Hitchcockian

Hitchcockian films are those made by various filmmakers, with the styles and themes similar to those of Alfred Hitchcock.

Characteristics

Elements considered Hitchcockian include:

• Climactic plot twist.
• The cool platinum blonde.
• The presence of a domineering mother in someone's life
• An innocent man accused.
• Restricting the action to a single setting to increase tension (e.g. Lifeboat, Rear Window).
• Characters who switch sides and/or who cannot be trusted.
• Tension building through suspense to the point where the audience enjoys seeing the character in a life-threatening situation (e.g. Vertigo).
• Average people thrust into strange or dangerous situations (e.g., Psycho, North by Northwest, The Man Who Knew Too Much).
• Bumbling or incompetent authority figures, particularly police officers.
• Use of darkness to symbolize impending doom (dark clothing, shadows, smoke, etc.)
• Strong visual use of famous landmarks (Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, Forth Rail Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge, Albert Hall, British Museum, Piccadilly Circus, etc.)
• Mistaken identity (e.g. North by Northwest, Frenzy).
• The use of a staircase as a motif for impending danger or suspense.
• Use of a macguffin plot device.
• Referring to crime for mystery rather than presenting it explicitly (e.g. Dial M for Murder).

Notable examples

Some films, or films with scenes, considered Hitchcockian include:

• Gaslight (1944)[1]
• Niagara (1953)[2]
• 23 Paces to Baker Street (1956)[3]
• Witness for the Prosecution (1957)[4][5]
• Midnight Lace (1960)[6]
• Cape Fear (1962)[7]
• Charade (1963)[8]
• From Russia with Love (1963)[9]
• The Prize (1963)[10]
• Arabesque (1966)[11]
• Blowup (1966)[12]
• Wait Until Dark (1967)[13][14]
• Duel (1971)[15]
• Play Misty for Me (1971)[16]
• The Last of Sheila (1973)[17]
• Jaws (1975)[18]
• Last Embrace (1979)[19]
• Blue Velvet (1986)[20]
• Fatal Attraction (1987)[21]
• Arachnophobia (1990)[22]
• Misery (1990)[23]
• Cape Fear (1991)[7]
• Basic Instinct (1992)[24]
• 12 Monkeys (1995)[25][26]
• Bound (1996)[27][28]
• Double Jeopardy (1999)[29]
• What Lies Beneath (2000)[30]
• Mulholland Drive (2001)[31]
• Panic Room (2002)[32]
• Phone Booth (2002)[33]
• Disturbia (2007)[34]
• Side Effects (2013)[35][36][37]
• Not Safe for Work (2014)[38]
• Crimson Peak (2015)[39]
• The Gift (2015)[40]
• Don't Breathe (2016)[41][14]
• Nocturnal Animals (2016)[42]
• A Kind of Murder (2016)[43]
• Split (2016)[44]
• Gerald's Game (2017)[45]
• A Simple Favor (2018)[46]

Filmmakers

The following is a list of filmmakers who have directed multiple Hitchcockian films:

• Dario Argento[47]
• Park Chan-wook[48]
• Henri-Georges Clouzot[49]
• Brian De Palma[50]

Films by country

Australia

• Roadgames (1981)[51]
• Crosstalk (1982)[52]
• Coffin Rock (2009)[53]
• Blame (2010)[54]
• Crawl (2011)[55]
• Bad Blood (2017)[56]

France

• Les Diaboliques (1955)[57]
• Le Boucher (1970)[58]
• The Vanishing (1988)[59][60]
• Love Crime (2010)[61]
• Elle (2016)[62]
• Personal Shopper (2016)[63]

Germany

• Unknown (2011)[64][65][66][67]

Spain

• Buried (2010)[68]

United Kingdom

• Peeping Tom (1960)[69]

See also

• Alfred Hitchcock
• Alfred Hitchcock filmography
• Giallo
• Krimi
• Thriller film

References

1. "Gaslight(s)". 10 July 2012.
2. "Henry Hathaway: 10 essential films".
3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-11-03. Retrieved 2014-02-08.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
4. "MoMA - Billy Wilder's Witness for the Prosecution". www.moma.org.
5. "Witness for the Prosecution (1957)" – via www.imdb.com.
6. "Midnight Lace". Turner Classic Movies.
7. "Cape Fear: 1991 vs. 1962". 10 June 2012.
8. Greydanus, Steven D. "Charade (1963) - Decent Films - SDG Reviews".
9. Gilligan, Patrick. Alfred Hitchcock: A Light in Darkness and Light. New York City: HarperCollins, 2004. Print.
10. "Prize The (1963) – full review! - Classic Film Guide". www.classicfilmguide.com.
11. Dfordoom (11 September 2014). "Classic Movie Ramblings: Arabesque (1966)".
12. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/mar/10/antonioni-blow-up-50-years-movie-photographer-murder
13. "Wait Until Dark: Audrey Hepburn's Non-Hitchcock Hitchcock Film". www.alfredhitchcockgeek.com.
14. "Don't Breathe is a ruthlessly efficient, claustrophobic terror machine".
15. "Duel (1971) - Creative Criticism". creativecriticism.net.
16. "Play Misty for Me – Eastwood does Hitchcock". 9 July 2012.
17. "DVD and Blu-ray - Slant Magazine". www.slantmagazine.com.
18. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2017-02-07. Retrieved 2017-02-07.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
19. "Last Embrace - Blu-ray Review - Slant Magazine".
20. "How Blue Velvet reflects the voyeuristic gaze of Rear Window". Lwlies.com. 2016-12-02. Retrieved 2018-08-18.
21. Cassidy, Suzanne. "FILM; James Dearden's Latest Fatal Attraction".
22. "18 Creepy Facts about Arachnophobia". 18 July 2015.
23. "Misery - The Psychology of a Stalker (Blu-Ray) REVIEW - Cultured Vultures". 21 November 2017.
24. we're fighting back on Basic Instinct: "Basic Instinct owes a lot to Hitchcock's Vertigo, and the homage is so obvious as to be a bit embarrassing."
25. "…Hitchcockian…" — 12 Monkeys review from Time Out Film Guide Archived 2009-03-08 at the Wayback Machine
26. 'A time-travel thriller that dares to compare itself to Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo."… actually pays back its debt to Hitchcock…' — Salon.com Archived 2011-06-06 at the Wayback Machine
27. Schickel, Richard (October 27, 1996). "No Gag". Time. Retrieved May 28, 2007.
28. LaSalle, Mick (October 4, 1996). "Darkly Witty 'Bound' a Taut Noir Caper". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved May 28, 2007.
29. Ebert, Roger. "Double Jeopardy Movie Review & Film Summary (1999) - Roger Ebert". www.rogerebert.com.
30. Levy, Emanuel (16 July 2000). "What Lies Beneath".
31. Cwik, Greg (16 April 2015). "9 Great Films Influenced By Alfred Hitchcock's 'Vertigo'".
32. Review: 'Panic Room' Screams Hitchcock Archived 2011-07-13 at the Wayback Machine
33. https://www.theyoungfolks.com/review/73805/the-film-canon-phone-booth-2002/
34. "Disturbia (2007) – Deep Focus Review – Movie Reviews, Critical Essays, and Film Analysis".
35. "Side Effects: Making of Hitchcockian Thriller - Emanuel Levy". www.emanuellevy.com.
36. "Steven Soderbergh's 'Side Effects': A 'Hitchcock mindf---'".
37. "Side Effects is Steven Soderbergh's post-modern Hitchcock thriller". honeycuttshollywood.com.
38. "Not Safe for Work (2014)".
39. Kermode, Mark; critic, Observer film. "Crimson Peak review – an American in fear of the Lake District". The Guardian. Retrieved November 17, 2015.
40. "Review: 'The Gift,' a Stalker Thriller That Isn't What It Seems".
41. "[Repost Review] 'Don't Breathe' Is Like Hitchcock On Crack! - Bloody Disgusting". bloody-disgusting.com.
42. "'Nocturnal Animals' Review: Tom Ford's Complex Suspense Thriller Is Worthy Of Hitchcock". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved January 24, 2017.
43. "'A Kind Of Murder' Brings Hitchcock To The 2016 Tribeca Film Festival [REVIEW]". 22 April 2016.
44. "Split review – James McAvoy is 23 shades of creepy in M Night Shyamalan chiller - Film - The Guardian". Retrieved October 1, 2016.
45. https://variety.com/2017/film/festivals/geralds-game-review-stephen-king-1202570269/
46. https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2018/09/11/a-simple-favor-review-anna-kendrick-and-blake-lively-make-hitchcock-proud/
47. Rafferty, Terrence. "Blood Not So Simple, From Dario Argento, Italy's Hitchcock".
48. Taylor, Drew (19 March 2013). "Park Chan-wook Talks Differences Between Korean & American Films, How 'Stoker' Fits In With His Filmography & More".
49. "The Criterion Collection". The Criterion Collection.
50. Murray, Noel. "Dive into the virtuosic thrillers of Brian De Palma".
51. Buckmaster, Luke (23 May 2014). "Road Games: rewatching classic Australian films". the Guardian.
52. https://www.umbrellaent.com.au/movies/4459-crosstalk-ozploitation-classics.html
53. dave_or_did. "Dave's Film & DVD Reviews: November 2009". Davesfilmreviews.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2018-08-18.
54. "Blame - John McDonald". johnmcdonald.net.au.
55. "Crawl (2011) - News" – via www.imdb.com.
56. "Bad Blood To Get Cinema Release". 5 September 2017.
57. Richman, Darren (1 November 2017). "Movies You Might Have Missed: Henri-Georges Clouzot's Les Diaboliques". The Independent. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
58. "Le boucher". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
59. Nieporent, Ben. "Movie Review - Vanishing, The (1988) - eFilmCritic". www.efilmcritic.com.
60. Hinson, Hal. "The Vanishing". www.washingtonpost.com.
61. "Love Crime: Film Review".
62. "Review: In 'Elle,' Isabelle Huppert Subverts the Role of Rape Victim".
63. Bradshaw, Peter (16 May 2016). "Personal Shopper review: Kristen Stewart's psychic spooker is a must-have". the Guardian.
64. 'Unknown' review: Liam Neeson brings gravitas to pulpy Alfred Hithcock-style [sic] action thriller, Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News, February 17, 2011
65. The great ‘Unknown’, Lou Lumenick, New York Post, February 18, 2011
66. Unknown review, Roger Ebert, February 16, 2011
67. Neeson wakes up 'Unknown', Steven Rea,The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 18, 2011
68. "'Buried' And Alfred Hitchcock: An Expert's Perspective".
69. Charles Barr, Vertigo (London: BFI, 2002)

Bibliography

• Michael Walker (2005), Hitchcock's motifs, Amsterdam University Press, ISBN 978-90-5356-773-9

External links

• Entertainment Weekly's EW.com feature: What, exactly, makes a film "Hitchcockian?"