Most influential moments in Alfred Hitchcock Movies?

It's just really a simple project - a report on any artist and I chose
Alfred Hitchcock.

I just need something for my visual - in this case footage. I was just
curious what would be suitable footage to be in my "top 3" scenes in
his movies.

For Psycho, I chose the infamous shower scene as it is probably the
most known and most influential scene (from remakes to parodies).
However, I just have trouble picking the second and third most known
scence. I'm open to any recommendation of what movies I should pick and
watch for my presentation.
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Of course, there are all those wonderful scenes which are mostly silent
and are perhaps among Hitchcock's own favourites, speaking as he did
about his preference for 'pure film' (story told by images more than by
words) as often as he did.

'Rear Window' has a lot of this obviously (much of the story involves
the protagonist simply sitting alone in his wheelchair and gazing out
his window) .. as does 'Vertigo' (the central character wordlessly
follows his quarry around San Francisco) .. 'Psycho' (both Marion and
Norman individually have extensive scenes where they're alone .. Marion
looking for the money with which to pay for her new car, Norman's
clean-up of the bathroom) .. 'Topaz' (the Hotel Theresa sequence of
scenes) .. and 'Frenzy' (Rusk's retrieval of the tie-pin from Babs'
corpse) among a great many others.

If you're considering shots or effects others have often imitated,
referenced or homaged, then not only is there 'Psycho''s shower scene
but also, the track back/zoom forward from 'Vertigo' (as well as the
slow track back/zoom forward from the end of 'Marnie', just as the
flashback sequence begins) .. used more and more frequently, I find, as
time goes on .. but perhaps most memorably by Steven Spielberg in
'Jaws', in the moment when Brody sees the shark attack from the beach.

Of course, getting down to basics, there's the wrong man theme, used
again and again in thrillers .. and used in conjunction with a double
chase (the wrong man searches for the so-called villain as
representatives of law and order search for the wrong man).

Fergal #.
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If you were student of mine and chose to show and discuss a clip of the
shower scene in PSYCHO (1960), I would deduct 10 points from your grade
for being unimaginative and unoriginal. There has been dozens of
documentaries mentioning the shower scene in PSYCHO, every film critic
this side of Jupiter has critiqued this scene, it has been tiresomely
dissected, talked about, hammered out, tediously analyzed and satirized.
Film illiterates who has never heard of Hitchcock know about the "shower
scene" and some woman being stabbed to death. Originally Hitchcock meant
for this scene to be a big shock and surprise. If you wish to be a
mediocre and predicable student, then go ahead with the shower scene.
There are other memorable and famous scenes in PSYCHO.

]for Vertigo and the Birds, I'm not sure
]what scene to present. Does anybody
]have a suggestion for the scenes

You should see these Hitchcock films again, study them and take
notes––be an independent thinker. I don't think you take Hitchcock
seriously.

Sligo
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sligosevier RemoveThis @webtv.net wrote:

> If you were student of mine and chose to show and discuss a clip of the
> shower scene in PSYCHO (1960), I would deduct 10 points from your grade
> for being unimaginative and unoriginal.

Sligo, I would totally agree .. if the assignment were a report for
this group or some academic group on Hitchcock. Considering the
original poster has already clarified that its for a simple school
project, "a report on any artist", I think, at the very least, a bit of
constructive help wouldn't go amiss.

I also think that, since the original poster's class appear to be
choosing artists (a vague term if ever there was one) for their
projects, 'Psycho''s shower scene is a very appropriate example for one
on Alfred Hitchcock. At the very least, it introduces the rest of the
class to Hitchcock via his most famous scene ever .. before the
original poster goes on to use two other examples from his canon that
they (the class) are almost guaranteed never to have heard of or seen.

Fergal #.

P.S: Can you imagine someone doing a school project on Van Gogh and
deliberately ignoring 'The Sunflowers' .. or one on Bram Stoker but
leaving out 'Dracula'?
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When you mention the shower scene, don't forget to refer to the fact
(pointed out by Sligo) that it is indeed perhaps Hitchcock's most
over-analysed piece of work .. mainly because it is one of the most
remarkable depictions of a murder ever, the cuts of the knife virtually
matching the cuts of the pieces of film.

Apparently, history has it that Hitchcock didn't even want music over
the scene but Herrmann scored it anyway and, on hearing it, the
director agreed it should stay. As most point out, the screeching
violins seem to suggest screeching birds .. which ties in with the
film's other bird imagery (Marion Crane hails from Phoenix, Norman's
hobby, the dialogue "You eat like a bird", the bird pictures, etc.).

As Sligo also points out, Hitchcock intended the scene to be a shock
and a surprise .. but, me, I wonder.
If you think about it, in 1960, if a cinema audience saw a woman
undressing on the screen, they surely wouldn't be thinking this is
normal for a Hollywood film .. especially when, seconds later, they saw
that the door behind the woman was opening and a silhouetted figure was
entering the room. The camera's ominously slow track forward past the
woman and towards the dark figure seems to forewarn us (if only seconds
prior to its happening) of something very much out of the ordinary.

So, I would argue that the knife attack doesn't so much give us a sense
of shock as one of 'oh no, something bad is about to happen' (for the
want of a better description).

Interesting because the second murder, that of the detective Arbogast
at the top of the Bates Mansion stairs, is generally seen as the more
suspenseful .. but in that one, we definitely don't see Mother before
'she' pounces (.. unlike previously, with the shower murder).

Fergal #.
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Yes - I admit, I'm not a true Hitchcock fan - but I do know that he is
a respectable director and which is why I chose him. And yes, I do need
to rewatch these films again (which I definitely will do to avoid
looking like a fool in class).

However, the way the project is implemented is that the teacher allows
us to use 3 minutes for media in anyway we want to (if it was an
artist, you do showcase their artwork, music, etc). In my case, I
decided to show famous scenes from Hitchcock's movie.

I'll admit that Shower scene is probably been overplayed and done so
many times (coincidently also happens to be the first scene that popped
in my mind when I thought of picking him for my project) but since I
only 3 minutes to show footages, this HAS to be one of them in order to
have an impact on the class.

For the rest of the presentation, I'll focus on his background, his
influences, and film techniques that I have been researching - so I'm
not really basing my whole presentation on that scene.

For originality, at least I picked somebody to do a report on that
nobody would have picked for an art class :)
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Phooom:

I wish you the very best of luck in your school presentation on
Hitchcock.

Sligo
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Guys, thank you for your responses.

I'll be sure to report the end results of my presentation to you all.
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On 13 Apr 2006 07:53:49 -0700, "sawakatoome" <sawakatoome.TakeThisOut@yahoo.co.uk>
wrote:

>When you mention the shower scene, don't forget to refer to the fact
>(pointed out by Sligo) that it is indeed perhaps Hitchcock's most
>over-analysed piece of work .. mainly because it is one of the most
>remarkable depictions of a murder ever, the cuts of the knife virtually
>matching the cuts of the pieces of film.

>As Sligo also points out, Hitchcock intended the scene to be a shock
>and a surprise .. but, me, I wonder.
>If you think about it, in 1960, if a cinema audience saw a woman
>undressing on the screen, they surely wouldn't be thinking this is
>normal for a Hollywood film .. especially when, seconds later, they saw
>that the door behind the woman was opening and a silhouetted figure was
>entering the room. The camera's ominously slow track forward past the
>woman and towards the dark figure seems to forewarn us (if only seconds
>prior to its happening) of something very much out of the ordinary.
>
>So, I would argue that the knife attack doesn't so much give us a sense
>of shock as one of 'oh no, something bad is about to happen' (for the
>want of a better description).
>
>Fergal #.
Hi all:

I haven't had a chance to be here for a while.

First off for anyone giving a basic presentation at a high school
level on Hitchcock, ignoring the shower scene in "Psycho" would be
total folly in my opinion.

One can't disagree that it is one of the most analyzed scenes in movie
history. However that is because it is one of the most dynamic and
significant milestones in movie history.

Also I think one must mention the monumental public relaxations coupe
Hitchcock made in promoting this film and concealing the what happened
during the shower scene. Not including this information in a
presentation at any level would be a mistake from my point of view.

Yes, you might not want to make the shower scene the major part of
your presentation but to ignore it is a mistake. Think of it this
way, if you were talking about the turning point of WWII would you
ignore D-Day? This was a major point in Alfred Hitchcock's career.

I remember all the hype during the original run of "Psycho" as I am
sure some of the others on the group do too. This amounted to an
extremely unusual and original concentrated blitz of advertising in
the form of trailers, radio advertisements, television spots and
newspaper advertisements. I have never seen anything like it. The
type of hype was unheard of except perhaps to a much lesser degree
from the barkers outside a carnival exhibit or a freak show.

The theatre near my home didn't have a sound system outside. I
remember seeing speakers being installed. Through those speakers
messages from Hitch were broadcast saying that absolutely no one would
be allowed to enter the theatre after the start of the film. At the
end of the film everyone was urged not to tell anyone what happened
during the film. This was never done before or since to the best of
my knowledge.

Most people who saw Psycho in the original run were totally shocked
when Janet Leigh was killed to the best of my recollection. While
they suspected something was going to happen, I don't think anyone
thought that the star would be killed off so early in the film. There
definitely was suspense but it deliberately did not prepare the
audience for what was going to happen. Suspense followed by shock is
the way I would describe it. If you didn't see the film in the first
run, you missed this monumental moment in film history in my opinion.

I remember people who saw Psycho abiding by Hitchcock's request. To
their friends that said things like 'You must see it." When asked
about what happened they replied with comments like "You'll see."
It was all great fun.

During later runs, seeing the film in a theatre with an audience was
very tame compared to seeing it during the original run. I can't
recall the exact year but I think I also saw it about 1966 or perhaps
a few years later in a theatre. Does anyone here know when it was re
released?

Seeing the film on DVD in your home is nothing compared with a primed
audience during the early runs in the theatre.

If you saw Psycho, during its original run, I would love to hear what
you have to say about it these matters. I am sure everyone has a
slightly different experience. Perhaps the experience was different
from one showing to another.

It is possible that those who saw it later even in the original run
might have not seen the dynamics as was there originally in the early
showings.

Best wishes.

Vic
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