Achievements of Alfred Hitchcock Essay

Alfred Hitchcock, born in 1899 in England, re primary(prenominal)s a prominent figure in the world of cinema. Hitchcocks passion for drive began in his childhood with his source job as writer of the title cards for silent demands and, later on, becoming a director. Influenced by his Catholic up look ating, Hitchcock developed a sense of guilt and sin throughout his life with which he portrays in his work (Kehoe N. P. ). As the leading director in the 1930s, Hitchcock set the standard for international intrigue with his unpolluted thrillers.His mastery of suspense and his unprecedented technique still makes him one of the intimately popular and celebrated film directors of all eon (Flint N. P. ). Alfred Hitchcock has numerous accomplishments the most noteworthy being his films dizziness (1958), psychotic (1960), and The Birds (1963). Alfred Hitchcocks Vertigo (1958) raises performance to such a personal level that it addresses the nature of human personality itself (Sterritt 1 13). The protagonist in the film is John Scottie Ferguson, a former police detective, who has been forced into early retirement due to giddiness and depression.Scottie is then hired as a private investigator to follow a woman, Madeleine Elster, who had been behaving peculiarly. Vertigo is a film that operates on emotions and negative feelings. Hitchcocks use of fade to black illustrates his tendency to emphasize the films most emotionally meaningful moments with a touch of theatricality. This technique intensifies the otherworldliness that travels Vertigos most significant quality (Sterritt 92).Vertigo has a clear association with insanity Michel Foucault, a cut social theorist, states that it affords the delirious affirmation that the world is really turning around, such delirium being a necessary and sufficient reason for a disease to be called madness (Sterritt 98). The repeated shot of Scotties troubled gaze into an abyss below solidifies the ingenuity and peculiarity of Vert igo (Sterritt 82). This shot provides a ocular approximation of the psychological condition- extreme dizziness and disorientation- that is affecting Scottie.Hitchcock enhances the approach on point of view by providing information to the audience through Scotties eyes (Sterritt 83). Vertigos conclusion is unusual for its time because of its depiction of a neurotic hero, not a common feature in mainstream cinema (Sterritt 92). Alfred Hitchcock reached his tasty peak with his filming of psychotic (1960), which set a new level of acceptability for violence, deviant air and sexuality in American films (Flint N. P. ). The protagonist Marion Crane ends up at a secluded motel after embezzling money from her boss. She finds herself faced with the motels disturbed owner, Norman Bates.Hitchcock described the beginning of Psycho as a way of distracting the audiences attention in order to heighten the murder (Baer N. P. ). One of the main themes in Psycho is voyeurism or the practice of spy ing on people engaged in knowing behaviors. Many critics feel that the film not only maintains a general sense of voyeurism, scarcely a specific indictment of voyeurism with the audience- what Hitchcock called Peeping Tom audiences. Psycho manipulates the audience in supporting a thief, Marion Crane, which allows the viewers to become personally involved in the characters guilt.Joseph Stefano, a writer for Hollywood films, states In a more general sense, I think a fundamental essence of watching films is voyeuristic because we trespass so deeply into the characters liveswhile sitting in the dark. Its not necessarily sexual, although it can be, but its power to involve us with the characters is incredible (Baer N. P. ). Alfred Hitchcock introduces a new narrative dimension in Psycho by including his personal appearance in the film He faces away from the camera indicating his control oer the film and keeping with theme of voyeurism (Sterritt 103).Hitchcock viewed his actors perfor mance as the very essence of human identity Psychos character Normans performance being the most profound of all of Hitchcocks performances. Norman gives himself up to his character by assuming her voice, her appearance, her movements, and her thoughts. Hitchcock uniquely displays Normans performances with his use of windowpane/curtain imagery. The windows and curtains indicate that the viewers are a private audience (Sterritt 113). By distancing the audience from the characters, Hitchcock achieves some(prenominal) an alienation affect and a sense of intimacy between the character and the audience (Sterritt 114).Alfred Hitchcocks The Birds (1963) is the most radical of all his films because of its refusal to return the audience to normality (Sterritt 121). When asked what the film was about, Hitchcock replied peoples lack of occupy about the fact that nature can turn on them (Abrash 153). The Birds takes place in Bodega Bay, California, which suddenly undergoes a series of widespr ead and violent bird attacks. The Birds is a follow-up to Psycho with Hitchcock attempting to go further beyond the boundaries of rationality.Not only does the film display the irrational, but it also becomes the irrational by prohibiting natural causes to bring real and fantastic elements together. With the filming of The Birds, Hitchcock violates the rules of classical cinematic storytelling in order to actualize the fears that lurk in everyones unconsciousness (Sterritt 121). With the lack of a conventional ending, The Birds represents Hitchcocks ultimate gesture of despair all over the power of the characters. The protagonists remain in danger, the antagonists gain even more power, and the emotional relationships of the characters are only partially resolved.The resulting visual allows the characters to work towards a better world (Sterritt 124). The film critic Robin Woods interpretation of The Birds was a concrete embodiment of the arbitrary and the unpredictable a reminder of fragility and dissymmetry that cannot be ignored or evaded and, beyond that, of the possibility that life is meaningless and absurd (Abrash 154). In guardedly balancing the ordinary and the bizarre, Alfred Hitchcock was the most noted juggler of emotions in film history.The majority of his films were meticulous creations of nightmares consisting of peril and stake relieved by unexpected comic ironies and absurdities. Hitchcocks style of always stressing imagery over communion gave him a distinct reputation. All of these achievements allowed Alfred Hitchcock to be the recipient of the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award of the Academy of Motion draft Arts and Sciences in 1967. When asked what his approach was on filmmaking, Hitchcock responded with some films are slices of life, mine are slices of cake (Flint N. P. ).