The Originality of Hitchcock and a Hitchcockian movie 'Shutter Island'

The originality of Hitchcock not only comes from the style of his movies but also,

comes from his many classical plot devices. The elements, used in his movies, are

characteristics and they are kind of Hitchcock's obsessions. Dining scene, different

kind of crime fiction speech, Brandy, Train, Staircases, poison, macguffin, red

herring, are a few of them. Every kind of these plot devices have contributions to the

plot and drags the plot and the audiences as well to different ways.

For instance, In Suspicion, brandy is an intermediary for causing death. Support actor

Beaky' s 'Nigel Bruce' relation to brandy shapes the narrative. The consumption of

brandy can be seen in Hitckcock' s other movies like Shadow of a Doubt, The 39

Steps, Number Seventeen, Stage Fright, Vertigo, Topaz, Rear Window, Saboteur,

Murder. Another threatening element is poison that almost many movies have a

conversation related to poison or include poison for an aim.

The Frame

In suspicion, Hitchcock uses poison with another well-known element; staircases. The protagonist - Cary Grant
who goes upstairs with a glass of milk, is suspensed for killing his wife-Joan
Fontaine. A possibility of attempted murder usually creates a suspense. There is a
shadow created by the stairs and at times Johnnie will come out of the shadows or be
in the dark. A sense of mystery can be felt.

Analyzing the frame-The Visual Components

It is a moving picture that this man is clearly going up the stairs. As it can be seen, there are many lines; vertical lines; the man, these shadows, the column, stair rails and horizontal lines; stairs. All of them are black and white. These creates clearly a contrast. Suspicion which is one of the most well known and used thought or feeling in Hitchcock's movies, is strength by this usage of contrast. A small light was actually placed in the glass of milk. This light makes the dark stairwell luminous. Actually the director wanted it to be complete focus of the scene.

This picture is a frame from a film noir movie. It can maybe be estimated from this dark and pessimist picture. In this picture, many shadows can be seen. Shadowing could be used to set the mood. This shadow is created by stairs. While the man is walking, he comes out of the shadows or be in the dark. A sense of mystery can be felt. In fact, This picture is a two dimensional picture however, it looks like three dimensional picture. Because, camera is placed on the beginning of stairs and the man is shot from his top. This style increases anxiety and I think it contributes a sense of depth to the picture. This provides a huge space between camera and man, indeed.

In conclusion, I think that this composition serves a goal and this is creating suspicion.

As it is mentioned before, conversations, related to murder stories, usually prepare the audiences to suspicious elements and behaviors. These conversations increase the protagonist's doubt and uncertainty about its action toward to the events. Beside these, Hitchcock loves to put out suspicion elements to audiences. If it is reminded the

'puzzle scenes' from the movie 'suspicion' , Lina creates the word “murder” with scrabble pieces, then imagine a cliff that Johnnie is taking his friend, then imagines his friend being pushed off a cliff. After that scene we are certain that Johnnie is a murderer. 

Macguffin is another plot device that the protagonist has a relation with this device, follows or kind of pursues it. However, there is no aim or meaning beyond that. In short, macguffin is nothing exclusively it is a trigger for suspense. In almost every Hitchcock movies, macguffin can be seen.

In his 1962 interview with François Truffaut, Hitchcock explains: 'The main thing I’ve learned over the years is that the MacGuffin is nothing. I’m convinced of this, but I find it very difficult to prove it to others. My best MacGuffin,
and by that I mean the emptiest, the most nonexistent, and the most absurd, is the one we used in North by Northwest. The picture is about espionage, and the only question that’s raised in the story is to find out what the spies are after. Well, during the scene at the Chicago airport, the Central Intelligence man explains the whole situation to
Cary Grant, and Grant, referring to the James Mason character, asks, “What does he do?” The counterintelligence man replies, “Let’s just say that he’s an importer and exporter.” “But what does he sell?” “Oh, just government secrets!” is the answer. Here, you see, the MacGuffin has been boiled down to its purest expression: nothing at all!'

From 'Blackmail (1929) to Family Plot (1976), almost every Hitchcock movie has a macgguffin as a plot device.

Hitchcock's differences not only comes from his usage of plot devices but also comes from his shooting style. He is well-known and specified with his usage of close-up's that these are very effectual on narrating the story. Expression of actor's faces and the way of juxtapositions the scenes with the usage of close up's directs the story.
Because of close up, actors should be careful about their actings that minimal acting mistakes are even can be seen obviously. So, sometimes actors minimalize their actings. Sometimes, the max amount of emotional power is achieved despite of this minimal amount of facial gesture. From Hitchcock's favorite shooting style, a form of cinema, called 'pure Cinema' is occured. Hitchcock comes from the silent film period that this should be one of the reason his usage of pure cinema. He is one of the pioneer of pure cinema. He tries to give the feeling of shots or sequences, tries to bring visual means with no dialogue. In 'Suspicion', at the beginning of the movie, Hitchcock shows us the contrast between the two leading actor's characters, visually. Johnnie is hung over. Lina ,fully alert, is reading a book on child psychology. Johnnie is tired. Lina is restrained, dressed in an expensive overcoat. These visual contrasts show the pair's differences in terms of social class, intellectual interests, and lifestyle. These are made with a series of visual juxtapositions. These all are a perfect example of 'pure cinema'. In 'Psycho' famous shower scene and ensuing scenes are a well-known example of pure cinema, again.

Hitchcock is famous with the usage of motifs in his films. Especially, sometimes, music plays a key role.

Hitchcock has so much effect on cinema world that There is a term called 'Hitchcockian'. This means that Some films have the similar styles and subjects with Hitchcock's movies. Mirage (Edward Dmytryk, 1965), Duel (Steven Spielberg, 1971), Les Diaboliques (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1955), Le Boucher (Claude Chabrol, 1970) are a few Hitchcockian film examples. Now, Martin Scorsese's 'Shutter Island' will be analyzed as a Hitchcockian movie. The usage of plot devices were mentioned and depends on that a new term is emerged and this term is 'Hitchcockian'. Some films are made with the styles and themes similar to those of Alfred Hitchcock's films and this films are Hitchcockian films. 'Shutter Island' is one of the most well-known example that can be mentioned as a Hitchcockian movie.

Hitchcock uses the Kuleshov Effect. Many kind of images from actor's face expressions is shot. The actor's feeling tries to be shown by these facial expressions depends on the subject that is viewed. In Hitchcock movies, this is used in voyeurism. In 'Shutter Island', this effect can be seen at the beginning of the movie. When the
protagonist, Leonardo Di Caprio goes into the hospital, one of the patient looks toward him and tells him to be quiet.

Leonardo Di Caprio' s face expression changes scene by scene. Another expression is used in both hitchcocks and Hitchcockian movies is that German expressionism. Hitchcock uses German expressionism in set, lighting, and distortion. In Shutter Island, this can be seen with the changing of color with the usage of lighting. In

addition to these, many classical elements like harsh polices, staircases and close-ups can been seen in this hitchcockian movie. There are some casual scenes, are seen in hitchcock's movies, are used in Hitchcockian movies, as well. One of them is the actors's conversations or discussions over the hill. Hill, clouds and actors from their

busts cover the scene. Clouds are so close-uped as if they are just behind the actors.

In Shutter Island, Leonardo Di Caprio and Marc Ruffalo make a conversation over the ship. Camera is closed up toward the bust of actors and clouds. The actors look toward the Island from the ship and the threating melody starts to play. Maybe, this can be considered as a kind of motif as well. Hitchcock always uses threating melodies or sign music in his movies. The other one is the well-known car scenes. Actors, sit at the front seats, are shot from their busts. They are seen from beginning of their shoulders and wooded area is at the back side. In Shutter Island, this scene is
seen in a very bit different version that camera is not exacly located from the counter of actors. one of the actor is in the foreground, the other one is shot laterally. When the vehicle moves on in the forest, the way of zoom in is like the way is in Hitchcock's movies. Forest is seen in the background.

Based on the Article; 'The Object and The Face Notorious, Bergman and the Close ups'

BEYOND FACES

Hitchcock wrote that; ''Everything in cinema 'begins with the actor's face.'' This can clearly be seen in many kind of Hitchcock' s movies. Beyond of Hitchcock's usage of faces, many styles, meanings and feelings can be inferred.

Face is the main part of an actor's body that audience's most attention is firstly on the actor's faces during the movie. Hitchcock has been used this on a very clever way that by using faces he reflects many kind of emotions, he sometimes gives clues about narration and actor's psychological approach and he develops technics. His close-up's on faces emphasizes these. Because of close up, actors should be careful about their actings that minimal acting mistakes are even can be seen obviously. So, sometimes actors minimalize their actings. Sometimes, the max amount of emotional power is achieved despite of this minimal amount of facial gesture. Narrative sequence, style and camera's position are a few of the reasons. Juxtapositions of facial pictures with  silent can result in Hitchcock's one of the favorite style called 'Pure Cinema' . In Pure Cinema, many meanings can be inferred from a few pictures.

Close-up's to faces with black&white associates with the neorealism wave in such a way that this wave includes the minimalist pictures belongs to realism. Not only the characteristics of Italian neorealism can be seen in Hitchcock's  close-ups, but also, Andre Bazin's realistic editing style can be seen. In Notorious, the kissing scene happens among a long take.  This scene is like, there is an improvisation btw the actors. On the other side, if Eisenstein's editing style is considered, close ups can break down a film and  it can be hard to catch the exact emotions of combined scenes. However, Hitchcock likes to use decoupage and this helps to provide the feeling of continuity. This technic keeps the audience's interest constantly.

One of the remarkable reason of being popular the Hitchcock's close ups is that the beauty of female actresses are worth to be watched. The mouth,eye are being shot in very attractive and erotic way. The producer David O. Selznick writes that “Every beautiful shot of Bergman's is a great deal of money added to the returns on the picture and I urge Mr. Kern and Mr. Ratoff  to start to work on a list of where re-take close-ups might be made''.