Roland Barthes 'The Death of The Author' (1968)
''The author is thought to nourish the book...''
Alfred Hitchcock:
''Film directors live with their pictures while they are being made. They are their babies just as much as an authors novel is the offspring of his origination'' (1927).
Intention:
WK Wimsatt & Monroe Beardsley 'The Intentional Fallacy' (The Verbal Icon, 1954).
1. Internal Evidence
2. External Evidence
3. Intermediate Evidence
Cahiers du Cinema:
- Founded in 1951 by Jaques Doniol-Valcroze, Joseph Lo Duca and Andre Bazin.
- Alexandre Astruc's 'The Birth of a New Avant-Garde - The Camera-Stylo' (1948).
- Francois Truffaunt's 'A Certain Tendancy of the French Cinema' (1954).
- Andre Bazin's 'On the Politique des Auteurs' (1957).
Cahiers and Hollywood:
A decision to valoise 'popular' rather than 'art' cinema.
Cahiers Criticism:
The primacy of the specifically visual in an understanding of film - from scriptwriter to director.
The Destiction Between:
- Auteur (''signature'')
- Metteur-en-scene (''No signature'')
US and UK:
Andrew Sarris 'Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962' (Film Culture, 1962).
'Movie' (First issue: June 1962) Created by Ian Cameron and V.F. Perkins. From the Film Studies department at the University of Warwick).
Possible Auteur Elements:
- Cinematography
- Mise-en-Scene
- Actors/crew
- Themes/motifs
- Emphasis on psychological realism
- Popular genre film making
Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) - The British Films:
He attended the University of London to do Art. He then became a designer at Henley Telegraph. In 1920 he moved to Paramount Pictures. He made his first film in 1922 which was an adaptation of 'Woman to Woman'. He had various assistant director roles throughout the 20's. In 1926 he went to Munich and produced Anglo-German productions.
Earliest Films:
Number Thirteen (1922) Lost
Always Tell Your Wife (1923) Lost
The Pleasure Garden (1925/6) Germany
The Mountain Eagle (1926) Lost/Germany
The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1926)
We watched 'The Lodger' as part of this lecture and I loved watching such an old film. It gives you perspective of how far cinema has came and how film making has changed over 100 years or there abouts Themes in this film were:
Communication Technology
Murder/Women/Blonde
Editing
Travelling
Text on screeen
We then watched 'The Ring' from 1928, this was another very old film which was intriguing. I liked looking at how they used the camera to create metaphores and visual hints. Themes in this film were:
Hidden Identity
Masculinity
Reduced intertitles
Boxing
Desire
Over-metaphorical
The Studios and Hitchcock:
1926 - 1927 = Gainsborough Pictures (Michael Balcon) - Islington Studios
1928 - 1932 = British International Pictures (John Maxwell) - Elstree Studios
1933 - 1937 = Gaumont - British (Michael Balcon) - Lime Grove Studios
1938 = Gainsborough ('The Lady Vanishes')
Book - Charles Barr - 'English Hitchcock'
Themes and Hitchcock:
Truth and falsity
Betrayal
Deception
Desire
Motifs and Hitchcock:
Murder
Poverty/wealth
Stairs
Animals
Monumental backdrops
Desirable object/the MacGuffin
Untrustworthy women
Unjustly accused innocent
Women as enigma
Styles and Hitchcock:
Careful composition
Symmetry
Contrast of light/colour
Artificial backdrops
More British Hitchcock Films:
Juno and Paycock (1930)
Murder! (1930)
The Skin Game (1931)
Rich and Strange (1931)
Number Seventeen (1932)
Waltzes From Vienna (1934)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
The 39 Steps (1935)
Secret Agent (1936)
Sabotage (1936)
Young and Innocent (1937)
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Jamaica Inn (1939)
Frenzy (1972)
I found this lecture very useful and I learned a lot that I did not previously know about Alfred Hitchcock. I love his films and I hope to see more of them in the future; especially the old ones!
Speak soon!
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