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Favorite Hitchcock Shot?

Tom Lowe

Tom Lowe

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I had the great pleasure of watching Hitchcock's masterpiece Notorious on TCM again the other day, and it struck me what a brilliant shot he nailed right near the end, when Grant is in Bergman's room.

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Everything about this shot is perfect. The lighting is god-like. The whole story has basically built up to this moment, so it has a lot of impact. Camera does about a 100-degree dolly move right in the middle of the shot.

What I would give to have Bergman whispering in MY ear like this.

Shot starts right around the 4-minute mark on this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St9AzqJvlj4
 
"Notorious" is gorgeous filmmaking in all departments, including the lead actors.

My favorite for cinematography is probably "Vertigo", the use of the color green to symbolize Madeleine, as well as her profile:

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But in terms of favorite shots, there are so many from Hitchcock -- the crane down to the key in Ingrid Bergman's hand in "Notorious" for example, the murder in the park in "Strangers on the Train" reflected in the fallen pair of eyeglasses, the scary Bates house against the clouds in "Psycho", the wide shots of Cary Grant waiting at isolated road in "North by Northwest" before the crop duster attack, etc.
 
It's so funny. I can spot a 65mm movie even on crummy SD NTSC on Turner Classics every time now. The dynamic range is just off the charts in these Vista Vision and other large-format pictures.
 
Vertigo is my favorite as well, there's such isolation and desperation as the truth evades him to the Cary Grant character, as well as that intangible aura of mystery about Madeleine (Kim Novak) all of it achieved through the cinematography. And speaking of gorgeous, how about Kim Novak, the absolute most astonishing actrees I ever fell head over heels for...even if (or maybe because of) I was only twelve when I first saw her in Vertigo. Still remember the shivers I got when she first appeared onscreen...Anyway, back to cinematography :-)
 
I know there are objectively better shots, and David already hit the big ones, but my favorite is the opening of "Shadow of a Doubt", probably because unlike a lot of Hitchcock he used actual exteriors, so it feels more like a "real" film noir for these first few minutes.
 
Rudi Herbert said:
And speaking of gorgeous, how about Kim Novak, the absolute most astonishing actress I ever fell head over heels for...even if (or maybe because of) I was only twelve when I first saw her in Vertigo. Still remember the shivers I got when she first appeared onscreen...Anyway, back to cinematography :-)
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She was smokin'. My Dad joins you in claiming Novak is the hottest woman he's seen on screen, but I actually think Grace Kelly is little hotter, just in terms of looks.

Of course, Hitch was the master of obsessing over hot blondes. :)
 
It's hard to top Grace Kelly in "Rear Window" or "To Catch a Thief"...

That sequence where she first appears in "Rear Window" in that step-printed kiss, then goes around the room and turns on each lamp, is one of the best character intros in a movie.

Of course, there's Ingrid Bergman...

And I've always liked Margaret Lockwood in "The Lady Vanishes".
 
I take it you're a Bergman fan, David? I can't imagine any DP who wouldn't kill to have had a chance to shoot her back in her prime. A few years ago I read her autobiography and it was really fantastic. She suffered a lot of persecution due to the way society viewed the divorces she went through. What's really fascinating, though, are the various characters who come and go throughout her life. When everything was at its darkest and it seemed the whole world was against her, she received this random letter from her friend Ernest Hemingway saying something like, "Forget what the fuckers say! Live your life." Hehe, classic Hemingway.
 
I'm a huge Ingrid Bergman fan, though it's hard to top "Casablanca" for dreamy close-ups of her. David Selznick, who loaned her out to Warner Bros. for that movie, sent a thank you letter to DP Arthur Edeson because he felt that Edeson's lighting of Bergman had raised her marquee value.

Interesting thing is that, like the other famous Swede to arrive in Hollywood, Greta Garbo, when Bergman first started in movies, she was rather blandly pretty. It wasn't until they hit their mid 20's that they started to look distinctively beautiful, plus it wasn't until then that the stylists figured out what to do with them, allow their own unique features to come through. I see that a lot in actresses, they can be somewhat generic in their beauty at 18 or 20, and then they get really interesting as they approach 30.
 
David Mullen ASC said:
It's hard to top Grace Kelly in "Rear Window" or "To Catch a Thief"...

That sequence where she first appears in "Rear Window" in that step-printed kiss, then goes around the room and turns on each lamp, is one of the best character intros in a movie.

Of course, there's Ingrid Bergman...

And I've always liked Margaret Lockwood in "The Lady Vanishes".
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Oh yeah! That shot in Rear Window. Always wondered if it was step or skip printing. Thanks for the answer. And HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
 
She's got one of the most classic profiles ever. In fact, I'd almost venture to say that she has THE classic profile. I definitely take your point about the stylists learning how to showcase her, but I wonder if it was that her beauty increased with age, or that they really learned how to light her and angle her? Yeah, Casablanca is probably is the apex of photography of her.

One thing I notice about her is that great directors loved to frame her in long two-shots with her in profile.

Bergman at age 14:

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Well lit:

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Profile two-shots:

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Hitchcock blondes

Hitchcock blondes

Hitchcock blondes:

"During his interviews with Francois Truffaut, Hitchcock explained his preference for a certain kind of actress whose sex appeal is "indirect":

[Hitchcock:] "You know why I favor sophisticated blondes in my films? We're after the drawing-room type, the real ladies, who become whores once they're in the bedroom."

[Triffaut:] "What intrigues you is the paradox between the inner fire and the cool surface."

[Hitchcock:] "Definitely. . . . Do you know why? Because sex should not be advertised. . . . Because without the element of surprise the scenes become meaningless. There's no possibility to discover sex."

QUOTE: Hitchcock blondes >>> LINK

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Birds - The blonde -Tippi Hedren

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Birds - The blonde has a fun (with the birds).

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Birds - The blonde is in danger (from the birds).

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Birds - After all those fights with the birds now the blonde is safe and leaving a dangerous

Bodega Bay>>LINK in the car with her man and the kids.
 
The Third Man said:
[Triffaut:] "What intrigues you is the paradox between the inner fire and the cool surface."

[Hitchcock:] "Definitely. . . . Do you know why? Because sex should not be advertised. . . . Because without the element of surprise the scenes become meaningless. There's no possibility to discover sex."
Click to expand...

Boy, was he smart?

Hitchcock is the man.

And the same goes with horror. The sexiest and the most horrible things in movies are the ones you actually don't see - Duel, Jaws by Spielberg; Predator.

Remember the Kevin Spacey character in Se7en?

After all the gruesome violence in the story [which happens off-screen most of the time ;)], you expect Godzilla to be responsible for all these murders.

No - a humble, mild looking man.

You'd never guess he's the killer if you didn't actually know.

Harmless looking on the exterior, but what about his soul?

This is packed with conflict.

Great stuff.
 
karapetkov said:
Boy, was he smart?

Hitchcock is the man.

And the same goes with horror. The sexiest and the most horrible things in movies are the ones you actually don't see - Duel, Jaws by Spielberg; Predator.

Remember the Kevin Spacey character in Se7en?

After all the gruesome violence in the story [which happens off-screen most of the time ;)], you expect Godzilla to be responsible for all these murders.

No - a humble, mild looking man.

You'd never guess he's the killer if you didn't actually know.

Harmless looking on the exterior, but what about his soul?

This is packed with conflict.

Great stuff.
Click to expand...

Hi Krapetkov,

Great.

I see you've got the point very well.

Have a nice holidays.
 
Brigitte Bardot in Contempt, a goddess...

Also, I would give away one of my REDs to shoot something with Monica Bellucci.

Nah :)
 
Nice ones, Hawaj.

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Is this from an HD-DVD?
 
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