One thing that Alfred Hitchcock does in both his films, Vertigo and Psycho, is that whenever there is a scene with some violence, Hitchcock tends to not show it. He lets the audience infer what is going on without actually showing it. When Norman, dressed up as the mother, kills Merian Crane, he only shows Normans face blurred out, the knife in hand, and then Lila screaming and falling with blood coming out of her when she is in the shower.
In the movie Vertigo, Hitchcock does the same thing when Madeline runs up to the church bell tower and “Jumps”. Even though she is not the one that jumps, hitchcock does not initilly show her jumping. He does a great job with leading the viewer up to that point, without having to show it.
Hitchcock also loves to do close ups on the actors faces whenever there is extreme emotion or when it is just an important scene. This is done with Norman Bates and again here with Scottie in Vertigo. Instead of the shock that is shown on Scotties face in the scene where he is waking up from his nightmare, Hitchcock shows the sinister look on Norman Bates’ face. He also uses the scene where Merion is fleeing to see her boyfriend and she realizes that the Police officer is following her. The worried and frightened look on her face is captured by Hitchcock. HE also shows the watching, looking and duality of both Norman bates and Madeline. Both characters have two different realities that they are living. Norman is both his mother and himself, and madeline is a wife to someone she is not married to.
One thing that Hitchcock loves to do is to make the audience focus on something and make it seem important, but then make it not even really revelant at all. He does this with the money in Psycho and also Scotties Vertigo. When norman Kills Marion, he gets rid of all of the money without even realizing it is there. Scottie comes down with a severe case of vertigo in the opening scene and it does not come back around until the scene where Madeline “Kills” herself.
In both movies, Hitchcock used Bernard Herrmann to write and conduct the musical score. Both of the scores in the movies are perfectly made to go along with the plot and scenes of the movie. Using the same person to make the score, will often create the same affect throughout the movie because of their own personal style.
Work Cited
Movie:
Hitchcock, Alfred, director. Psycho. Psycho, 1960. starring: Anthony Perkins, vera Miles, Janer Leigh
Hitchcock, Alfred. Vertigo. 1958. Starring: James Stewart, Kim Novak, tim Helmore
Images:
“13 Movies That Scared Us: Psycho.” Den of Geek, 19 Oct. 2014, http://www.denofgeek.com/us/movies/psycho/240382/13-movies-that-scared-us-psycho.
“Bernard Herrmann.” IMDb, IMDb.com, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002136/.
“Marion, Norman, and the Collision of Narratives in Psycho.” Reel 3, 5 Nov. 2013, reel3.com/marion-norman-and-the-collision-of-narratives-in-psycho/.
“Quiz: How Well Do You Remember Vertigo?” British Film Institute, http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/quiz-how-well-do-you-remember-vertigo.
CMS 300 Mike Spence 