That just gets lost once you find out the twist. For instance the color green, associated with life after death, apparitions, etc. Once you realize there is nothing supernatural about anything, it kinda just becomes pretty lighting for me and nothing else. Did he ever did any supernatural type of film?
shareI don't agree. Bathing Judy in green lighting when she's transformed into Madeleine is...genius. I don't think Hitchcock made any "spiritual films," but I was thinking of Elster's speech to Scotty about someone (his wife) who is inhabited by another being:
Norman Bates
Also Rebecca deals with the spirit of someone hovering over people, but then it turns out the husband hated her, but the housekeeper Mrs. Danvers...loved her
And why is it genius? It is certainly striking but that's my point, what else is there to it?
Well, those weren't supernatural films.
Hitchcock designated light green as Madeleine's color. It's the color of the car she drives, the clothes she wears (or Judy wears while impersonating Madeleine). It is a cool color, somewhat "out of reach" or unattainable
I pulled this off the internet:
In several religions, green is the color associated with resurrection and regeneration.
Green is the color of love associated with both Venus, the Roman goddess and Aphrodite, the Greek goddess.
No need to be snappy about it, I researched this too, and the actual meaning is not the green of life but the green of the after life and the supernatural.
shareI apologize if I came across as snappy. If it doesn't work for you, then it doesn't. The green light worked for me as the incarnation of Scotty's obsession and when Judy is finally transformed into Madeleine, Scotty is in a state of...delerium.
I'm not much for spiritual movies. Hitchcock seems more grounded in ... Psychology, romantic obsessions, murder and guilt.
So what are your favorite spiritual movies?
That light phosphorus green has a long literary and theatrical history of being an eerie ghostly color.
share