4. Hitchcock and Auteur Theory, Unifying Elements in Hitchcock´s Films…26
5.2 Subjective Suspense and Exploitation of Spatial Setting
Hitchcock described suspense as objective suspense and labeled his employment of suspense as an introduction of a “subjective factor” which in fact has two manifestations. One definition of the subjective factor is “letting the audience experience it through the mind or the eyes of one of the characters” (Allen 40). This technique contrasts to the employment of objective suspense, or shall we say the classical suspense:
In classical suspense, the temporal deadline created by a sense of an imminent catastrophe creates a ratio of probability in which, as the time passes, the likelihood of a bad outcome increases relative to the likelihood of a good outcome. (Carroll 106)
The use of subjective camera which allows the audience to share something with the film character is typical for Hitchcock in order to create subjective suspense. We observe a given situation through the eyes and from the perspective of affected character. Susan Smith calls this employment of suspense as “vicarious suspense” (57) as the audience is forced to feel suspense in the place of the character. The feeling of suspense in the place of a character is demonstrated in Psycho when sister of murdered Marion Crane, Lila, goes to the house where the murderer lives and wants to speak with an old woman, who at the time is suspected by the viewers to be the killer. Therefore Lila is in significant danger and the audience fears for her life. “We feel excruciating tension and fear on behalf of the character as she approaches the mansion. Hitchcock´s
practice is an intensification of aspects of vicarious suspense” (Smith 65). Another example of this technique is in Birds. Melanie Daniels, the main heroine, is sitting, smoking and waiting for children, unaware of the fact that a large number of birds has been gathering behind her. “This classic rendition of vicarious suspense is accompanies by a mesmerizing repetition of the children´s song that serves to mark out the passing of time” (Allen 47). When Melanie discovers what has been happening behind her back Hitchcock quickly cuts to her face to show her reaction and thus levels her knowledge of a dangerous situation with the knowledge of the spectators. These techniques give the spectators chance to identify with the character and get drawn into the scene which subsequently strengthens and emphasizes the experience the spectators get from watching the film. Hitchcock always tried to make the camera more than just a camera.
The spectator should never feel like watching a film but he should feel like actually being in the frame while still feeling frustrating limitations imposed by methods that can be executed to influence the narrative. This Hitchcock´s obsession with camera had roots in the silent film era when the only storytelling tool of the directors was the camera. Without sound, directors had to rely upon utilization of the correct camera angles in order to convey the desired meaning and message of a particular scene. An example of a subjective camera used in order to generate subjective suspense is point of view shot sequence where the audience is presented with close up shots of the character
´s reactions or directly with his point of view.
The difference between the subjective and objective suspense seems to be the distinction whether the suspense and tension is streamed through the eyes of a character or not. But despite this explanation being logical and inherently right, it was not the idea behind the employment of subjective suspense by Hitchcock. What the director rather
wanted was not to contrast the objective suspense by giving the spectator an alternative by offering him the point of view of a character but presenting the audience with limited knowledge of the situation which subsequently results in “making the audience suffer”
(Allen 41). But the employment of this technique does not mean that Hitchcock completely rejected the idea of using the objective suspense in his films.
Hitchcock´s camerawork alternates between the highly subjective (as Bordwell says, reinforcing the narrative’s stress on a single character’s point of view) and the omniscient, concealing information as a way of building up suspense. (Allen 195)
Rather than restricting utilization of suspense to subjective view, Hitchcock introduces another feature to allow the audience to identify with a certain character and experience dramatic situation more intensively. “Hitchcock´s interest in subjective suspense consists, in part, in intensifying the kind of character identification that is present in classical suspense, often by restricting us to the narrative point of in the view of a single character under duress” (Allen 42). If we return to the scene in North by Northwest when the crop dusting plane attacks Roger Thornhill on the seemingly abandoned road in Illinois, the narrative is almost exclusively employed from the point of view of Roger Thornhill, who fights for his life. “In this kind of “shared suspense”
the character himself is placed in the position of experiencing anxiety and the audience is aligned with him” (Allen 43). Hitchcock also uses establishing shots, or we can use the term omniscient shots, in North by Northwest in order to establish an overview of the upcoming scene. It is this combination of these big establishing shots and close ups of Roger Thornhill that creates this famous scene where Thornhill fights for his life.
North by Northwest is therefore an ideal example of how Hitchcock did not only rely on subjective suspense but rather combined these two techniques. First, the audience is presented with an overview of the scene which clearly shows that environment is rather empty and plain which later serves for generating of helplessness and danger as Thornhillt has almost nowhere to hide from the attacking crop dusting plane. By using subjective camera Hitchcock then puts the spectators in Thornhill´s shoes as he tries to outsmart his killers. This utilization of subjective suspense works very well in this particular scene. What North by Northwest also shows is the way Hitchcock utilized space in his movies. Hitchcock was extremely successful in exploiting the dramatic potential of space. He correctly discovered that it is inevitable for us to experience the most intense feelings of fear and danger when located in a tight spatial surrounding.
This can serve as an explanation to why Hitchcock set so many of the most important scenes from his films to rather tight and small compartments such as passenger train car in North by Northwest or the meeting scene between Guy and Bruno in Strangers on a Train. Tight spatial settings were not only restricted to scenes but also to entire films. In Lifeboat the story takes place on a lifeboat where a group of people await their fate on an open ocean. In Rear Window, the main protagonist is confined to a chair for several weeks because he broke his leg and is unable to walk. Almost the entire film is shot in the protagonist´s apartment, an unusually small space given the fact that the film is basically a detective romantic thriller. The idea is to limit the protagonist´s options to escape from situations of danger. The technique is effective but also demanding to properly execute as the setting quite often does not allow enough maneuverability for the director.
Rear Window is concentrated in a single set of neighboring buildings which
allows for development of the story, it allows unfolding of the narrative. In fact, it is the spatial setting that allows existence of Rear Window as the entire film and climax of major scenes depend on it. “The spatial setting of the film creates anxieties regarding privacy and surveillance which are mobilized by the design of the set” (Coon 60). The underlying tension which runs throughout the film and the fear of getting caught while spying combined with tight space where Jefferies finds himself in “make him visually vulnerable to the gazes of others, reminding the audience of the implications of privacy invasion (Coon 60). The example of Rear Window shows us that the spatial boundaries between private and public life are very thin and can lead to severe consequences.
Hitchcock uses this situation to generate suspense by putting the spectators into Jefferies
´ perspective which means that they never know more than him. Just like Jeff, the spectators are restricted in their view and knowledge which intensifies suspense.
By telling the story almost exclusively from Jeff’s visual perspective, and by confining Jeff to the immediate visual and aural space around him, Hitchcock allows the audience to see only those moments that can also be seen by the protagonist within the film. (Coon 61)
By revealing only certain part of space of Jefferies´ neighbors Hitchcock creates on screen and off screen space which demonstrates the withdrawal of information that the audience, where Jefferies also belongs, has to experience. This technique intensifies curiosity and generates suspense as we do not know what is happening off the screen despite the fact that Jefferies´ binoculars may actually be literally only a few inches away from important events. “The situation turns suspenseful after Jeff suspects Thorwald of killing his wife. During the time that Jeff is spying on him, Thorwald
occasionally chooses to pull his blinds, preventing Jeff from knowing the full story of what’s going on inside Thorwald’s apartment” (Coon 62). The environment where Jefferies moves in Rear Window displays only such amount of information which enables to make him as well as the film audience suspicious of a potential crime but at the same time it conceals and withdraws important pieces of information that provide answers to his questions regarding the potentially dangerous neighbor. The anxiety and suspense gradually increase. “Hitchcock never allows the camera to invade anyone’s privacy any more than the onscreen characters are able to” (Coon 63). The suppression of vital information through the use of space is most notably visible in the scene where Lisa delivers a message to Thorwald. She is standing in front of Thorwald´s apartment and she and Thorwald are both visible. “Throughout the sequence, the design of the space, coupled with the angle from which it is shot, conceals vital information (each other’s location) from the main characters while revealing that same information to the audience” (Coon 63). The design and structure of this scene shows characters in proximity to each other even though they may actually be separated by a wall or door.
The characters are unaware that they are so close to a potential danger while the movie spectators, and in this case also Jefferries, know it which increases the sense of danger which only the audience understands. Another example of a situation when characters lack information regarding a nearby approaching danger can be found at the end of the film when Thorwald goes to Jefferies´ apartment in order to get rid of him. Jeff is unaware that Thorwald is approaching his apartment and he is in lethal danger. The audience is also unaware of this fact for a brief moment until Hitchcock uses sounds of approaching Thorwald on staircase to draw attention to this fact.
Rear Window offers a long slow build in narrative tension,
originating in anxiety but developing into suspense and terror.
The design of the courtyard creates a space where the bounds of privacy are very weak. Both Jeff and the audience initially cross these boundaries only visually, creating a sense of unease about the social violation involved. (Coon 64)
Hitchcock´s exploitation of spatial setting is heavily present in Psycho as well.
Here the director introduces something which may be designated as spatial duality. At the beginning of the film we see a skyline of Phoenix city, a place with a large concentration of population, where Marion Crane decides to steal money and subsequently run away. Ironically, when Marion leaves the city to hide in an isolated motel, it is a fatal decision as the isolated space which should have provided her protection from police is more dangerous than Phoenix. Hitchcock establishes two major locations in the first half of the film, each representing something different.
“Separation replaces concentration, distance supplants proximity, and the highway and the automobile supersede the street and the pedestrian” (Dimendberg 177). The isolated setting of the Bates motel introduces “additional sources of tension,” (Coon 63) and stimulates viewer´s discomfort. Additional contrasting places which create sense of duality are the house where Bates´ mother (supposedly) lives and the motel itself. In fact, the entire film is based on duality as we know that Norman Bates´ mind is occupied by two distinctive personalities and this fact is reflected in the division between the motel and the house. The motel represents Norman and the house is the central space of his mother. Just like the main protagonists who are kept away from the house by Bates, so are the spectators of the film kept away from the house by Hitchcock who limits their knowledge of the situation.
The house and the motel stand as two distinct spaces, defined by their appearance, their function, and their inhabitants. For those who find comfort in clearly drawn boundaries, the two buildings may initially seem to reinforce the rigidity of the various binaries that they represent. (Coon 64)
Generation of suspense in Psycho comes from the duality of the house and the motel when Hitchcock establishes boundaries whose crossing is potentially lethal. This is demonstrated by the character of Arbogast who sneaks into the Bates residence and is killed. By withholding vital information from the characters in the film as well as from spectators, Hitchcock is able to exploit the spatial setting of the film to maintain suspense throughout it. “In addition to establishing an underlying sense of tension, the built environment of Psycho contributes to the suspense of specific scenes, as Hitchcock maneuvers characters through the built spaces of the set” (Coon 65). The spatial setting in Psycho is vitally important for creation of suspense similarly to Rear Window where only the nature of the set allows to exploit its potential to the fullest.
However, Hitchcock did not limit his suspense scenes solely to tight rooms, dangerous houses and compartments. In fact, probably one of the most famous scenes where Hitchcock was able to put the protagonist of his film to a dangerous situation and build suspense was in already mentioned North by Northwest where Roger Thornhill fights a crop dusting plane whose pilot wants to kill him in one of the most unusual and spectacular ways. This particular scene is far from being set in a tight space where the protagonist has nowhere to go, it is exactly the opposite. Cary Grant, who plays Roger
Thrornhill, has acres of space to move to but despite this fact the scene works well. By using subjective camera view, Hitchcock is able to align the spectators with Roger Thornhill, thus allowing viewers´ identification with the character and suspense can be successfully created and maintained throughout the entire scene. Unlike in Rear Window, the crop dusting scene in North by Northwest is very simple and easy to orient in– no information withdrawal is employed by Hitchcock in this case but he is nevertheless able to create suspense by closely following a character that fights for his life.
Hitchcock´s suspense also differs from classical suspense “because it involves narrative suppression rather than narrative omniscience” (Allen 45). But this kind of interpretation was strictly denied by Hitchcock who claimed that “mystery is seldom suspenseful, in a whodunnit for example, there is no suspense, but a sort of intellectual puzzle” (Truffaut, Hitchcock 147). However, the suppression of narrative information does not only equal to whodunnit examples. In Vertigo, basically the entire narrative structure circles around mysterious alleged presence of a ghost of long deceased Carlotta Valdez who is supposed to be controlling Madeleine, the main female protagonist. The mystery fuels a general uncertainty and possible danger that is present in the film and it shows that mystery and surprise can actually co-exist very efficiently, generating intense atmosphere. “The mysterious situation is the one that does engender concern about the future on the part of the audience in the form of the anxious anticipation that characterizes suspense” (Allen 56). Gavin Elster´s plot to murder his wife in Vertigo is withheld from both the spectators and Scottie, the main protagonist. In this particular example, we share the mystery of alleged ghost possession of a young lady. “His and our preoccupation with understanding this mystery only serves to conceal
more completely the deeper secret that comes as a total surprise: the woman faked her possession” (Allen 47).
The employment of suspense by using narrative suppression, i.e. withholding of crucial information from the audience as well as movie characters, is almost ever present in Hitchcock films because it significantly facilitates the creation of suspense through implementation of emotion. “It is typically fostered by aligning the audience with the restricted viewpoint of a character who anxiously desires and fears the resolution of a mystery” (Allen 54). During his documented interviews with Hitchcock, Truffaut told the director that suspense in the form of Alfred Hitchcock involved the
“stretching out of an anticipation in connection with a hidden danger” (Truffaut, Hitchcock 72). An example can be found in Psycho few moments before Marion Crane is brutally stabbed to death by Norman Bates. Hitchcock sets the scene in such a way that the spectator´s viewpoint is from behind the curtain and it is possible to see dark figure sneaking in. The suspicion is that the figure is Norman Bates´ mother, however it is impossible to be sure about the identity of the murderer. “Our perception of this figure gives us knowledge that is superior to the character, and thus we worry on her behalf, but it does so only to alert us to a mystery” (Allen 71). This example demonstrates the relationship between omniscience with limited knowledge of the film character. The goal in this case is to put the spectator into a position where his knowledge of a situation is superior to the knowledge of a character. In Sabotage the protagonist, Stevie, has to deliver a parcel to a destination point, the issue is that he is unaware that the parcel contains a bomb which will explode at 1:45 pm. By using this clearly defined deadline Hitchcock establishes a situation of suspense when he audience knows about the imminent danger. The effect of this scene is being strengthened by numerous delays
when he gets lost in crowded market place and he is even delayed by a street peddler.
Hitchcock also periodically reminds the audience about the ticking bomb by close up shots of the explosive device whose imminent explosion gets closer with every second that passes. Stevie is still unaware of the deadly danger and the scene continues. The time goes by and everyone, except for Stevie, awaits the explosion. Then, Hitchcock rapidly cuts to 1:45, he shows three shots of the bomb in fast succession and then the explosion.
In many ways this is a tour-de-force of classical suspense.
All the cues given to the spectator conspire to make us worry on the boy´s behalf that an imminent catastrophe is about to occur, and our anxiety is progressively ratcheted up by the orchestration of narrative elements. (Allen 50)
It can be argued that as a result of this approach the spectators of Hitchcock´s films are exposed to two contrasting directions at one time. They have a lot of sympathy for the protagonist, in the previous case for Stevie, and at the same time they “are aware of the hand of the director who relishes the orchestration of imminent catastrophe”
(Allen 50). The entire scene is also exciting for audience not only due to suspenseful situation but also due to its result, in Sabotage, Stevie, an innocent participator in the grand scheme of the plot, is killed. First, the spectators emotionally identified with Stevie only to be surprised by his death. This was something that violated the rules and basic convention of the genre. “The boy was involved in a situation that got him too much sympathy from the audience, so that when the bomb exploded and he was killed the public was resentful” (Carroll 78).