(I) Everybody knows Hitchcock and recognize him as a
good director nowadays. However, until the nouvelle vague directors vindicated
him, he was considered just “an artisan”, not a proper author. Although most of
his movies were blockbusters, he never got an Oscar. When I found out about
this, I could not believe it. Hitchcock was one of the less recognized filmmakers
in his time, although now he is considered as a classic due to his great
technique, his mastering of suspense and his well-known use of
"macguffin".
(II. Great technique)
In spite of the fact that Hitchcock made two films without almost
editing (Rope and Under Capricorn), he believed
in the power of montage as a visual medium to create an emotion in the mind of
the audience. However, although “films must be cut”, montage is also quite useful to
tell a story. The point is in the way images are put together. In
fact, Hitchcock said in an interview with Emerson Batdorf: “Let me give you an
example…We take a close up of a man and cut to what he sees. And what do we
show? A woman nursering a baby. You cut back your face reaction and he smiles.
Now what is he? He´s a benevolent nice gentleman. [BUT]. Take away the middle
piece of film (the mother and the baby) and substitute a girl in bikini. Now
he´s a dirty old man. That´s what I mean by the purity of montage control of
film” (1970).
(III. The master of suspense)
Hitchcock’s command of suspense is another characteristic of his films.
Suspense consists in giving the public as much information as possible.
Suspense must not be confused with surprise. “Let´s suppose that there
is a bomb underneath this table between us”, said Hitchcock. Imagine then there
is a sudden explosion. If the public did not have known about the bomb, it
would have been an ordinary scene, but if the public is aware the bomb is going
to explode, the trivial conversation over the table becomes irritating and the
audience feels the necessity of crying to the characters: “there is a
bomb about to explode!”. For instance, The man Who knew too much shows a suspense climax
during a concert at Albert Hall, where the female protagonist suddenly realises
what is about to occurs, although the spectator already knows.
(IV.Macguffin)
Hitchcock was not the only one to use Macguffin, but it
will always be related to him. According
to the Oxford dictionary “ macguffin” is “an object or device in a film or a book which serves merely as a trigger for the plot”. It is used to make the plot
progress, but the object, person or device used as macguffin is not important
itself. The word comes from music-hall (according to F. Truffaut´s Le cinéma selon Hitchcock) :
“There are two men in a train and one of them says to the other: `What´s that
packet above your head?’. And the other replays: ‘Ah, that´s a
macguffin’. The first one insists: ‘What´s a macguffin?’ And his travel mate
replays: ‘A Macguffin is a device for hunting lions in the Adirondacks`. ‘But
in the Adirondacks there are no lions, springs the first man’. ‘Then that
isn´t a macguffin`, answer the other’ ” . In North
by Northwest the macguffin is
a government secret, or in Psicosis it is the 40, 000 $ that Marion
Crane steals at the beginning of the film.
(V. ) Thanks to Nouvelle Vague, in spite of not being
deservedly recognized for a long time, Alfred Hitchcock was in the end
acknowledged. I do not think that Hitchcock not having won an Oscar was due to
a lack of talent. In fact, his great mastery is highly appreciated now, and he
is among the big ones. Have you
ever wondered why some of the greatest (performers, directors, writers…) of all
time have never been recognized?
 |  | |||||||||
 |  | |||||||||
| a | b | |||||||||
 |  | |||||||||
| a | b | |||||||||
 |  | |||||||||
 |  | |||||||||
 |  | |||||||||
 |  | |||||||||
 |  | |||||||||
| a | b | |||||||||
 |  | |||||||||
| c | d | |||||||||
 |  | |||||||||
| e | ||||||||||
 |  | |||||||||
