and The Birds (1963). In other words, I’ll be evaluating whether he was a unique and outstanding filmmaker or if he was just like any other regular filmmaker. I’ll begin by giving a little background information about Alfred Hitchcock. Alfred Hitchcock was giving birth to in Leytonstone, Essex in England in the year 1899 and passed away in the year 1980. Hitchcock during his lifetime, was a director, producer and screenwriter. In fifty years, he directed fifty-three feature films of which twenty-three were in the British period and
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One similarity is that Hitchcock used “zooming in” camera technique, in both of these movies, to show the particular details, so the audience would be more aware of the objects and give them hints to figure out the storyline or the mystery that’s happening in the film. An example in Psycho is the shower scene where Normans mother comes to kill her. Hitchcock uses extreme close up to show the knife that Norman’s mum kills Marion with, the audience also sees Marion’s facial expression. In The Birds, when Melanie goes up the stairs, to inspect what had happened. As soon as she opens the doors a huge amount of birds begin to attack her. At this point Hitchcock zooms in using extreme close up shots to show when the birds are attacking and biting her as well as her facial expression. It can be concluded from these two different scenes that Hitchcock, plays with the audience wits and nerves, while building suspense in his …show more content…
In Psycho he appears when he was viewed through Marion’s office window, standing on the sidewalk. In The Birds, he appeared on the camera, right at the beginning of the film while he was walking out from the San Francisco’s Davidson’s pet shop with his two white dogs. Another similarity has to do with the psychological part of both films. Alfred Hitchcock uses romance is an unusual way in both films. In Psycho, Hitchcock uses romance in an illogical, perverse way. In The Birds, he uses romance in an obsessive way.
All things considered, by and large, Hitchcock has been creating a consistency within his filmography that is necessary for “auteurism”. His work can be recognized immediately when watching one of his films because of his clear cinematic style. You could show any film enthusiast a scene from a certain kind of film and they would be able to tell if it was in Hitchcock’s style. If there was one internationally popular film director in the 1950s who fit the auteur theory, it was
One similarity is that Hitchcock used “zooming in” camera technique, in both of these movies, to show the particular details, so the audience would be more aware of the objects and give them hints to figure out the storyline or the mystery that’s happening in the film. An example in Psycho is the shower scene where Normans mother comes to kill her. Hitchcock uses extreme close up to show the knife that Norman’s mum kills Marion with, the audience also sees Marion’s facial expression. In The Birds, when Melanie goes up the stairs, to inspect what had happened. As soon as she opens the doors a huge amount of birds begin to attack her. At this point Hitchcock zooms in using extreme close up shots to show when the birds are attacking and biting her as well as her facial expression. It can be concluded from these two different scenes that Hitchcock, plays with the audience wits and nerves, while building suspense in his …show more content…
In Psycho he appears when he was viewed through Marion’s office window, standing on the sidewalk. In The Birds, he appeared on the camera, right at the beginning of the film while he was walking out from the San Francisco’s Davidson’s pet shop with his two white dogs. Another similarity has to do with the psychological part of both films. Alfred Hitchcock uses romance is an unusual way in both films. In Psycho, Hitchcock uses romance in an illogical, perverse way. In The Birds, he uses romance in an obsessive way.
All things considered, by and large, Hitchcock has been creating a consistency within his filmography that is necessary for “auteurism”. His work can be recognized immediately when watching one of his films because of his clear cinematic style. You could show any film enthusiast a scene from a certain kind of film and they would be able to tell if it was in Hitchcock’s style. If there was one internationally popular film director in the 1950s who fit the auteur theory, it was