HITCHCOCK

  (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?

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