Hitchcockian
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Hitchcockian is a authorial descriptive used to describe film styles and themes similar to those of Alfred Hitchcock's films.
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Characteristics
Elements considered Hitchcockian include:
- The cool platinum blonde (often a central figure of Hitchcock's films).
- The presence of a domineering mother in her child's life (e.g. Psycho).
- An innocent man accused (again used in many of Hitchcock's films).
- Restricting the action to a single setting to increase tension (e.g. Lifeboat, Rear Window, Rope).
- Characters who switch sides or who cannot be trusted.
- Tension building through suspense to the point where the audience enjoys seeing the character in a life-threatening situation, such as the windmill scene from Foreign Correspondent.
- Average people thrust into strange or dangerous situations, such as in North by Northwest or The Man Who Knew Too Much.
- Bumbling or incompetent authority figures, particularly police officers.
- Use of darkness to symbolise 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, such as in North by Northwest and The Wrong Man.
- The use of a staircase as a motif for impending danger or suspense.
- Use of a macguffin or plot device that remains unexplained, such as the microfilm in North by Northwest.
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Films
Some films or scenes considered Hitchockian, aside from Hitchcock's own films, include:
- 12 Monkeys
- Basic Instinct
- Body Double
- Blow Out
- Blood Simple
- Cape Fear
- Caché
- Charade
- Clue
- Collateral
- Dead Again
- Disturbia
- Dressed to Kill
- Fatal Attraction
- Final Destination
- Flightplan
- Foul Play
- Frantic
- Gaslight
- Hanky Panky
- Marathon Man
- Midnight Lace
- Misery
- Niagara
- No Way Out
- Orphan
- Panic Room
- Paycheck
- Phone Booth
- Presumed Innocent
- Shallow Grave
- Shining Through
- Shutter Island
- The Ghost Writer
- The Spanish Prisoner
- The Talented Mr Ripley
- Tell No One
- The Third Man
- Wait Until Dark
- Perfect Blue
- What Lies Beneath
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See also
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