Alfred Hitchcock as an Auteur

With a directorial career spanning fifty-one years, Alfred Hitchcock, without a shadow of a doubt, is an auteur through and through. Famously known for his visual style, themes and techniques, Hitchcock dominated over the thriller/suspense genre, so much so that he coined the nickname ‘The Master of Suspense”. He pioneered many techniques in both genres and completely flipped Hollywood on its head. While he made a name for himself through silent movies in the late 20’s, it wasn’t until much later in his career when he became arguably the most recognised auteur of all time.

It’s important that we establish what an auteur is before we can praise Hitchcock. A film can have over a thousand people working on it (depending on the franchise of course), but an auteur is the sole visionary behind the work. An auteur is a person equivalent to an author of a book. While films themselves are very collaborative, auteur’s keep everything centralised and focused on their vision. Examples of modern day auteurs range from: Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, Quentin Tarantino and Christopher Nolan. They have a very distinct style and people will pay to see their films solely based on their directorial role. It’s important to understand that not every director is an auteur as their vision might not be their own. Marvel movies are a good example of this.

Hitchcock’s life is revered because he was one of the first big, mainstream auteurs. He comes from an era where cinema industrialised entertainment by creating a standardisation. Every Hollywood film was shot the same, with the same crew, they all dealt with the same stories, and had the same big name, good looking actors/actresses attached to them to reel in the audience. It wasn’t until Hitchcock moved to Hollywood in 1939 when things began to really change and he established himself as a film maker with international importance.

During Hitchcock’s time he presented his audience with many distinguishable characteristics that would make his films recognisable for the everyday audience. For example, Hitchcock was a firm believer in “pure cinema”, meaning the articulation of the director was primarily through visuals rather than dialogue. To Hitchcock, dialogue was a secondary device, and an overuse of it was a tell-tale sign of a poor filmmaker. Actors carried the sequences through the use of cinematography, such as close up and POV shots, as well as their pure acting skills. For example, in Vertigo (1958) when Scottie first meets Madeleine in Ernie’s, close ups of both characters faces say more about the emotion they are both feeling than words ever could. The close ups also create an audience positioning – where audiences can align themselves with Scottie in admiring Madeleine’s beauty. This is not the only time something like this happens in Vertigo, as Hitchcock deliberately creates a voyeuristic audience alignment frequently throughout the film, but most iconically when Judy Becomes Madeleine.

Vertigo also features a twelve minute sequence of Scottie stalking Madeleine from his car. There is no dialogue, and the audience is left to their own imagination to think about the characters and what the scene itself means. The scene is one of the most important in the film, and using the geographical structure of San Francisco, Hitchcock perfectly displays Scottie’s descent into madness. This is just one film that perfectly shows how Hitchcock will use everything but dialogue to convey a sense of meaning to his audience.

Giving examples from Hitchcock’s other films, in Psycho (1960) Norman Bates spends about ten minutes cleaning up after murdering Marion. After one of the most iconic scenes in cinema history (the shower sequence) new audiences might find the following ten minute long sequence a stark contrast from the high tension, high suspense scene before it. Hitchcock did this on purpose of course, and with absolutely no dialogue, the long, drawn out sequence allows audiences to digest what they’ve just witnessed. It allows them to observe and to bring them back down from the adrenaline filled high of the scene before it. It’s important to remember, that in 1960 the shower sequence was one of the most violent scenes in cinema and is the sole reason the film was edited to be in black and white.

If you still would like more examples of Hitchcock’s use of pure cinema both versions of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934/1956) feature an iconic use of diegetic sound to block out character dialogue.

Moving on from pure cinema, themes are another characteristic Hitchcock had a habit of repeating. One very obvious theme is choosing a leading actress who had blonde hair. Grace Kelly made three films with Hitchcock: Dial M for Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954) and To Catch a Thief (1955). Tippi Hedren made two: The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964), while Kim Novak (Vertigo 1958), Eva Marie Saint (North by Northwest 1959) and Janet Leigh (Psycho 1960) all made one. His choice of women coined the term “Hitchcock Blonde”, and while he claimed his interest in blondes was cinematically motivated, it’s easy to assume there is an underlying reason. Whatever his reason, the blondes he cast and the characters they played are pivotal for Hitchcock being an auteur.

To contrast the “Hitchcock Blonde”, Hitchcock would place an ordinary person, usually a man, in extraordinary circumstances. In The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) James Stewart plays an ordinary man vacationing in Morocco when his son is kidnapped. In Vertigo, James Stewart again plays a man who is entranced by the beauty of a woman (Madeleine), finding himself in the midst of a murder plot. In The Wrong Man (1956), Manny Balestero (Henry Fonda) is arrested for a crime he didn’t commit. Other clear examples include Strangers on a Train (1951), I Confess (1953) and North By Northwest. It’s evidently clear that Hitchcock had distinct archetypes that he would employ within his films, so much so that one may feel he was making the same film over and over again.

As I’ve previously mentioned, in Vertigo Hitchcock constantly puts his audience in a voyeuristic perspective. However, this isn’t unique to just one film. It blurs the moral distinction between innocent and guilty, but Hitchcock constantly makes his “respectable” audience voyeurs. Rear Window (1954) features photographer L.B Jeffries (played by James Stewart) spying on his neighbours through his camera. Lars Thorwald (played by Raymond Burr) confronts Jeffries by saying “What do you want of me?” Burr might as well have been addressing this to the audience, who have been actively engaging in the peeping through Jeffries’ camera. It’s a scene of self reflection, why have the audience been watching a film about spying on people? Similarly, in Psycho’s opening sequence, the camera moves towards a hotel window as the audience is introduced to the main character – Marion Crane – and her boyfriend – Sam Loomis – after the two have just had sex. Later, along with Norman Bates, the audience watches Marion undress through a peephole.

For the time, Hitchcock’s films were regarded as rather sexualised, often dealing with taboo behaviours. Due to the limitations of his era, Hitchcock would convey sexuality in an emblematic fashion, such as in North by Northwest, when the film cuts from two aroused but visually chaste lovers to a train entering a tunnel. He found a number of ways of showing sexual activity without being explicit, the previously mentioned opening sequence from Psycho was rather controversial for the time, especially because Marion and Sam were not married. Sexual desires are often related to violence, such as the case in Psycho, The Lodger (1927) and Vertigo. Hitchcock always challenged film censorship on sexuality, until finally he was allowed to show nudity in Frenzy (1972).

One of Hitchcock’s favourite devices he used for driving the narratives of his story and creating suspense is what he called the “MacGuffin”. A MacGuffin is an object, device or event that is necessary to the plot and the motivation of the characters, but insignificant, unimportant, or irrelevant by itself. Many of Hitchcock’s suspense films rely on this plot device and use it extensively. By inciting curiosity and desire, the characters are motivated within the story, but the nature of the MacGuffin is irrelevant to the audience. For example, “Carlotta Valdes” in Vertigo is a MacGuffin. She never appears in the story, the details of her death are unimportant for the viewer, but the story of her ghost haunting Madeleine is the motivation for Scottie’s investigation, and the film’s entire plot. In Notorious (1946), the Uranium the characters must retrieve before it reaches the Nazi’s serves as an arbitrary motivation – any dangerous object would suffice.

State secrets of various kinds serve as MacGuffins in several spy films. The Man Who Knew Too Much, The 38 Steps (1935) and The Lady Vanishes (1938). Hitchcock has stated the best MacGuffin was the one used in North by Northwest, which was referred to as “Government secrets”. Hitchcock has gone on record saying – “The MacGuffin is the thing that the spies are after, but the audience don’t care”. His constant reuse of this plot device is one that makes him an auteur. When Hitchcock is making a thriller, you know a MacGuffin will be used at some point.

There are various other motifs found within Hitchcock’s work, such as his unique way staircases play central roles in his films. For example, in Vertigo and Psycho, staircases are used as a way characters climb into madness. In Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Charlie Oakley (Joseph Cotten) attempts to murder his niece by rigging a staircase to collapse. Suspicion (1941) features an iconic stairwell shot as Johnnie (Cary Grant) slowly walks up the stairs to deliver milk to his wife. Further examples include Rear Window, Dial M for Murder and Frenzy. The stylistic interest in the staircases is due to the influence of German Expressionism, an early twentieth century art movement. These films were heavily stylised and featured menacing staircases, such as in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

The Vertigo Shot is a cinematic technique developed by Hitchcock as a way of showing a fear of heights/falling. The scene that first showed it off is obviously from Vertigo, and shows Scottie running after Madeleine. Due to his fear of heights, he can’t reach the top before Madeleine commits suicide. Once he climbs all the stairs at the end of the film, metaphorically he has gotten over his fear. Hitchcock was always coming up with new ways to reinvent suspense, and the Vertigo shot (more commonly known as the Dolly zoom) was one in which encapsulated his recurring motifs of stairs and heights, while innovating the way they are portrayed at the same time.

The Vertigo Shot:

With his visual styles, his narrative techniques and his stories there are many distinguishable traits that make a Hitchcock film recognisable from the rest. Whether it’s his “Hitchcock Blondes”, his “MacGuffins” his long drawn out “pure cinema”, his voyeurism, colours, staircases, blocking of a scene, sexuality, his “ordinary characters”. Every Hitchcock film was his through and through.

In 1954, François Truffaut claimed that film is a great medium for expressing the personal ideas of the director. Auteur theory suggests that the best films will bare their makers ‘signature’, which may manifest itself as a stamp on their body of work or by focusing on recurring themes and ideas. I believe Alfred Hitchcock is the perfect example of this philosophy and lives up to his acclaim.