So how is Hitchcock an auteur? There are several aspects within all of Hitchcock's films that can be described as his 'stamp'.
The particular camera angles Hitchcock often uses consist of extreme high angle shots and point of view (POV) shots. In Psycho Hitchcock uses a high angle shot of the antagonist approaching Arbogast to create dramatic irony as the audience can see this character before Arbogast does. A similar use of high camera angles to create dramatic irony in another of Hitchcock's films would be in The Birds; Hitchcock allows the audience to see the birds approaching the public before the protagonist and his friends realise, by using an extreme high angle shot prior to the gas station attack.The use of POV shots in Psycho and The Birds also creates tension and shock. POV shots force the audience to see what the character is experiencing, and the repetition of these shots enhance the audience's involvement in the film, subsequently creating tension as the audience is placed in the sinister situation with the characters. An example of this effect induced by a POV shot in The Birds would be when the male protagonist attempts to close the shutters. At this point in the narrative the birds are attacking the house and the protagonist's hand fumbles to find the latch; the camera shots switch between a POV shot and a close-up of his hand. By quickly interchanging between these shots the audience feel as though they are in the protagonist's situation. This creates tension as the hand is off-screen during the POV shots, thus playing with the audience's fear of the unknown as the birds attack the hand. Then, when the camera switches to a final close-up of the hand covered in blood, shock is created. Another example of Hitchcock's use of POV shots comes from Psycho when the audience is positioned to watch the female protagonist through the eyes of Norman Bates, whilst he sneaks a look at her undressing through a hole in the wall. This shot makes the audience uncomfortable as they are made to feel as though they are intruding on the female character's privacy. This links in with another of Hitchcock's 'stamps': placing the audience as a voyeur. This theme of the audience watching other people's private lives is also explored in Rear Window. The POV shots are used to position the audience as the male protagonist, gazing out his window and into his neighbour's rooms.
Another of Hitchcock's 'stamps' is heightening suspense, playing with the audience's fear particularly that of being trapped. In Psycho this theme of imprisonment is illustrated through multiple aspects: Norman being trapped by his conscience, controlled by his dead mother; the body of Norman's mother being trapped in the fruit cellar; the guilt entrapping the female protagonist who stole the $40,000. In Rear Window this theme is projected through the male protagonist who is trapped in his bedroom due to a leg injury, and by the mundane lives that entrap his neighbours- such as the pianist who always plays the same tune, and Miss Lonelyheart who is trapped by her loneliness throughout the film until the end when she is freed by love. Then in The Birds the characters are all physically trapped, they are unable to escape the boundary of the island on which they live. The confines in which they are trapped become progressively smaller as the islanders retreat to their homes, then into a single room in order to escape the menace. The situation has become completely reversed from the opening scenes when it was the birds that were trapped in cages in the pet shop.
Hitchcock often uses false leads to add shock when the final climax of the narrative is reached. Throughout Psycho, the use of close-ups of the $40,000 and the mention of the money in the diegetic dialogue suggests that it is of importance, yet actually the money is of no relevance to the crime itself. This is much like in Rear Window when the narrative strays to focus on the neighbours, bar the one which the protagonist suspects is a murderer; this leads the audience to believe that these neighbours are suspicious too, whereas their lives are irrelevant to the crime.
Finally, Hitchcock always adds a cameo appearance of himself in each of his films. In The Birds Hitchcock appears outside the pet shop walking two dogs just two minutes into the film.In Rear Window he appears in the pianists apartment fixing the clock, twenty-five minutes into the film.
Then in Psycho Hitchcock is seen outside the office-store window, a mere seven minutes into the film.
I shall end this blog post with some of Hitchcock's comments from an interview which explain why he chooses to use some of his signature shots and motifs. Hitchcock believes that the "fright complex is rooted in every individual" and that "we can not have a cliché", which is why Hitchcock uses the unexpected to create fear in the audience's mind.
"I know what's coming next...and I said, do you?"
By Elli Smart
