Influences Report

Influences on Hitchcock

Report

 

 

A key part in Hitchcock’s influences for his films was the German Expressionism. A Number of related creative movements beginning in Germany before the first world were reached a peak in Berlin, during the 1920’s. German expressionism films produced in the Weimar Republic immediately following World War 2 not only encapsulated the socio-political contexts in which they were created, but also rework the intrinsically modern problems of self-reflectivity, spectacle and identity.

 

Another influence of his was the Kuleshov effect. This editing effect demonstrated by Russian film-maker Lev Kuleshov in the 1910 and 1920’s. Kuleshov cut an actor with shots of 3 different things –soup –girl in a coffin –pretty woman on a sofa. The footage of an actor was the same expressionless gaze, yet the audience raved his performance, saying first he looked hungry, then sad, then lustful. These examples further illustrate the power of editors as storytellers. The data gathered with the Kuleshov effect were heavily used by Russian film makers, especially in respect to the soviet montage.

 

The soviet montage was another influence of Hitchcock’s. This is an approach to understanding and creating cinema that relies heavily upon editing. Although soviet filmmakers in the 1920’s disagree about how exactly to view the montage, Sergei Eistentein marked a note of accord in “A Dialectic Approach to the Film Form”. Informal terms, this style of editing offers discontinuity in graphic qualities, violations of the 180 degree rule, and the creation of impossible spatial matches. It is not concerned with the depiction of a comprehensive spatial or temporal continuity system. It draws attention to temporal ellipses because changes between shots are obvious, less fluid and the non-seamless. Methods of montage:

·         Metric – where the editing follows a specific number of frames, cutting to the next image no matter what

·         Rythmic – includes cutting based on continuity, creating visual continuity from edit to edit

·         Tonal – uses the emotional meaning of the shots, to elicit s reaction from the audience

·         Overtonal/assopciational – the accumulation of metric, rhythmic and tonal montage to synthesize its effect on the audience for an even more abstract meaning

·         Intellectual – uses of shots which, combined, elicit an intellectual

 

With these in mind, some of Hitchcock’s earliest film includes:

·         The farmer’s wife

·         The pleasure garden

·         Champagne

·         The lodger: a story of the London fog

·         Easy virtue

·         The ring

·         The Manxman

·         Downhill

Aye

The page is doing weird stuff wow

L'age D'or - Analysis

L'age D'or

Analysis

• "golden age"
• Same technical people who made Un Chien Andalou
• Scorpion's referred to as "agression" and "antisocial" 
• ^allegory for higher class
• "some hours later" (translation)
• Bishops on rocks - link to the hymn of men building house upon the rocks?
• men in the barn - ref to the cow on the woman's bed later on?
• Bandets!
• surrealist dialogue - echolalia - verbal hysteria
• he kicks a puppy - rude and possibly illegal!
• "imperial Rome" - jumped time periods and location
• Bishops turn into corpses's
• mayor/governor marking the event
• she's been followed by nuns after their separated from the boy in the mud
• unconscious desires
• destructive - kicking puppy, killing beetle
• "sometimes on a sunday"
• ^things being blown up
• visual gags - bread/or stone and violin scenes
• walking down the street with the men - he keeps having sexual desires about the woman
• cow on the bed - insulting high class
• he gets angry at the dogs barking at him - clearly some unresolved childhood issue
• kicks blind man over - stroppy!
• girl has bandage on her finger - bishops had that too - could be a masturbation gag, but could also be her hiding an engagement ring or wedding ring
• mocking the higher class - flies on his face (poop) maybe because he is rotting away 
• walking away from the fire as if its nothing
• little boy annoys man so he shoots him
• everyone at the party looks out the window after second gunshot
• police say his shooting was okay - seems legit
• dress falls onto the chair - its the dress she's wearing
• he slaps woman
• walks out, taking dress with him
• sitting ready for performance to start
• ^ meanwhile woman and bloke are having an orgy. As you do
• priests on a bridge?
• he keeps carrying her bridal style
• flowers on the bush behind her are white - symbol of innocence
• shoots himself in the head - body attaches itself to ceiling - trying to get to heaven?
• she starts snogging older man
• the original bloke is in her room - feathers come out of the pillow
• he throws a Bishop out the window, and a burning tree, a long piece of wood, and of course, a giraffe
• a castle appears on a cliff
• orgy time!
• jesus?
• girl tries to leave the castle, drops dead just outside the door
• jesus takes her back inside
• she screams!
• jesus comes back out
• final shot: snow on a cross. 

Creative Projective Plan

Un Chien Andalou - Reflective Analysis

Un Chien Andalou

Reflective Analysis

Opens with credits saying “Il etait un fois” which translates to once upon a time. This affects the audience as it gives the initial impression that the film will be innocent with the fairy tale feature. It then becomes obvious that this isn’t the case, with the first ‘scene’ of the film, with the male character sharpening a razor, followed by the shocking clip of the women's ‘eye’ being cut open. This provokes the reaction of the audience, as the once upon a time theory clearly falling through.

The slicing of the eye, despite how shocking the image may be, it is quite clearly not the eye of a human, but instead potentially a pig, or a shaven donkey face (quite possible as we see donkeys later on in the film) in the place of the woman.

By having the man coming home on the bike, suggests that perhaps the directors have tried to give the film some form of narrative, by showing that he is coming back from work as a nurse. It is possibly a visual gag by having the woman somehow sense that he has arrived home, by not having any further indications as to the fact he is just outside the house. As she throws the book back down, the shots the audience a picture in the book which shows a woman sat with a book, just like she had been doing. (Inception?) This is then followed by another visual gag of the man on the bike, just falling down onto the path, without any reason, causing the woman to go into distress. Then the woman lays out his clothes on the bed, as if hoping he will reappear in them in front of her. This fits in with the theme of surrealism, as it doesn’t make sense, by challenging the realms of reality.

After this, the man is then looking at his hand, as a swarm of ants appear out of a hole in his palm. It is believed the idea for this scene came from the dream of one of the directors had, with the same scene. This was partly the inspiration for the film.

Following this, there is a scene with a man’s hand in the middle of the road. There is a woman beside it, poking it with a shit. There is no real reason for the scene, as it has no significance. However, towards the end of the scene there is an overhead shot, showing as the surrounding crowd begins to part. It resembles the shot of the ants on the man’s hand.

The man in the next scene, begins to touch the body of the woman, but fantasises over the body being shaped differently, or thinks about a bum, and the woman’s body begins to shaped into what it is he is fantasising. However, the woman doesn’t appreciate being fondled in that manner, and tries to escape him by running around the room, with him close at her tail. She stands in the corner using a clock as her weapon, as the man tries to drag in 2 pianos, with priests attached and dead donkeys on top. This could be a reference to the bible, as the priests are a symbol of Christianity, and the donkeys are referencing Mary, travelling on the donkey to Bethlehem. As Mary was always referred to as a virgin, it is possible that this scene is trying to show that the woman was a virgin, and that is why she disagreed with him touching her, as she wishes to remain pure.

As the woman is trying to escape further, she runs into a different room, which appears to be in the same room she was in. Where the clothes were on the bed, the man has now appeared but fully dressed in those clothes just as she had hoped. This is a convention of surrealism, as this isn’t a part of the conscious mind, but in fact parts of the unconscious, by having the unusual happen.

Then, the future self of the man appears in the room, and starts yelling at his younger self, giving him a time out. The younger man then pulls a gun out and shoots at his older self. Again, this shows it is surrealism because if he shoots an older version of himself, he must die as the younger self, as that man is no longer alive.

The scenes then change, showing a forest, with a dead body in the centre. As the men gather round the body, we are reminded of an earlier scene with the hand in the road, as the men would gather around then to examine to situation. This is could possibly be visual gag as this tends to happen in real life, and therefore is relatable.

The woman is then at home, and sees a butterfly on the wall, and has a moment’s epiphany, as it appears there is a skull on the butterfly’s body. This would be a symbol of death, foreshadowing the final scene at the beach.  When at the beach, it would appear that the couple are back and are now happy, as appose to earlier when she was trying to escape him. The film then finishes with the couple presumably dead in the middle of the beach with just their heads and torsos visible above the sand. This shows that the film is surreal, as there isn’t any real narrative to the film, and the beginning scenes don’t correspond to the final scenes. 

Un Chien Andalou - Commentary w/ Robert Short

Un Chien Andalou 

Commentary w/ Robert Short

• 'once upon a time' - gets audience thinking about fairy tales
• prologue is apparently key
• slicing of the eye is iconic for surrealism
• woman's eyesight pulls audience in
• its all shot conventionally - like a standard film
• cutting is symbolically appropriate
• The moon is representation of the woman's virginity?
• fetishism
• deconstructs sexual fetish
• Dali's painting uses insects (like ants in hands)
• love story?
• psycho analysis
• subconscience under the conscience
• cinematic techniques used to deliberately confuse the audience
• working of the sub-conscience
• exploration of the sub-conscience
• not random apparently
• parody of traditions
• shot reverse shot
• breaking traditional hollywood continuity
• incongruity
• none of the characters have names
• two characters buried under sand - incongruity - in the spring time; meant to be happy 
• froid references (psychology)
• early viewers took it seriously
• oxymoron - black humour - pain made into pleasure
• story of defeated passion
• Bunuel and Dali - "magicians of the sub conscience" 
• the donkeys remind the audience of the eye slicing and then the final scene of the two characters buried in the sand with their eyes gauged out
• dead lovers in sand - shows that yet again the film is untraditional