Cinema City - North by Northwest Media Trip

Today we went to see Alfred Hitchcock's film North by Northwest at Cinema City in Norwich. We were invited to the pre-film talk by Charles who is a Hitchcock specialist. His insight to Hitchcock's works were fascinating and he was able to talk about many interesting facts and things that we should look out for in the film.

My notes from Charles' talk:

• Hitchcock makes an appearance at the beginning of his films so that the audience aren't watching for him for the whole film.
• Quote: "The appeal of Hitchcock to the theorist and historian of film is impossible to overstate. To study him is to find an economical way of studying the entire history of cinema". - Paula Marantz Cohen.
• Alfred Hitchcock lived from 1899-1980 and he spent 50 years as a director: 1936-1976, with his last film being in 1975. 
• He was a silent and sound film director. 
• Hitchcock made over 20 films in Europe and some in America.
• Two of Charles' recommended Hitchcock films are Blackmail and The 39 Steps. 
• Hitchcock brought out a trilogy of films that did things (in terms of asthectics) TV can't do: 


• 1958 Vertigo
• 1959 North by Northwest 
• 1960 Psycho
• Hitchcock was very focused on the psychology of film viewers. He realised that the film had to be continuous so people could watch it beginning to end and that the audience was in mass so he liked to see their reactions to what was going on in the film.
• Hitchcock used celluloid projection methods (see below).
• Two important men in Hitchcock's career were Bernard Herrmann who was in charge of the music and Ernest Lehman who wrote the original scripts. It has been said that without them Hitchcock wouldn't have been as successful. Due to this, Hitchcock was referred to as a 'great collaborator' and a 'sponge'. 
• Hitchcock loved using 10 minute scenes which carried the audience along with the images and not a lot of sound. This was evident in North by Northwest in the scene where the plane is trying to attack Roger Thornhill in the desert area. 
• Quote: "The silent cinema was the purest form of cinema". - Alfred Hitchcock
• Quote: "I aim to give the public beneficial shocks". - Alfred Hitchcock 

My view on the film:

Personally, I felt that Cary Grant's acting let the film down a little bit as at times it was unrealistic and stiff. Additionally, the film was very long and Hitchcock had merged a few story lines into one film; this became quite annoying in the last half an hour when I thought the film was coming to an end several times but it continued. However, I did enjoy the narrative and I managed to spot many of Hitchcock's conventional film techniques - like the long scene without a lot of sound. I also enjoyed the music choices in the background as they really helped to build tension in some parts - also the gun shot sound, which did make me jump! Overall, I thought the film was okay and I enjoyed the trip.