Wednesday, January 18th, 2006

Time	Event
9:08p	London-born director Alfred Hitchcock was credited as the master of suspense in the film world. Hitchcock's ability to manipulate the viewer through the actions of the actors on the screen was brilliant and near-unprecedented in film in his time. Hitchcock had an uncanny way of taking an ordinary object and making it an ominous. He most often did this with staircases. Found in many of his movies, a set of stairs usually represented a hidden danger, an unseen twist, or an intense situation for the characters in the film. A good example of this is Cary Grant's ascent up the stairs of his home in "Suspicion" (1941). Lina (Joan Fontaine), suspects her husband Johnnie (Grant) of wanting to murder her, and as she lies sick in her bed, Johnnie walks slowly and menacingly up the long stair case of their house with a glass of milk that may or may not have some kind of poison in it. Another prime example of Hitchcock's use of stairs is in the 1958 thriller, "Vertigo." John Ferguson (James Stewart) is chasing his love, Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak), up a long and winding staircase in a San Fransisco mission. Ferguson, because of his vertigo, is unable to get all the way to the top, and Elster throws herself off the top to her death. The scene at the staircase in the mission is repeated at the end of the movie with twice the suspense because of the complication of Judy Barton (Novak) being the Madeleine that Ferguson had fallen in love with. Hitchcock was fascinated with the concept of murder, and, more specifically, the perfect murder. This concept was discussed or touched upon in "Suspicion," (1941) "Shadow of a Doubt," (1943) "Notorious," (1946), "Rope," (1948) "Strangers on a Train," (1951) "Dial M for Murder," (1954) and "Rear Window" (1954) among others. Frequently brought up was the possibilty of the perfect murder, although it usually ended in that perfect murder being impossible because one could never anticipate what could go wrong in their plot. Hitchcock also was notorious for his inclusion of sexual innuendos in his movies. Powerfully subtle, alot of them are not noticed at first glance, but it seemed that Hitchcock had some minor preoccupation with sex as well as homosexuality. Some instances of this are the butch woman in the suit in "Suspicion," the effeminate accomplice of Vandamm in "North by Northwest," (1959) or the ending scene of the train driving into the tunnel at the end of the same movie. Hitchcock was keyed in to how to make his viewers get into the scene and how to make a scene suspenseful. Even today, more than a quarter century after his death, he is still making viewers jump, for, as he said, "There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it." Current Music: Nickel Creek - Helena (Comment on this)
9:49p	North by Northwest! My favorite movie of all the Hitchcock films we have watched these past three weeks, though difficult to choose, would have to be "North by Northwest." (1959) Cary Grant is one of my favorite actors of "older" movies, and he performs brilliantly in this film. Also, Eva Marie Saint, following the trend of incredibly attractive blonde women in Hitchcock's movies, is an extremely convincing double agent as well as really, really good-looking. "North by Northwest" dealt with one of Hitchcock's favorite situations: the mistaken or assumed identity. Many of his films deal with this topic. Roger O. Thornhill (Grant) is mistaken for an FBI agent and is chased across America by spies who wish to see him disposed of. In the end, Thornhill plays the part, and in cooperation with Eve Kendall (Saint), they foil the spies' plans to give away government microfilm ot the Russians. One of the things that made "North by Northwest" stand out to me over my other two favorite films, "Notorious" (1946) and "Vertigo" (1958), was the soundtrack. While "Vertigo" had a soundtrack that rivaled that of "North of Northwest," I found that the latter's was much more fast-paced and exciting, and made my heart race as much as the movie itself did and was a perfect compliment. Also, the mistaken identity that Hitchcock visits again and again was fascinating, and seeing the transformation from the advertising executive with an inability to commit to the spy-chasing secret agent who gets the girl is both exciting and medicinal. I love to see the good guy get the girl. The best scene in the movie for me, although a tad hokey, was the chase scene across Mount Rushmore because of the music and the thrill it gave me wondering what was going to happen. I never thought that Cary Grant would have to end up winning and getting the girl because the rest of the movie was so unpredictable, and I was kept on the edge of my seat. The theme I found most interesting in this movie was that of a man not being able to commit to a relationship. Thornhill has been married twice before but was not able to make those marriages work, and his apparent one-night stand with Eve Kendall show that he is not able to commit to a relationship, but after the two have foiled the plans of the spies, they end up together, marking the end of the transformation of Thornhill. His change is most well seen when he is trying to get Kendall to stay in America instead of going abroad as an agent with the spies. He is so adamant that to be restrained from Kendall, he is knocked out. Current Music: The Music Man - Goodnight, my Someone (1 Comment | Comment on this)

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