Saturday 30 January 2010

Alfred Hitcocks - Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

Shadow of a Doubt

On the 28th of January I watched this movie at home it is about a teenage girl who is awaiting the arrival of her uncle. Two men arrive at the door claiming to be journalists, one of them talks to her in private and tells Charlie (the teenage girl), that her uncle is a murderer, they suspect he is known as a 'Merry widow murderer', - Charlie's uncle seduces,murderers and robs wealthy widowed women.

When he comes to stay she notices his odd behaviour, one evening he even mentions how he despises rich widows. Her uncle confronts Charlie on her behaviour, (as she has distanced herself from him), and ends up telling her that he is the 'Merry widow murderer.' She promises to keep it a secret, only if he leaves soon. Shortly after, she has accidents, falling down the stairs, locked in a garage that has flames coming out a car.

Analysis of the title sequence

People are dancing in a ballroom while titles are appearing, the camera fades into a landscape of a bridge, then slowly pans to the side, where you can see a river. It fades onto an abandoned car, then onto children playing on a road. There is a high angle shot of a window, which fades into a high angle close up, of the window. It fades onto a man, lying on his bed, the camera zooms towards him. You can see him playing with his cigar. The camera pans towards a small table which has a stash of money then tilts down, revealing more money on the floor.

This immediately present a wealthy person. His facial expression shows that he is in deep thought, his eyes are closed which seems his concentrating on something.

While the titles are going on, there is non-diegetic instrumental music, it continues onto the scene of the landscape but quiets down, and stops. As it stops, new music starts immediately, this flows really well. While the camera pans round, the music gets faster and more upbeat. This makes the audience move with the landscape, it makes them feel that they are actually at the scene. When the scene fades onto the street scene, the music gets quieter and slower. You can hear diegetic sounds of children playing (laughing and talking). The music increases in volume, and gets even louder when you see the image of the window. When the man is introduced, the music decreases in volume. While the camera is zooming towards the man, there is a single music note and you can hear bells. When the camera tilts down the music continues.

Alfred Hitcocks - Rope (1948)


Rope

On the 29th of January I watched this movie at home it was based on a play called Rope,this play was inspired by the murder of 14 year old Bobby Frank, by students Richard Leob and Nathan Leopold who wanted to commit the murder to see if they can get away with it.

Rope is about two friends called Brandon Shaw and Philip Morgan, who murder their friend David Kently, by strangling him with rope, in their apartment, to see if they can get away with the murder. They hide the body in a wooden chest, the chest is used as a buffet table, for the dinner party their going to have. The dinner party includes guest such as David's dad, aunt, fiance and former friend (who was David's fiances ex-lover), and their headmaster.

The murder was inspired by a conversation they had with their headmaster years ago,
'the art of murder'. The headmaster immediately senses something is not quite right, but is unable to put his finger on it. Tension builds as no one know where David is. As they leave the headteacher accidentally takes David's hat. He returns to the apartment and finds the body in the chest, he shoots Brandon.

How is suspense created?

Alfred Hitcocks - North By North West (1959)


North By North West

On the 11th December I watched North by North West in class. It was directed by Alfred Hitchcocks in 1959 and was distinctly recognised as a 'most entertaining thriller'. This movie was a 'modern thriller', as the storyline was completely different from other thrillers, that were about murder.The movie gave us a taste of the thriller genre.

It was about a young advertising executive Richard O. Thornhill who was misidentified as Mr. George Kaplan and was kidnapped by thugs. He denied that he was Kaplan and then the thugs were ordered to kill him. They forced him to drink Bourbon in an attempt to stage an accident. They put him in a car and tried to drive it towards a cliff,
but he managed to escape their clutches and drove down to safety at a high speed where police officers encountered him. Police officers thought he had been drinking and driving and put him in a cell overnight. Thornhill's mother bailed him out and he went back to the hotel where he was abducted and tried to find out who Mr Kaplan is.

Alfred Hitcocks - The master of thrillers - Biography and Filmography

Alfred Hitchcocks Biography

Alfred Hitchcocks is known as an Influential director, he has inspired many directors such as Brian De Palma. Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone, London on 13th August 1899. His family were catholic, he studied in a Jesuit school (St Ignatius' College). When he collaborated with Graham Cutts it lead him to Germany.

His first few films were not very popular, his success came with his first thriller film called Lodger: A Story Over the London Fog. After this film he increasingly made more thriller movies, he made 54 films over 50 years. His most popular thriller movies are : 39 Steps, North by North West, Psycho, The Rope, Shadow of a doubt, The Lodger, Blackmail, Number 17, Young and Innocent and Sabotage.

Alfred Hitchcock Mcguffin - was an event that sets the plot into motion.


Thursday 28 January 2010

John Moore

John Moore biography

John Moore studied film making in a technical college in Dublin. After he graduated he directed many commercials, 20th century fox were very impressed and gave him a 40 million budget for his movie. Behind the enemy lines (2001). This film was his first long film, he later on directed a thriller called Max Payne (2008)

Max Payne is about a police officer, who seeks revenge on the people that killed his wife and child. As he becomes closer to a lead people that have valuable information get murdered. As he gets deeper into the truth he realizes no one is your friend.

Brian De Palma


Brian De Palma Biography


Brian De Palma was born on 11th of September 1940 in New Jersey. He was brought up by various Quaker and Protestant schools. He became interested in film making after he watched Citizen Kane and Vertigo. Brian De Palma enrolled at Sarah Lawrence college, as a graduate in Physics from Columbia University. While he was there he was influenced by Andy Warhol and Alfred Hitchcocks.

De Plama has made a variety of successful thriller films such as Obsession (1976), Scareface (1983) and The Untouchables (1987).


Obsession was inspired by the narrative of Alfed Hitchcocks movie 'Vertigo' (1958). The film is about a business man called Michael Courtland who is haunted by the death of his wife and daughter after a kidnapping - rescuing attempt. His business partner Robert convinces Michael to come on a business trip. While Michael is there he meets a women who looks exactly like his deceased wife. They eventually marry but on their wedding night she is kidnapped and ransom not is left by the kidnappers. It is an exact replica of the abductors message 15 years ago.

Scareface is an action thriller about a gangster Tony Montana, who ends up having his perfect world torn apart by his wife leaving him, and someone who is trying to kill him. He kills his best friend - the only person who was loyal to him, due to a misunderstanding, his sister in spite tries to kill him but is shot by a hitman. Tony kills the hitman and as a result that action leads to his destruction.

The Untouchables is based on a true story, of the prohibition of alcohol and how the treasury department took down Al Capone. Tension and suspense is built throughout the film, especially the grand central station scene, as it makes the audience wander will they catch Al Capone, will the protagonists get hurt and will the baby in the pram be saved in time?

Wednesday 27 January 2010

Henri-Georges Clouzot


Henri-Georges Clouzot Biography

Henri-Georges Clouzot was known as one of the best french film directors. He was
born in France, on August 18th 1907, to a father who owned a book store, he was the eldest of three siblings. When he turned 18 he went to Paris in order to study political science.

His talent of writing introduced him as a playwright, for cinemas and theatres. By luck he met Adolphe Ossa who hired him, and sent him
straight to Berlin where he worked in a studio Babelsberg, to translate scrips of foreign films. Later he was fired from the German studio - as he was friends with Jewish producers.

He returned to France and was tragically diagnosed with tuberculosis.While he was recovering he found work as a screenwriter for the company of continental films. His film Le Courbeau drew dispute and he was banned by the french government from making films until 1947. When the ban was lifted he made successfull thriller films (with different sub-genres) such as The Murder Lives at Number 21 (1942), Les Diaboliques (1954) and Les Espions (1957).

The Murder Lives at Number 21 is a comedy thriller, it is about an inspector who has been assigned to a case, he is on the hunt to find a murderer called 'Monsieur Durand' who leaves calling cards on his victims.
The inspector is accompanied by his mistress, 'Mila Malou - a struggling ambitious actress who attempts to help him, in order to get noticed in the film industry.

Les Diaboliques is a film about a
wife and her husband who is a headteacher, and his mistress, who plan to kill him, when they kill him they dump the body in their school's neglected pool. They expect his corpse to float to the surface so everyone would think it was an accident. However it fails to float to the surface, and when the pool is drained the corpse is nowhere to be seen. Mysteriously the headteachers image appears in the school photo. Shortly after many unusual incidents occur.

Les Espions is a thriller about a doctor who works in a bad conditioned
psychiatric hospital, he is offered a great amount of money to take in a new patient. Soon the hospital is full of 'apparent' secret agents who are trying to find out who the patient is.