{"id":6030,"date":"2015-04-15T00:35:24","date_gmt":"2015-04-15T04:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smugfilm.com\/?p=6030"},"modified":"2015-04-15T01:14:00","modified_gmt":"2015-04-15T05:14:00","slug":"13-best-hitchcock-shots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/13-best-hitchcock-shots\/","title":{"rendered":"The 13 Best Hitchcock Shots"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"handbag2\"<\/p>\n

Alfred Hitchcock was not just one of the great stylists of the film world, but also one of its great fonts as well, with 53 feature films and a score of TV works, in just about every pre-modern format imaginable, from tinted silent black-and-white to special effects-soaked technicolor. I thought it\u2019d be fun to take a look at some of the moments in his work that really click for me. So, here\u2019s my very personal and by no means exhaustive list of my favorite Hitchcock shots:<\/p>\n

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\"39steps\"<\/p>\n

The 39 Steps<\/a> (1935)<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Hitchcock started his film career as a title card designer. Maybe that background in graphic design is where he developed his eye for framing such crisp, clear, instantly readable shots. This frame is a whole story in a single second, a paranoid masterpiece using the starkness of both the Scottish countryside and high contrast black-and-white to its advantage. It could be an etching in a Dickens book.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"the<\/p>\n

The Wrong Man<\/a> (1956)<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The Wrong Man, with its true-life story, real locations, and proto-Law & Order<\/a> feel, was a big departure for Hitchcock\u2014and also makes it almost cartoonishly up my alley. Within its gritty, street photography-inspired imagery, this single burst of expressionism really jumps out. His greatest evocation of a state of mind, it\u2019s a beautifully stark, Dreyer-esque image\u2014the face of a man realizing he has just lost everything.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"vertigo\"<\/p>\n

Vertigo<\/a> (1958)<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Anchoring a totally surreal lightscape with a practical source, so that unlike the cutouts and spirals which haven\u2019t aged terribly well, this simple close up still retains the sinister aura of something fundamentally amiss, expanding on the more subtle red and green splashes in the last reel of Rope<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"murder\"<\/p>\n

Murder!<\/a> (1930)<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

This is like something Lubitsch would do. We pull out during the final happy coda to see that it\u2019s all on stage, our leading lady (who is a member of a theater company) and leading man embrace just before the curtain closes. The same sort of wink to the audience<\/span><\/a> that ends North by Northwest, it\u2019s an uncommonly sweet, imaginative last beat that elevates a middling film.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"troubleharry\"<\/p>\n

The Trouble with Harry<\/a> (1955)<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

This is how Rockwell would\u2019ve painted death. There\u2019s something so droll about the combination of crisp New England lushness and a perfectly composed dead man laying stock still like a punctuation mark on the screen. Hitchcock had a knack for leering with class\u2014the formalism of Harry here, arms at his side, suit all together, adds some levity and gives it a nice twist of absurdity.<\/span><\/p>\n

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