"Shadow of a Doubt"

'Shadow of a Doubt' is a thriller made in 1943, and was one of Alfred Hitchcock's favourites out of his own collection of creations. 
As a class, we watched the opening of this film, and analyzed it, in terms of mise en scene. What we discovered about the opening of the thriller is as follows;

Settings and Props
Props include a cigar, which suggests that the owner, in this case the character Uncle Charlie, is well of and can afford such possessions. This idea is reinforced with the fact that another prop is a sum of money scattered over the bedside table and on the floor. The fact that the money is on the floor, suggests that it is of little importance to Uncle Charlie, and to him it is in fact worthless. A third prop used was an empty glass, which Charlie throws at a wall, as an act of anger. This action suggests that he could potentially be aggressive, violent and dangerous.

Positioning of characters and objects within the frame
When Charlie leaves the apartment and walks down the road, he is in the centre of the frame. The two men who are after him are in the foreground, whilst Charlie is in the background, and they are either side of him, suggesting a sense of entrapment on Charlie's part. Also, when we are first introduced to Uncle Charlie, and then to his niece, also named Charlie, they are both first seen laid out on a bed and the camera approaches them from the same angle. This technique is known as a mirroring effect, and it suggests they are 'two sides of the same coin' but with differing personalities. This is shown in the above video of the two shots.   

Costume, Hair and Make up
Uncle Charlie, in the opening sequence can be found to be wearing a suit that looks as though it is expensive, again reinforcing the idea that Charlie is rich. His hair is sleek and gelled back, looking as though it is well tended to.

Facial expressions and Body language 
Both Uncle Charlie and his niece are found, as I have previously mentioned, lying on the bed. They both wear an expression of tiredness on their faces and look relaxed and uninterested in their environment.

Lighting and Colour
To begin with, there is light entering the room in which Charlie is laying on his bed. When the woman comes into the room and pulls the blind down, Charlie enters darkness, at which point he moves from his relaxed, lazy position on the bed, and begins to move around. This suggests that he tends to 'come alive' in the darkness, and at night, hinting that he is the antagonist of the film. The opening seems to have a lot of shadows, and therefore I know it uses low key lighting He is provided with an ominous look when he is on the phone shortly after, due to the shadow that is created over his eyes, by the hat he is wearing. 

The Manchurian Candidate - 2004

The Manchurian Candidate is a paranoid and political thriller which, in the midst of the Gulf War, soldiers are kidnapped and brainwashed for sinister purposes.Captain Bennett Marco (Denzel Washington) Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber) and the rest of their infantry platoon are kidnapped during the Korean War in 1952. They are taken to Manchuria, and are brainwashed to believe that Shaw saved their lives in combat — for which Congress awards him the Medal of Honor. Ben Marco is trying to regain and unravel his sanity. It refers to social context and tensions, and its purpose is to entertain as well as provoke thought. The film also stars Meryl Streep.
From watching 'the making of' the film, I have found out that the director aimed to elaborate and make the film bigger, sadder and darker than life. Questions constantly asked throughout the film is who is control, who has the power, and who is the enemy. 
The film plays with the idea that the human mind can be manipulated, which could maybe be applied to reality, the idea of which, is scary in itself. 


The 2004 differs from the original version of the movie, made in 1962, in a number of ways, one of which is the murder of Senator Jordan. In the original, the Senator is shot by Shaw, whereas in the newer version, he is drowned in a lake. The director said that he altered this scene from the 1962 version as he wanted it to represent and symbolize the feeling of drowning which the characters are feeling at this time. During this scene, the fog represents the characters lack of clarity. They are confused, due to information overload, and are experiencing a number of ambivalent dreams. The music used at this point enhances the tension, at the point which Shaw is approaching the lake to kill his victim. Shaw's hypnotic state is represented by the camera shots and simple editing. 


The final scene of the film is the shooting of Eleanor and Raymond Shaw by Marco, at which point the film reaches its climax. Raymond realizes his soul is corrupt, and the damage that could be done to America through him, and so he sacrifices himself and his mother to eliminate the possibility of him being manipulated and operated.
The last image of the film is a clip of Mount Rushmoor. The effect of this is that it opens the audiences mind to the possibility that the past presidents could have been corrupt.

MacGuffin

The term 'MacGuffin' was popularised by Alfred Hitchcock. It is part of film, which is essentially something that the entire story is built around, and yet has no real relevance. It is an object around which the plot evolves, but, as to what the object actually is, is unimportant to the audience. Common examples are money, victory, glory, survival, a source of power, or a potential threat, or it may simply be something entirely unexplained.


In the case of 'North by Northwest' the MacGuffin is introduced towards the end of the film;  a microfilm, containing top secret government files, that the villains are smuggling out of the country. It could also be said that the character Kaplan is a MacGuffin, as Thornhill, as well as the villains, spend most of the movie vainly trying to track him down.

A Traditional Thriller - North by Northwest

An example of a thriller that I have researched into is Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 movie 'North by Northwest', starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason. This action filled thriller is about a hapless New York advertising executive, named Roger Thornhill, being mistaken for a government agent by the name of George Kaplan, by a group of foreign spies, and he is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive.

This thriller provides a number of examples of techniques often used in thrillers, such as suspense, cliffhangers, red herrings used to mislead the audience, as well as obstacles for the hero to overcome, put in place by the villain.

There a number of memorable and distinguished scenes throughout this movie, such as the the UN shooting, the crop field scene, the auction room, the 'shooting' of Thornhill, and the final scene, on top of Mount Rushmoor.

In particular, the use of suspense is particularly apparent in the plane crop-duster attack scene near a Midwest cornfield as we do not know the fate of Roger Thornhill, who could be about to get killed. Also, an example of a red herring in this thriller, is the shooting of Thornhill, by Eve Kendal, where we believe he is killed. It is later discovered that this was a set up in Eve's attempt to escape from Vandamme, and that the bullet shot was in actual fact a blank. Being a red herring, we are led to believe one thing and reach a certain conclusion, only to later discover that this is not the case. The cliffhanger of the film is the finale on Mount Rushmoor.

What is a Thriller ??

Thriller is a genre of film, television and literature which often overlaps with other genres. They are fast-pacing, with frequent action, and resourceful heroes who attempt to thwart and overthrow the plans of a more powerful and better equipped villain. Devices are used such as suspense, red-herrings and cliffhangers repeatedly throughout. A thriller is a villain driven plot in which he or she presents a number of obstacles which the hero must overcome. The genre is flexible and can engage the audience through rendering psychological, social and political tensions. Hitchcock said that thrillers allow the audience to "dip their toes in the cold water of fear to see what it is like".