Hitchcock's Visual Storytelling

Introduction

As David Bordwell says ‘motion pictures are so much a part of our lives that it is hard to imagine a world without them’ (Bordwell 2016, p. 2). Thanks to them, audience can experience things that would not be possible in any other way. In difference to other forms of art, film is an audio-visual art, as theatre plays, meaning that cinema and television are typical media examples using both sound and pictures. Film and TV became the most widespread form of art consumed by billions, thanks to its easy access and passive perception. For Michael Rabiger visual storytelling means overall ‘translating the literary material of a screenplay into images’ (Rabiger 2012, p. 149). Visual storytelling can be broadly connected to the term mise-en-scène which refers to anything that is inside the frame – use of lights and shadows, make-up, costumes, settings, props, movements of camera, acting, blocking etc. (Bordwell, Thompson, and Smith 2016).

As Rabiger adds, ‘the crucial concept behind mise-en-scène is that everything in a shot is placed there purposefully, because every detail in the frame can add highly significant story information and emotional context’ (2012, p. 151). This work will narrow the visual storytelling topic to the element of saying with pictures without telling with words. However, not all directors use this possibility at its full range, although others are praised for its usage, including Alfred Hitchcock. The story needs to be said also by showing, not just saying, that is a completely different form – music, sound or radio. Today, people are distracted by different means, such as social media, modern technologies, also by the fact that time is running out fast, they are missing something and therefore their ability to concentrate is decreasing (Watson 2015). Mostly in recent and so-called blockbuster films, a lot of information is said by words of their characters. It is also the easiest way how to make sure that the audience knows something essential to the story and actually notices it. There is no need to complicatedly think about smart way of showing it. Moreover, sometimes whole characters or scenes are made up artificially to say an essential background. However, it does not make the viewer fully concentrate and pay attention to everything that is happening inside the frame. The perfect example of visual storytelling is Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, which will be analysed in this essay later on. He makes the audience to really watch his films, it is not possible to do ironing along with watching Rear Window and completely understand the story. The film talks to the viewer by showing him things that will not be fully repeated later. With every time the viewer watches it again, new information or detail shows up.

Alfred Hitchcock is known as a brilliant director, even though it has been many years since he made his films and since his death in 1980. He influenced whole generations of directors and films, amongst them are as famous names as David Lynch, David Fincher, Martin Scorsese (Sommers 2010) and many others. It is not an exaggeration to say that he is in every book about films and film studies. It is no wonder because Alfred Hitchcock is blessed for his work with camera, art of suspense and ability to say more with pictures than with actual words and speeches. Although Alfred Hitchcock had made two other films before The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog in 1927 (The Pleasure Garden in 1925 and The Mountain Eagle in 1926), he himself said that The Lodger could be understood as his first film (Spoto 1976). On the other hand, the second Hitchcock’s film chosen for this essay - Rear Window - is a film from his later Hollywood and successful époque. He did not get any award for it. However, it is one of his most famous pieces and thought to be amongst the best films of all times. At the Czech-Slovak Film Database it is ranked as 141th best film ever (ČSFD 2016). There was even a remake of the same name in 1998 which Ronald Schwartz analyses in his work (2001). It is significant especially for its ability to make a spectacle out of a way less spectacular precondition than for example westerns had in that era, meaning the story is happening in one place and it does not have as fancy and enormous settings, costumes and design as western films. ‘It represents the best that Hollywood had to offer its audiences in the tumultuous 1950s’ (Belton 1999, p. 1).

This blog essay will try to find out if Hitchcock had used his brilliant film storytelling even when he just started his career as a filmmaker. If yes, then it will try to analyse if the start of the Hitchcock’s career with silent films affected his visual storytelling mastermind. For these reasons, it will compare one section from Rear Window (1954), which is often considered to be a masterpiece by film theorists and general public, and the section from one of his first films called The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927), which is a black-and-white silent film. The section from Rear Window is an introduction, roughly first 15 minutes until Lisa Carol Fremont appears on set. From The Lodger, it will be a part when the lodger shows up at the family’s house. Thus, both are located at the beginning of both Hitchcock’s films.

Concerning the structure, the main body of this essay will be divided into two sections. The first one will analyse Hitchcock’s film Rear Window from a point of visual storytelling, technological and cultural context and it will also concentrate on the film’s audience, who was the audience in 1920s most likely. In the second section of the main body, this work will move to the second chosen Hitchcock’s film The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog. Again, it will analyse the author’s ability of visual storytelling, it will compare technological and cultural contexts to those of Rear Window and it will distinguish its audience. In the conclusion and final part of this essay, all important discovered facts, similarities and differences will be presented and summarized.

Rear Window

For this visual-storytelling essay the chosen section of Hitchcock’s Rear Window is right from the beginning when the blinds are opened as a curtain in the theatre, the settings and the main character L. B. "Jeff" Jefferies are presented until approximately fifteenth minute before Jeff’s girlfriend Lisa Carl Fremont arrives to the scene.

The reason, why this section is chosen for the essay, is that it shows audience so many things from the character background just by showing it, not telling it, reminding of silent films époque. There is no talking until Jeff’s boss is calling and later when his insurance company's nurse Stella arrives to take care of him. As Robin Wood describes Jefferies, ‘a news photographer, he has frequently courted death; he refuses all commitment, all personal involvement…’ (Wood 1989, p. 101). The viewer is able to see all this and a way more just by watching the intro. In a couple of minutes, audience knows that it is an extremely hot summer, the main character’s name is L. B. Jefferies, he is a newspaper photographer and adventurer, who broke his leg while taking photos at a cars race and now he cannot move, he is staying just at his bachelor flat watching other tenants. It is also known that he has a girlfriend – socialite and popular Lisa Carol Fremont covering front pages of society magazines.

In the next part during the call, Jefferies is observing other flats and their occupants. This activity makes him escape his life and scares of commitment. The audience sees "small movies" in other flats presented from the point of view in Jefferies’ flat, which is a watching hideout, making audience to watch along with the main character. These small movies are all made up to be linked to Jefferies life – we have a happy just married couple, in which the main character has no interest. A young attractive dancer reminds the audience of Lisa herself. A tenant Lars Thorwald arguing with his wife is showing why Jefferies is scared of marriage and sceptical about it. Later on, Thorwald is killing his wife, as Jefferies wants to get rid of Lisa as well, although not in so drastic way.

They all represent possibilities of woman and man relationship (Wood 1989). They are all possibilities to Lisa’s and Jefferies’ future according to Spoto (1976). Dialogues are closely connected to flats showed. Everything is linked in Rear Window and has a deep symbolic. As Philip J. Skerry wrote in his book: ‘Rear Window is a film built on the foundation of mise-en-scène’ (2013, p. 37), which perfectly describes Alfred Hitchcock’s mastermind of visual storytelling. Another aspect of mise-en-scène is a position of the camera. Hitchock placed it in the way it highlights the main character’s isolation in the small flat from the rest of the world, from the world and action he misses so much. Jefferies’ only connection to the outside reality is the phone, watching neighbours and women coming to his life, taking care of him, trying to manipulate him, even more now when he is disabled.

The cultural and technological context of Rear Window is highly affected by being shot in 1950s, meaning after the end of the 2nd World War. It does not copy the typical 1950s Hollywood approach of the active male lead and the passive and looked-at female co-role, it reflects the reality of actual 1950s more. The society was different in very significant way, the roles of genders changed, families did not look anymore like they had looked before the war. The world was slowly recovering from deaths and injuries. However, it was not just about everyday life, post-war era also highly influenced the whole film production as Mike Chopra-Grant emphasizes in his work (2005). Women needed to be independent, to take care of their families while their men went to the war. Manhood is challenged by womanhood, women now has their own power. Lisa is perfect, way better than Jefferies and he is threatened by it. The defenceless of then men is highlighted by him being temporarily disabled.

Jefferies was a soldier in the war himself, he meant something, he was active. Now, women are dominating him, nurse is massaging him, giving advice, showing her temporary power over disabled so-called man. Elise Lemire supports this idea: ‘… fulfilment of his masculine fantasies isn’t available to him, as it wasn’t for so many men of the post-World War II period, Jeff is feminized. Stuck at home, he has become a version of the stay-at-home wife himself’ (1999, p. 68).

It perfectly reflects the situation in 1950s in America, also by mentioning new household machines that were supposed to help housewives with their chores, the American dream was fully on back then. Significant for the technological context, is using different kinds of lenses to show different kinds of watching, voyeurism. The cinematographer Bob Burks used 50mm, 75mm, 150mm and 250mm to express the feeling of the film (Skerry 2013). Jefferies is watching Thorwald with telescope, binoculars or photo camera with telephoto lens, which is getting more intense with the story involvement and it also affects the picture given to the audience through Jefferies’ eyes, making it an accomplice.

Rear Window is also connected to German cinema, Hitchcock was very affected by it since the beginning of his career further on as will be explained below. Philip J. Skerry nicknamed the film as a tribute to the German cinema, because it has its use of mise-en-scène (2013). ‘German directors had the power to control the mise-en-scène so that the narrative was contained in the images on the screen’ (Skerry 2013, p. 36). Moreover, Hitchcock’s Rear Window is completely shot and produced in studio, which was also typical for German Expressionist era in 1920s (Skerry 2013).

The audience in 1950s was not so divided as it is now, when there are many target audience groups on which media production is aiming at. Back in that time, the films started a challenge with wide spreading television. As Butsch describes, ‘in the first ten years, 1948–58, there was one television set for every four Americans (2000, p. 235). The attendance of the cinemas started to slowly decline – in the USA in 1946 the number of sold tickets hit its all-time peak by 4.1 billion, but in 1954 when Rear Window came out it dropped to 2.3 billion (Butsch 2000). Moreover, this trend continues until today with more challengers to overcome – online streaming, Netflix, Amazon, pirate downloads etc. ‘The audience shift from movies to television was an aspect of a broader cultural and social transformation that took place after World War II’ (Butsch 2000, p. 247). Therefore, the television gave more affluence to the working and middle classes.

The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog

The Lodger is ‘Hitchcock’s first suspense thriller, and first great commercial success: the coincidence of all these factors was obviously crucial in determining the development of his career’ (Wood 1989, p. 207). The film even arose an interest in the USA, although at the time, the British film production was rather overlooked in America (Drumin 2004). Concerning the second chosen film, the analysed section is approximately from ninth minute to eighteenth minute. It shows the key family, the relationships between the characters and it also introduces the lodger to the audience for the first time.

This section was chosen because it uses visual-storytelling to introduce characters, their links with each other and also makes audience think that the lodger that has just moved in is the killer everyone is looking for. In this part, the viewer knows that Joe, the detective, is interested in family’s daughter Daisy but she is not responding to his affection in the same way (the hearts made out of dough and split in two). Time is passing showed by darkening lamp and then the change is coming, the lodger is introduced by fog, dramatic music and rough appearance. Also, the rhythm of the film slows down. Everything is seen, not told. The new lodger is intrigued by daughter’s laughter, but at the same time he is intimidated by the pictures of blond women, they need to be removed from his new room.

The Avenger, the killer, is killing just blond women, is that a coincidence, the viewer might ask. Then more hints are shown. The boy selling newspaper is calling about the recent murder marking the new tenant with shadow cross. He is hiding his killing weapon in the wardrobe without any doubt, he is covering all the blond portraits. Family is celebrating new source of money without knowing what it is going to cost them. And there is the important moment of meeting Daisy, editing on the lodger’s interested face is promising what is going to happen next. The moving chandelier just highlights the coming changes and horrors to the family. However, the audience now knows undoubtedly that he is the killer without any word needed to be said, just by showing various pieces of a puzzle, small hints. Moreover, Daisy might become his next victim.

The important role in mise-en-scène has also the staircase. ‘… it is filled with both moral and theological significance. (…) The relationship between the principal characters is defined in terms of this staircase’ (Spoto 1976, p. 8). Watching the very first part of The Lodger shows the viewer that Hitchcock’s emphasis on dramatic music followed him from the start of his directing career. With silent films, music had a dominant position, more important than it has now with sound films.

The film uses typical written intertitles, saying the most important information that could not be guessed just by pictures or music. Acting is a bit theatrical, which is typical for silent films, since the audience does not know what characters are saying and what are their emotions, so actors needed to overplay their acts a bit.

The social context of the film might not be as socially profound as in Rear Window with its struggle of post-war masculinity role. It was shot after the 1st World War but before the Great Depression and the 2nd World War, which had enormous effect on the society back then and how genders and families were looked at as stated above. From 1919 to 1926 the film era is called German Expressionism; German films were thought to be the best in the world and affected many other countries and filmmakers (Bordwell, Thompson, and Smith 2016). Hitchcock’s The Lodger is also believed to be influenced by this movement. Above mentioned staircase was a typical feature of the German Expressionist films in 1920s (Spoto 1976).

Technologically, it was still the era of silent films, however first films recorded along with sound were appearing and the situation changed by the beginning of 1930s. Until then ‘all music heard in cinema was played on the spot, provided by a piano, organ, or an orchestra’ (Bordwell, Thompson, and Smith 2016, p. 474). Dialogues were absent, the most important talks were written as intertitles between single shots so the audience would not miss the important information or background. However, in 1931 the last silent films were produced, for example Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights, and that was the end of this film history period. In the same year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded and it is known as the Academy nowadays along with the annual Academy Awards (Wikipedia 2017).

The situation of the audience in 1920s was significantly different from 1950s or the situation that is now. There was not a specific target audience, films were made just for those who came to the cinemas, they were not connected to strong marketing and since moving pictures were still something brand new, amusing and surprising, they attracted many people, especially from working class. For example, in America, by 1920, the weekly attendance of film theatres rose to almost half of the population (Butsch 2000). That is something unimaginable for nowadays.

Conclusion

Concerning the questions given in the introduction of this essay about Hitchcock’s visual storytelling and the influence of starting his career in the silent films era, it is possible to assume that it affected his way of filming in the future. If Hitchcock would have started his career later on, he would probably have had a different style of cinematic storytelling and using rich and visual mise-en-scène might have not been a part of his films or might have not been so significant. As it is said in Visions of Light, if spoken sound films had arrived later, it would have strongly changed the development of the film industry; and films nowadays might have looked a bit differently. However, sound films came when they came at the end of 1920s and dominated the film production. Shooting silent film and shooting sound film is different and has different ways of approach, however some films combine aspects of both, Hitchcock’s Rear Window might be considered as one of them. Both Hitchcock’s analysed films in this essay were tributes to the silent German cinema and used some typical features for German Expressionism in 20s of the 20th century, for example the dominance of stairs which gave the story deeper links or very rich mise-en-scène which plays the important role of storytelling without words. Other remarks are on the fragments from silent films used in Rear Window. Firstly, the exposition of the film, when the audience learns about the main character and his background, is by some film theorists compared to silent film’s fashion, there is no commentary needed, the audience observes everything visually. Secondly, the use of music reminds of that époque too. Dominant music played right at the cinema rooms and describing the scene atmosphere is present both in The Lodger, but more importantly in and other Hitchcock’s films. Another connection to the silent film era is that in Rear Window, the viewer hears voices from other flats but sometimes they are not completely clear and he understands what is happening just by watching the action in those flats, dialogues have minor meaning in this specific feature of the film. All these facts make connections to The "silent" Lodger and Hitchcock’s beginning of the career with its rest of sound films even greater.

To conclude the essay, it can be said that in The Lodger a lot of information was said by showing things, using of a specific type of shot, acting or smart editing, rarely by typical intertitles. The atmosphere of each scene was presented by dramatic music. Although, it is not surprising since it is a silent film from 1927. More importantly, it is clear that Alfred Hitchcock used the key features of silent films and aspects of the German Expressionism throughout his career. Some of them can be observed in 1954’s Rear Window, which combines strong and visually storytelling mise-en-scène, dominant role of music and minor role of dialogues in some scenes. Undoubtedly, his mastermind of visual storytelling has its basis in the silent film era.

Word count: 3530

The blog essay for Narrative Constructions Unit at Bournemouth University.

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