This is the scene where ‘Mother’ murders Arbogast. Cinematography is the key element which makes this scene so successful. Hitchcock used a lot of close-ups to show the motion on Arbogast’s face as he tentatively walks up the stairs before he suddenly realises his fate. There are also a lot of skewed/canted angles to make the audience feel more on edge and confused to what is going on. Point of view shots are used, to put us in the position of ‘mother’ the killer, which is an intentionally uncomfortable feeling. Hitchcock also uses handheld camera when Arbogast stumbles down the stairs to create a realistic feel to the scene. There is no parallel music or dialogue featured in this scene until Arbogast is stabbed and that is only the creak of Arbogast's footsteps; this is due to Hitchcock’s Autuer influence as he has been known to say ‘silent cinema is pure cinema’. However, when the attack does take place, suddenly the loud parallel music of the Psycho theme is introduced, further pushing the jolt of the collision cutting of a slow to a quick montage.
No comments:
Post a Comment