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Alfred Hitchcock and His Staged People in Groups

posted 6 months ago by roger1 (2493)
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(aka ecarle.)

With the recent passing of director William Friedkin, I've gone back to his two biggest hits, his two biggest classics and I'm taking a second look. Those would be The French Connection(1971) and The Exorcist(1973), of course.

Key to both -- but moreso to The French Connection -- are their documentary-style realism. Friedkin started out in local news production and made an award winning documentary called "The People Against Paul Crump"(I think) and a documentary style became Friedkin''s way -- as the 70's got underway -- both to rebel against Hollywood-style soundstage backlot falsity AND to establish his bona fides as "New Hollywood." Friedkin also made sure to include influences from foreign films (another affection of New Hollywood directors from Coppola to Altman to Scorsese.)

But the documentary feel was paramount. This was rather amazing with The Exorcist - what with the fantastical Satanid demon monster at its center -- and more acceptable with the real-life police case at the center of TFC. (Though The Exorcist had that hyper-realistic spinal tap sequence to make audiences faint.)

The French Connection has a "fantastic," if not fantasy scene in it: the central car-vs-train chase. On the one hand, this was the action selling point of the movie, but on the other hand, Friedkin filmed THAT documentary style, too.

I'm not all the way through The French Connection yet on re-watch. I just find it a bit of a slog, and as admirable as all the documentary style is...its not necessarily the most compelling story line, nor do the scenes "pop." Its just a bunch of life lived -- for cops and drug crooks. (The MUCH more stylized and suspenseful and action-packed cop thriller for me that year was Dirty Harry.)

Which brings me to Hitchcock and his NON documentary style technique. He didn't deal in fantasy content much at all(The Birds and some of the psychic stuff in Shadow of a Doubt maybe, the psychic in Family Plot is a fake.) But he DID deal in "fantasical imagery" and the arranging of real life in surreal form.

For an example of something specific -- I'll start with North by Northwest.

The United Nations scene. And what an exquisite scene it is, once Cary Grant's Roger Thornhill is introduced to the REAL Lester Townsend. We are as confused as Grant is. YOU'RE not Lester Townsend, says Grant to ...Lester Townsend ...who says "yes I am," and if anybody should know that he's Lester Townsend...its Lester Townsend.

The dialogue is great -- very suspenseful, really as Grant keeps getting closer to the truth and tries to get Townsend to see it too. But soon Townsend's nice manners go away, his patience has run our, he wants to know what the hell's going on. Townsend folds his arms as signal of being fed up -- weird, its as if that gesture is his signal to the assassin nearby who will kill him. But that can't be.

The moment of truth arrives. Grant pulls out the newspaper photo of "Lester Townsend"(so perfectly planted earlier in the movie in a perfect script) holds it up to Townsend and says "Do you know this man?"

We are excited, we want Townsend to tell all. But no -- in the space screen right a sliver flash crosses into Townsend's back. He looks shocked -- by the photo of the man?(Maybe.) No..by the knife in his back. And he falls forward into Grant's arms, and Grant involuntarily grabs the knife just in time to be photographed with it in his hand and...

...just a magnificent, magnificent scene. I saw it full house in revival one time, and the audience first gasped(the knife), then murmured, then LAUGHED, louder and louder with each hilarious moment(Grant GRABS the knife -- laughter); the photographer turns around and gets the photo(MORE laughter), Grant "menaces the crowd" --"stay away from me" (MORE laughter, Grant drops the knife(more laughter) and Herrmann's score - tightly tuned to the murder itself,, EXPLODES into the main theme on that spectacular high over head shot of Thornhill(a human dot running towards a tiny cab).

Its a great scene to watch, but its a great scene in a theater with a crowd. No more, now. but surely in 1959 and also in the 70's when I experienced the above.

But I left out one important part:

As Lester Townsend falls dead to the floor(the quickest death in movies?) THEN Hitchcock does his special thing:

Choreogaphed, as if in a musical number, three groups are filmed rising in rapid sucession to react to the murder:

The women at the check in desk.

Half of a table of people.

The Asian delegation on a couch.

CONT

[–] roger1 (2493) 6 months ago

Hitchcock directs each group to "pop up" in a manner that both drives the laughter of the scene(further!) and yet "says something in the Hitchocck manner": his movies are driven by his own playful wit(when he's in a playful mood ) and people don't always act like PEOPLE in his movies. (James Mason was rather derisive about this _- "they are like puppets, marionettes.") But its FUN.

I think of several quotes when I see a scene like the "popping up people at the UN" in North by Northwest. One was Hitchcock's quote to Truffaut, "Other people's films are a slice of life. Mine are a slice of cake." The French Connection? A slice of life. North by Northwest? A slice of cake. And keep in mind: BOTH the UN Sequence in NBNW and the car chase in The French Connection happen in New York City.

Another quote(from a critic upon Hitchcock's death in 1980) "Hitchcock's films were child-like in their simplicity, dazzling in their adult sophistication." (But the childlike DOES matter -- the silent-film bred instinct for interesting images reality be damned.)

Another quote(from another critic): "many of Hitchcock's films give us a fairy tale world." (Think of Arbogast walking up to that old house in the dark twilight.)

The 70's movies rebelled against the stylized world of Hitchcock, but the coming of Spielberg and Lucas sure brought THAT back, yes? Spielberg in particular seemed to like to stage things fancy like Hitchocck did -- and out-and-out borrowed/sole/homaged from NXNW in one scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Thornhill in a sea of Chicago railway station red caps in NXNW became Indiana Jones in a sea of wicker baskets in Raiders.

CONT

[–] roger1 (2493) 6 months ago

Back to Hitchcock's stylized groups of people.

Frenzy. THAT late in the game and in his career, Hitchcock proved he was still Hitchocck in the opening scene of Frenzy.

The opening helicopter shot to establish modern-day London and the River Thames. The riverside speech by the British
politican. The river shall soon be cleaned of pollution and "there shall be no foreign bodies" --

-- and then there IS a body. The corpse of a naked woman, floating to shore in the Thames, a necktie round her naked neck...

But before that, we hear a cry: LOOK!

Hitchcock cuts to a row of three people on the riverwall.

Long shot of the three: first one cries LOOK.

Close up on her yelling LOOK.

Back to the long shot of the three:

Close up as the second one turns her head.

Back to the long shot of the three:

Close up of the third one turning HIS head.

"Its a woman!"

I remember a certain joy coming upon me when I first saw this moment in Frenzy(at the theater.) THERE he is. The quick choreography of turning heads, the technical dexterity of the cuts from long shot to close up from long shot to close up and -- people behaving (yep) like puppets, marionettes.

And just THINK..in the pre-CGI Silicon Valley precision of movies -- had HARD it was for Hitchcock to set up that shot. A row of three people. Their various turns towards the river. The close-ups. The precission cutting of all this together and the SOUNDTRACK -- getting things like "LOOK" and "ITS A WOMAN" to land on our ears in a tantalizing way.

By the way, speaking of sophistication, when the politican says "there shall be no foreign bodies" and then the body appears, Hitchcock doesn't "play up" the politican's phrase with a knowing close-up and the words clearly heard. You have to listen closely to hear the words "no foreign bodies" on the soundtrack.

CONT

[–] roger1 (2493) 6 months ago

And now to Psycho:

Marion at California Charlies. This master class in paranoia has Hitchcock just building it and building it, in the visuals(hey, that's the COP across the street), dialogue("First time I've ever heard of the customer high-pressuring the salemsan") acting (How Charlie's smile fades out to judgmental suspicion when Marion accepts his high price).

And finally Marion has 'made the purchase"(thanks to some "time trickery" with Marion and Charlie in his office signing papers in 30 seconds offscreen when it should have taken 20 minutes) and in her new car having left her old car with the mechanic and she starts to drive away across the car lot asphault and--

HEY!

Marion slams on the brakes and jumps -- and WE jump (you could say this is the first jump shock IN Psycho) and...the vision of paranoia is almost complete, but not quite.

The "HEY!" came from the auto mechanic(previously unseen) to whom Charlie gave the old car for "the onceover." The mechanic has Marion's suitcase, which she left in the other car. Boy, what a disaster if she had forgotten it. All those clues to a criminal. And nothing to wear for sleep at the Bates Motel....

NOW Marion can drive off the lot in peace, finally. Escape all these cruel eyes studying her.

But as Marion and her car leave the frame for her trip...Hitchcock's camera lingers behind and:

One by one, three men step forward and line up -- the cop, California Charlie, the mechanic -- three men suspiciously eying one woman. The paranoia is complete for this scene, to the MAX, and it only sets up the further paranoia of Marion's day into dusk into night into rain drive ahead.

CONT

[–] roger1 (2493) 6 months ago

I recall at a Psycho full house showing at a revival house, the audience's growing laughter and verbal approval to the shot of the three men lining up to watch Marion drive away. How perfect. How paranoid.

This shot sounds in Arbogast's later line: "Someone's seen her. Someone ALWAYS sees a girl with forty thousand dollars." Here they are.

And for a "crossover across time" -- the role of the unseen man's "HEY!" here in Psycho stretches across 12 years to London in "Frenzy" and the unseen woman's "LOOK!" In both cases, Hitchocck shakes us up with a sudden yelled line. Other directors did this over time, as I recall, in other movies. But I remember Hitch doing it.

--

But this: OK, there's three good concrete examples of Hitchcock "putting people in groups" in a stylized way but...what about his other 50 films? At the moment, I can't remember any other such grouped groups, but I'm sure they are there.

In fact, I just remembered one though it does not quite match up with the above, it is famous:

Strangers on a Train. Guy the Tennis player is at a match watching it and waiting for his match and he looks across the tennis court and sees: bleachers packed with spectactors, their heads shifting back and forth, back and forth to follow the ball -- except ONE spectactor: the villainous Bruno, his head fixed, his eyes only on Guy(and on US.) Classic and indeed "stylized humans acting like puppets."

Two famous directors tried to copy that Strangers on a Train shot. One got it. One botched it. The "botcher" was the more famous director. Here goes:

Cape Fear(1991) Hero Nick Nolte is at a fourth of July parade on Main Street in his sleepy Southern city. He stares past the parade and spectators and sees villain Robert DeNiro -- in giant mirroed sunglasses --- staring right at him. Director Scorsese said this shot was inspired by the one in Strangers on a Train...but if so, the effect is too sloppy to "get it." BOTCHED.

CONT

[–] roger1 (2493) 6 months ago

"Ocean's 11"(2001) Director Steven Soderbergh's remake finds lead George Clooney standing in a huge crowd of people waiting to watch an old casino get detonated, blown up, and crumpled to the ground in dust.

He's looking straight at his ex-wife, Julia Roberts.

The explosion occurs, the crowd turns to watch..but Clooney stays fixed on Roberts.

THAT shot almost EXACTLY matched Strangers on a Train. And had the added "stunt aspect" how'd Soderbergh get that shot perfect when there was no chance for a re-take(the casino hotel was blown up once -- it was a real casino hotel.)

---

One more "use" of the grouped people in Psycho at California Charlies -- at my own behest -- to (unfortunately for its fans) again express my feelings about Psycho II.

Its not that I hate Psycho II, nor even that I think it is a bad movie, overall(though I do think it has some bad scenes, more principally the climax.)

Its just that I think Psycho II in no way comes close to the cinematic vision, technical mastery, or great writing of the original. (There are good actors in Psycho II, but they don't get good characters to play -- not even Perkins as Norman.)

And the thing of it is this: one area that Psycho II misses the boat against the original is against the FIRST 30 MINUTES...all that material with Marion before she even REACHES the Bates Motel and the slasher movie begins.

The timing, the repressive formalism, the haunting sense of both a "nightmare world"(the real world ever so slightly changed , like a dream) and Marion's growing paranoia( haven't we ALL done something wrong and worried that people KNOW it?) , there is so much "real deal auteur" work going on in those 30 minutes that Psycho II NEVER matches..because all that Psycho II is doing at the end of the day is "telling a little mystery story with some psycho kills."

CONT

[–] roger1 (2493) 6 months ago

And there is Hitchocck's technique(mixed here with Herrmann's briliiance.) I am thinking of the shot in Psycho where Marion walks along the cars at the lot and Hitch alternates the POV shots of the car license plates(Marion wants a California car to "ditch Arizona) while the soundtrack remains calm and Herrmann's music strums away. Brilliant.

And when Van Sant shot that scene(with Herrmann's score by Danny Elfman) for his 1998 remake -- it worked. It worked so beautifully I felt like "if Hitchcock WERE alive and living today, this is what one of his movies would look like in 1998."

Well, enough of those thoughts.

I'll leave this wondering: are there any other grouped Hitchcock peoples I missed?