viewing notes

• Auteur theory: technical competence, personal style, interior meaning


  Spike Lee = unconventional angles, stylized speech + bold colours, nuanced look at race

  Hitchcock = dolly zoom + technicolour, pure cinema (visuals), Hitchcock blondes
• Conforms to New Hollywood vs Old Hollywood

  DTRT: independent, light camera work, director control + loc shooting

  Vertigo: continuity editing, Kim Novak = star, synchronised sound
• Defers from New Hollywood vs Old Hollywood

  DTRT: less so, since NH meant more freedom for directors as auteurs

  Vertigo: breaks Hays Code, German expressionism + soviet montage influences, Scottie = unlike Stewers other roles,
• Sound


  DTRT = 80s black culture, idiosyncratic tone

  Vertigo = Bernard Herrmann score, synchronised sound
• Lighting


  DTRT = reflects emotions, removal of three point lighting to create visual heat

  Vertigo = reflects emotions, three point lighting
• Mis En Scene


  DTRT = vivid Bed Stuy neighbourhood reflecting heightened reality, black culture + poverty

  Vertigo = middle class status + costuming in Judy + Madeleine reflects duality
• Aesthetic 


  DTRT = heightened aesthetic of reality to tell his didactic message

  Vertigo =  experimentation with paranoia, extremes of noir and romanticism and
• Editing


  DTRT = montage enhances the aesthetic complexity of his highly praised film.

  Vertigo = classical continuity editing + influences of soviet montage + german expressionism
• Genre


  DTRT = drama

  Vertigo = neo-noir thriller
• Context


  DTRT = racial tensions in NYC at their peak

  Vertigo = post war emasculation, growingly active woman, end of CH era
• Representation 


  DTRT = nuanced look at race, stereotypical portrayal of women

  Vertigo = white middle class, portrayal of women through the male gaze