Comparison of Hitchcock Films

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Point of view is one of Hitchcock’s styles. He likes to point directly to each subject, keeping them center on screen. With movement of the subject, the camera moves as well. He also uses eye-line match cut. This shows the object, then the subject’s reaction to it. POV also shows the suspense to each scene, which is captured in all of Hitchcock’s films. In Rear Window, the whole film is shot through the perspective of James Stewart’s window looking into the backyard of surrounding apartments. The introduction is a bamboo curtain opening as if it where the current opening up a stage. And for Stewart it was, he had been entertained by the daily tasks of his neighbors. It is shot in an ABABAB pattern, from James Stewart in the wheelchair, to the neighbors. This showing what the neighbors are doing, then showing Stewart’s reaction to what had happened. Also shots are scene through the camera or his binoculars. And also shot: frame within a frame, stewart watching his neighbors through the window, then us, the viewer, looking at him. POV in North by Northwest during the crop dusting scene, although shot on location on an open field, Hitchcock closes in on Carry Grant, then to the airplane creating the vulnerability to his character. In The Birds, after the attack on the school, Tippi Hedren and Rod Taylor are in a restaurant witnessing another attack. A seagull swoops down and attacks a man causing the gas pump to drop to the ground and continue to spill gas on to the street. The reaction of the town’s people in the restaurant then to what’s going on outside shows the emotion of the scene. The continuous leak reaches a man lighting a cigarette. The ignition causes cars to explode and the pump, then chaos filling the streets. From here, Hitchcock pulls back the view of the whole town, capturing the fire from a bird’s eye view, to the actual birds coming to the scene.
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