cveronie

1. How does Hitchcock use montage or expressive editing to add vitality and rhythm to this scene? Hitchcock uses montage (the juxtaposition of visuals to create new ideas) to emphasize the distortion created by the husband's jealous feelings. In his montage, the escalating rhythm of the piano music and whirling of the revelers parallels the emotional escalation that the husband feels. 2. As is the case with a lot of German Expressionist films, in this scene, there are many shots that are very subjective and put us into the psychological mind of a main character. Please note the various techniques Hitchcock uses to create that feeling of subjectivity. One of the things he does is to play with mirror images. The wife and husband watch each other through mirror reflections. When the husband becomes jealous, the close-up of his face reveals his breath quickening and his eyes widening. But these physiological signs of his emotional state are accentuated in the visual distortion of the piano keys, symbolically implicating that other reflections may also be distorted. 3. How does Hitchcock stage the action, use set design, and editing techniques to increase the stakes in the rivalry between the two gentlemen? Hitchcock places the wife in a room where there are more people than seating. The men occupy the seats which forces the women to stand, dance, or fall on top of the men. This seating arrangement almost forces the wife into the close company of his competitor. The husband must remain in the other room because of business etiquette that prevents him joining in with the revelers, or removing his wife from the awkward situation. The way the film cuts back and forth (between the revelers, the wife's distorted flirtations, the piano keys, and the spinning record) creates a visual competition.

In contrast to The Pleasure Garden that opens with dancers descending a spiral staircase, The Lodger opens with a close-up of a woman's face, mouth open and eyes stretched wide, a visual scream. What these openings share, though is an emphasis on visual spectacle. The camera's tight focus on the staircase combines a downward movement with a vertical element. Both openings use shadows and light to focus the camera on the object. In The Lodger, for instance,the woman's screaming face is seen from the same point-of-view as her assailant. The images that most stand out to me as Hitchcock elements in The Lodger's opener are the close-up of the silent scream and the use of print to convey necessary information for the story, such as the scene with the printer. The newspaper really conveys the fear that the public feels about the murder. The close-up of the woman's face, mouth open and eyes stretched wide communicates the scream. Although I am far from a Hitchcock expert, I can also think of the close-ups of the woman screaming in Psycho's shower scene.

1. Do you see the beginnings of the "Hitchcock touch" in this sequence? Please provide specific examples. In the interview with Hitchcock, he mentions how even before he began directing he manipulate a director's camera angle on a staircase. In The Pleasure Garden, the opening scene focuses narrowly on dancers descending a spiral staircase. In addition to the spiral staircase, the opening scene characterizes the "Hitchcock touch" in his treatment of voyeurism. He turns the cameras on the watchers. 2. Do you agree or disagree with Strauss, Yacowar, and Spoto assessments that this sequence contains elements, themes, or approaches that we will see throughout Hitchcock's 50-year career? I agree especially in the way the dancers become the protagonists in the film. 3. Since this is a silent film, do you feel there were any limitations on these opening scenes due to the lack of synchronous spoken dialogue? The scene does feel constrained by the lack of spoken dialogue. However, his control of the camera angles adequately carrying forward the story.