1. HITCHCOCK as AUTEUR
HITCHCOCK’S BODY OF WORK

2. Auteur Theory
• What is an ‘Auteur’?
• A director’s personal creative vision strongly conveyed in
body of work - they are the author of the work
• The auteur exercises creative control over his or her works
and has a strong personal style
• The creative voice is distinctive enough to shine through all
kinds of studio interference
• What is ‘Auteur Theory’?
• Truffaut, 1954 – Cahiers du Cinema / French New Wave
• The method of analyzing films based on this theory or, the
characteristics of a director's work that makes him an auteur.

3. Filmography
THE EARLY YEARS / PRE-WAR BRITAIN HOLLYWOOD
1920s – Developing a reputation 1940s - Embracing America 1960s - The Later Years
The Pleasure Garden (1925) Rebecca (1940) Psycho (1960)
The Mountain Eagle (1926) Foreign Correspondent (1940) The Birds (1963)
The Lodger (1927) Mr and Mrs Smith (1941) Marnie (1964)
Downhill (1927) Suspicion (1941) Torn Curtain (1966)
Easy Virtue (1928) Saboteur (1942) Topaz (1969)
The Ring (1927) Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
The Farmer's Wife (1928) Lifeboat (1944) 1970s
Champagne (1928) Spellbound (1945) Frenzy (1972)
The Manxman (1929) Notorious (1946) Family Plot (1976)
Blackmail (1929) The Paradine Case (1947)
1930s - The Early Period Rope (1948)
Juno and the Paycock (1930) Under Capricorn (1949)
Murder! (1930) 1950s - The Golden Years
The Skin Game (1931) Stage Fright (1950)
Rich and Strange (1931) Strangers on a Train (1951)
Number Seventeen (1932) I Confess (1953)
Waltzes from Vienna (1934) Dial M for Murder (1954)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) Rear Window (1954)
The 39 Steps (1935) To Catch a Thief (1955)
Secret Agent (1936) The Trouble with Harry (1955)
Sabotage (1936) The Man Who Knew Too Much
Young and Innocent (1937) (1956)
The Lady Vanishes (1938) The Wrong Man (1956)
Jamaica Inn (1939) Vertigo (1958)
North by Northwest (1959)

4. Hitchcock as auteur...
• Extensive body of work
• Considered by critics to have a signature style:
“a Hitchcock film” despite working with
Studios
• Signature style established using film form,
plot devices, use of characters, manipulation
of audience
• Worked almost exclusively on crime and
suspense genre films, with comedy hybrids

5. Hitchcock as auteur...
MASTER
OF SUPENSE
BBC Hitchcock interview, 1964
Audiences tension amusing film canon
Talkies pure cinema the fright complex
avoiding clichés Emotional response
http://www.hitchcockwiki.com/wiki/Interview:_Alfred_Hitchcock_and_Huw_Whe
ldon_%28BBC%2C_05/Jul/1964%29

6. Word search answers...
S T Y L E J P S M N
C A Y E C Z F I O A
R Q B C W E F I T U
F S E M E H T P I D
Y M S V R I U D F I
L C G J T T M Y S E
C I H E L P O I U N
V N P K J H G F D C
K E N I G M A S S E
R W L O X B C N Z A

7. Hitchcock as auteur...
• Motifs
• Staircases / houses / birds /national landmarks / portraits & paintings /
jewellery / blondes / catholic iconography / confined space / mirrors
• Audience
• let the audience “play god” / manipulation of spectatorship
• Style
• ‘Pure cinema’ - film should communicate without dialogue / all formal
elements were scripted & storyboarded
• Themes
• Ordinary people / mistaken identity/ love / sexuality / psychology/ trust &
betrayal/ murder & crime as intelligent / voyeurism
• Enigmas
• McGuffins / false plateaus
• Repetition
• formal elements / plot devices / cast / themes / cameos

8. Vertigo’s canonical status
• What is a canon?
• rules or principles established as valid and fundamental in a field or art or
philosophy
• Examples that are deemed by critics to meet those rules and principles then
take on canonical status
• What is a film canon?
• A limited group of films that serve as the measuring stick for the highest
quality in the genre of film.
• Chosen by critics and therefore elitist but, different groups of critics will have
different opinions
• Why has Vertigo achieved canonical status?
• Seen to exemplify the achievements of studio system Hollywood film
production
• Mastering of film form - camerawork, editing, special effects, score and use of
mise-en-scene
• Complexity of narrative, plot and themes