An audience attending a Hitchcock film is required to do much more than eat popcorn and drink soda! A Hitchcock film immerses the audience within the action of the film using stylistic and cinematic elements, such as: camera placement, editing, point of view, subjectivity and objectivity, all working together in ways that help to evoke certain emotions, while also provoking certain questions, making you wonder just what in the world Hitchcock is going to do next?
In 39 Steps, one can see the reflections and shadows of a young Hitchcock’s budding brilliance. The meticulous care and decision making process he uses often leaves the audience spellbound, whereas in Shadow of a Doubt, Hitchcock takes clear, bold steps to snatch the moviegoer strait …show more content…
The scene comes to full fruition when Richard asks to see the newspaper and the passenger looks directly into the camera, into Richard’s eyes, into our eyes. While we have been distracted by the banter of the two men and Richard’s responses, Hitchcock has slowly inched the camera ever closer to Richard, switching between objectivity to subjectivity. When Richard asks for the newspaper, we the audience are tempted to reach out and grab it for ourselves. With this exchange, Hitchcock successfully conflates the viewer and Richard, aligning out fears, feelings, and nervousness. Hitchcock increases the intensity of the scene with addition POV shots of the menacing, lizard-like eyes of the second man who is unabashedly staring straight through us - at Richard.
In Shadow of a Doubt, Hitchcock’s use of objectivity is evident in the celebrated scene in which the camera glides so smoothly, closer and closer to Uncle Charlie’s countenance, as he speaks the venomous words regarding widows taking advantage of their deceased husband’s money. Though this is a moving and intense scene, there is another directorial strategy - projection of what is within a character onto the outside world, that is even more provocative. For example, the scene in which young Charlie races to the library to discover what, if anything, of which Uncle Charlie may be
In 39 Steps, one can see the reflections and shadows of a young Hitchcock’s budding brilliance. The meticulous care and decision making process he uses often leaves the audience spellbound, whereas in Shadow of a Doubt, Hitchcock takes clear, bold steps to snatch the moviegoer strait …show more content…
The scene comes to full fruition when Richard asks to see the newspaper and the passenger looks directly into the camera, into Richard’s eyes, into our eyes. While we have been distracted by the banter of the two men and Richard’s responses, Hitchcock has slowly inched the camera ever closer to Richard, switching between objectivity to subjectivity. When Richard asks for the newspaper, we the audience are tempted to reach out and grab it for ourselves. With this exchange, Hitchcock successfully conflates the viewer and Richard, aligning out fears, feelings, and nervousness. Hitchcock increases the intensity of the scene with addition POV shots of the menacing, lizard-like eyes of the second man who is unabashedly staring straight through us - at Richard.
In Shadow of a Doubt, Hitchcock’s use of objectivity is evident in the celebrated scene in which the camera glides so smoothly, closer and closer to Uncle Charlie’s countenance, as he speaks the venomous words regarding widows taking advantage of their deceased husband’s money. Though this is a moving and intense scene, there is another directorial strategy - projection of what is within a character onto the outside world, that is even more provocative. For example, the scene in which young Charlie races to the library to discover what, if anything, of which Uncle Charlie may be