Camera techniques in dramatic and humorous scenes in Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes" (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Other, grade: 1,3, University of Koblenz-Landau (Institut für fremdsprachige Philologien, Fachbereich Anglistik / Cultural Studies), course: The Cultural Study of Film - British and American Hitchcock, language: English, abstract: Alfred Hitchcock is, without doubt, one of the most famous film directors in the history of cinema. Many of his movies are still regarded as well-planned and marvellously produced classics; apart from his masterpiece, Psycho, the films made in the 1950s belong to the best-known ones of the 20th century.

The appeal of Hitchcock's films lies, amongst other features, in the narrative camera techniques he uses to integrate the audience directly into the plot action. Pans, cuts, and visual special effects are essentials of his work. The camera techniques contribute in a large degree to Hitchcock succeeding in keeping the audience on tenterhooks and manipulating their perception. The repeated award-winner describes this a structure of film making as follows:

"In all my films, about two-thirds of the way through, I try to supply a definite contrast. I take a dramatic situation up and up and up to its peak of excitement and then, before it has time to start the downward curve, I introduce comedy to relieve the tension. After that, I feel safe with the climax. (Sidney Gottlieb, Hitchcock on Hitchcock, London: Faber and Faber, 1997. p. 81)

The Lady Vanishes, a Hitchcock movie of 1938, is not an exception to this: Hitchcock mixes a dynamic and surprising plot with elements of comedy and satire.



Inhalt der Hausarbeit

Es ergibt sich folglich die Frage, ob eine bestimmte Kameraführung in humoristischen und dramatischen Szenen grundsätzlich verwendet wird und aus welchem Grund diese so gut funktioniert. Die Analyse ausgewählter Szenen aus The Lady Vanishes soll hierauf eine Antwort geben, nachdem die Grundzüge der Kameraführung und Hitchcocks favorisierte Stilmittel in seinen Filmen vorgestellt wurden.