North By North West

North by North West.

The perfect thriller.

Ernest Lehman

The film North by North West made in 1959 directed by Alfred Hitchcock written by Ernest Lehman. It included many famous stars for example Eva Marie Saint, James Mason and the all time famous thriller actor of their time Cary Grant. The film is about an 'innocent' New York advertising executive who is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, He is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive. the film was awarded many times and won many Oscars. the film was set in 

Alfred Hitchcock

Hitchcock was very specific when it came to directing his films. He believed that he should plan every scene in his films visually in advanced. Before shooting Hitchcock had learnt all the dialogue and rarely needed to look at the script when he was directing. Also when directing, Hitchcock never looked at the camera while filming. He always imagined he was looking at the cinema screen.

However Hitchcock did follow the Basic rules when it comes to thrillers. such as Todorovs, Barthes and Strauss' rules. he kept the film a classical Hollywood narrative. With an equilibrium start, disruption, solution and a new equilibrium. there were the basic characters; the hero, villain and princess (Eve). He also used a McGruffin which usually comes the first part of the film and sometimes returns at the end. in North by Northwest the McGruffin is the micro- film. As to them the micro- film was very important to them but to us we did not care about it we cared for Roger. 

Hitchcock's films were world wide. Hitchcock believed the stress on the visual makes the cinema accessible in different languages. Hitchcock also liked to use subjective view points. he did this by using closeups on the face to see their reactions. He said he wants to transfer the menace that appears on screen onto the mind of the audience. For example; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMddzGb__D0 in this scene Roger in running from the plane which is chasing him. the camera is closed up onto his face to show his reaction. From this we feel the same feelings and emotions as Cary and feel scared to as if we are getting chased by the plane.






He used symbols such as the mt Rushmore scene shows law and order as there are the presidents and the ending is justice. However the film wasn't all serious. Hitchcock added humour into the film so the audience can relax and wont expect the suspense.  when the suspense enters the scene the audience would would be more scared as they didn't see it coming. There was high, low, medium and close ups throughout the whole film. there was over the shoulder shots, point of view, tracking, pan and also steady cam. this made the film more interesting and added more suspense where suspense was needed. The editing involved long takes and very short takes and fades.

Through the opening scene the props don’t get shown till near the end of the opening sequence, the majority of the props was hand the language of the battling civilians fighting their way through the busy streets of America. The costume in the opening sequence isn't seen till the end of the titles, when the camera hits the American streets the men are dressed mainly in fitted suits as you would expect from the 1980’s. Furthermore, everyone in the introduction is dressed in plain clothes with no bright colours giving the film a dark but 1980’s look. It created a mysterious atmosphere.

The lighting and colour were bright throughout the opening sequence the green colour to the opening sequence makes the film unique and different interesting the viewer to see more as it isn't a colour that is usually used in films. Moreover, the lighting gives a bright view of America through and down the streets making the viewer relax into the film, which questions the viewer into thinking is this actually a thriller? it fools us and keeps us more relaxed not knowing of what is going to come up.

The setting and the location of North by Northwest title opening sequence is based on the side of a large glass building in America. The camera is at a side angle to the building which reflects the cars on the road this allows you to see the passing traffic on the road, the yellow taxi’s shown in the reflection represents America as this a typical stereotype. Although it sets the scene well, the opening sequence doesn't give you any hints that the film is a thriller, as it doesn't include any of the common thriller conventions. for example thrilling music and a dark setting.

The beginning of the credit opening sequence starts completely different, as it begins with an animation of lines appearing. These cross over the screen creating the lines that eventually fade into the lines of the buildings windows. Furthermore, the side of the building fades straight into the busy high streets of America. I think this is a very professional and effective way to change the scene and relates to other Alfred Hitchcock films. It shows a flow in the film so that there aren't no jump cuts that make the film look as if it hasn't been edited properly.

Hitchcock said thrillers allow the audience "to put their toe in the cold water of fear to see what its like." this was successful in this film as we were all chasing Roger with our eyes. we cared for him unconsciously and worried for him when danger came across him. we experienced being his character mentally throughout the film and were scared as if we were in the situation. For example when Roger was in Philip Vandamm's house at the end of the film we all felt the fear of Roger being caught. we felt as if, if he was caught than so were we. When Leonard, vandaam's assistant found the peace of paper we got worried that he would read it and find out that roger was there.

"A thriller is a villain driven plot, whereby he presents obstacles the hero must overcome." This was demonstrated in the film by Philip Vandaam and his assistant Leonard. Together they both made it harder for Roger to keep safe the micro- film. For example when Vandaam introduced his girlfriend, Eve to Roger to distract him while trying to take the micro- film. this worked out very well as Roger fell into the trap and fell in love with Eve's appearance and couldn't keep away from her. this was a huge obstacle as Roger had no clue that Eve was helping Vandaam therefore couldn't help himself.    

Laura Mulvey is an feminist director. She said in films the camera is a man as like an actual man the camera undresses the woman and sees in as a sexual object. the women are viewed as the objects of the male erotic desire. the men are active an the women are passive. Therefore the women do not have agency. The audience is forced to identify with the male gaze as the cinema reflects patriarchal society. This shows a sign of power to the men and women being inferior.