Alfred Hitchcock's Films In The 20th Century
The 1950s oeuvre of Hitchcock could be seen to register the ideologies and insurgencies, the normative assumptions and the cultural alternatives, that shaped the tumultuous decade as reflective of the concerns and motifs of Cultural Studies. The films occupy a visual landscape defined by the grand monuments of American civic life-Mt.Rushmore, the Statue of Liberty, the United Nations-in addition to their marked preoccupation with the social mores and private practices of mid-century America. My attempt is to see Hitchcock’s films as a series of lucid interrogations of the totems of American life-the cult of motherhood, the mythology of the masterful male- and the institutions that celebrate, interpret, and patrol its cultural terrain: advertising, the judicial system, psychiatry, the police and the movies …show more content…
Many of the elements of Hitchcock’s art-the yearnings of the private self, the shape of gender roles, the deep strangeness of the normal, the rich self-consciousness about the social or psychic meanings of film technique-emerge not simply as discrete themes or issues but an ongoing enterprise of cultural diagnosis. Thus Hitchcock, may be seen as something of a 20th century Tocqueville, anatomizing the lineaments of American culture and society, testing and contesting the “habits of the heart” that make America, truly American. Hitchcock is a cultural critic of remarkable insight and undeniable prescience/foresight (Freedman & Millington 6). When America was trying to construct and re-modify a new image for the nation in front of the whole world, Hitchcock was equally engaged in interpreting the middle-class ideology that
Summary Of Projected Fears By Kendall Phillips
1630 Words | 7 PagesIn the introduction to Kendall Phillips’ book, “Projected Fears,” he discusses “horror films that made such an impression on American culture that they became instantly recognizable and, indeed, redefined the notion of what a horror film is.” (Phillips 3). This list of movies includes many favorites, such as Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Scream. Phillips later states his thesis, “...my argument in this book is that these [movies] are the most ‘successful’ and ‘influential’ in American history and that their level of success and influence can be correlated to broader cultural anxieties into which they somehow tapped” (Phillips 3).
The First Statement Of The New American Cinema Group
170 Words | 1 PagesWhen new American cinema group formed they also addressed the people with The First Statement of the New American Cinema Group, which is where they declared themselves “The Group” and where they outlined nine principles of filmmaking that would distinguish them from the “morally corrupt, aesthetically obsolete, thematically superficial, temperamentally boring” films of classical Hollywood (New American Cinema Group, 80). The new principles of filmmaking included “personal expression,” rejection of censorship, “new forms of financing,” “abolishing the budget myth,” were “against the present distribution and exhibition policies,” “plan to establish a new distribution center,” establish a “film festival” for the east coast, bring change to the
Symbolism And Motifs In Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window
672 Words | 3 PagesRear Window by Alfred Hitchcock is a fillm full of symbolism and motifs that provides viewers with a bigger meaning. It shows these rhetorical appeals through Hitchcok’s eyes that would not be recognized if not analyzed. Through these appeals I have recognized the window as being a symbol and marriage and binoculars as motifs. After understanding much more than what the eye anitially sees when viewing this film there is a fine line between understanding what is going on in the film and observing what the protagonist Jeff is viewing.
Examples Of Conservatism And Movies In The 1920s
215 Words | 1 PagesThe problem with movies in the 1920, according to conservative Americans’ was a typical example of the conflict during the 1920s between modernization , liberation and new social-cultural changes, and in the other hand conservatism. It’s the struggle between the new born values in urban societies and the old conservatives values. Conservativiste (Christian protestant) didn’t accept the new values emerging through movies 1920s. First,the idea of the “ colored” movie star like the Italian immigrant Rudolph Valentino, who had also been convicted by rising the image of the “ effeminate men». Racism was also a mean cause of conflict between movies and conservativism.
Orson Welles Citizen Kane: The Great American Dream
724 Words | 3 PagesOrson Welles’ 1941 film noir Citizen Kane is an exploration of human condition and the effects on those who are closest to him through his pursuit of the Great American Dream. This is achieved by depicting widely upon the quest for happiness. He extends the life story of William Randolph Hearst, a non-fictional media tycoon and characterises Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles) to imitate his life. The corrupting nature of power and wealth, unreliability of memory and isolation versus interventionalism are some of the universal concepts that Welles explores by crafting his feature film. Individuals in the society have faith in media thus they delegate their power so that they ACCURATELY inform them about events, incidents and news.
Psychological Themes In Alfred Hitchcock's Horror Film Psycho
774 Words | 4 PagesHowever, film critic, Robin Wood, argues that ‘since Psycho, the Hollywood cinema has implicitly recognised horror as both American and familial’ he then goes on to connect this with Psycho by claiming that it is an “innovative and influential film because it supposedly presents its horror not as the produce of forces outside American society, bit a product of the patriarchal family which is the fundamental institution of American society” he goes on to discuss how our civilisation either represses or oppresses (Skal, 1994). Woods claim then suggests that in Psycho, it is the repressions and tensions within the normal American family which produces the monster, not some alien force which was seen and suggested throughout the 1950 horror films. At the beginning of the 60’s, feminisation was regarded as castration not humanization. In “Psycho” (1960) it is claimed that the film presents conservative “moral lessons about gender roles of that the strong male is healthy and normal and the sensitive male is a disturbed figure who suffers from gener confusion” (Skal, 1994). In this section of this chapter I will look closely at how “Psycho” (1960) has layers of non-hetro-conforming and gender-non conforming themes through the use of Norman Bates whose gender identitiy is portrayed as being somewhere between male and female
Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious
1262 Words | 6 PagesAlfred Hitchcock's Notorious is a film rich with themes of deception and suspicion, between the three main character Alicia, Devlin and Alex. Two key techniques in film are known as cross-cutting and point of view editing. Each of these techniques are used throughout the film as part of the continuity system to advance the plot of the film and establish each character's personality. Both types of editing help to enhance the themes of deception between Alicia and Alex, as well as the suspicion that Alex has about Alicia and Devlin. Cross-cutting is the technique used to cut between two or more actions, more than one time in order to imply coinciding actions or actions that are meant to be compared and contrasted.
Fred Turner The Surround Analysis
468 Words | 2 PagesIn relation to the reading, The Surround by Fred Turner, the after-war period and particularly the 1950s are frequently a highly defamed, or at least misunderstood, time in American culture. I like the reading and it has interesting points. With this work, Fred Turner does much to adjust this observation as he demonstrates that it was a significantly more convincing point in history than researchers as much as readers frequently expect and, more particularly, how this time and the media shapes it brought forth arranged the ground for surely, and the radical sight and sound vehicles that directed the culture and sociopolitical messages of the 1960s. Turner thoroughly maps out the courses in which American intellectuals, psychologists, social scientists and artists, together with their European partners, attempted to think of new types of media what he calls ‘the democratic surround’ that would work as a reaction to Nazi propaganda techniques. Turner portrays these “surrounds” as varieties of pictures and words incorporated with conditions that their gatherings of people could enter openly, act suddenly inside, and leave freely.
Popular Culture In The Age Of White Flight By Eric Avila
469 Words | 2 PagesAs Professor Avila states in his week 7 lecture, film noir showed the anxiety of the 1940s concern
Essay On Rear Window
934 Words | 4 PagesShe argues that the act of moviegoing satisfies these voyeuristic desires in people. She writes, “The mass of mainstream film portray a hermetically sealed world which unwinds magically, indifferent to the presence of the audience, producing for them a sense of separation and playing on their voyeuristic fantasy,” (pg. 186). In this essay, I will further discuss her viewpoints on cinema and voyeurism, and how it connects to the film Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock. Rear Window is a film that follows the
Hitchcock's Influence On American Films
105 Words | 1 PagesAs for the actresses who starred all their films, all of them had specifically North European features, fulfilling very specific requirements: should be stylized, elegant, classic, intelligent, somewhat cold and, of course, to wear a platinum hair. The director felt a predilection for the “Nordics” — as he called them — since as he explained he considered them mysterious and frivolous; they were easier to photograph in black and white and to highlight their elegance and coldness. Hitchcock was very clear that his protagonists would be blonde, and otherwise, they would be dyed, as they had to do Madeleine Carroll, Joan Fontaine or Ingrid
Citizen Kane: A Cinematic Classic Hollywood Cinema
585 Words | 3 PagesCitizen Kane by Orson Welles is a cinematic classic, released in 1941. Citizen Kane challenged traditional narrative and technical elements of classic Hollywood cinema. Kane was narrated by several people that include their take on Kane’s life. The story unfolds by many flashbacks and is told by different perspectives over the years through different narrations. Charles Foster Kane was a millionaire, head of newspapers and died saying “rosebud”.
David Lynch Blue Velvet Analysis
3488 Words | 14 PagesLost Highway, Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet and my understanding of Media & Culture through David Lynch's lenses. Introduction David Lynch was born in 1946, in a small American town which is quite similar to settings he reflected in his movies. He directed more than 40 short and long movies which got various reflections from his audience. In this short essay, I will focus on his later works, specifically Blue Velvet, Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive. The reason behind this selection is not popularity of this movies among the cinema fans but the abundance of symbolic expressions embedded in these films.
North By Northwest Analysis
511 Words | 3 Pages1959 movie goers were gifted with Alfred Hitchcock’s latest feature film, North by Northwest. Hitchcock has become one of the most influential auteurs to live, causing a major impact on how cinema has involved. The master of suspense thought for the art he loved, fighting against censorship in parts of his movie. (Robb, 2010) Hitchcock adored suspense and mystery, implementing it into the art form he had such a passion form.
Annie Hall Hollywood Legend
679 Words | 3 PagesThis popular version of the Hollywood legend is complemented by another legendary discourse about the film community that relates Hollywood to the intellectual landscape of the nation and to its cultural hierarchies. This second Hollywood legend is different from the one created by the “fan-zines” and yet is just as fictive. While fan magazines rose-tinted Hollywood into a “Venice without canals,” American literati have crafted a different image of Hollywood marked by desperation and loneliness. In the New Deal era, the attitude of many New York modernist intellectuals toward Hollywood was certainly ambiguous and largely unscathed by what Andreas Huyssen has called the contemporary “anxiety of contamination” between “high and low,” mass culture and
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