Hollywood - Classical (Hitchcock) Flashcards
Auteur
The auteur is one whose work is marked by a coherent world view; has a distinctive set of trademarks, visuals and perhaps even running motifs, across a body of work.
Classical Hollywood
A period of film making. In EDUQAS’s terms (our exam board), this is 1930-1960. Also known as The Golden Age of Cinema.
The Hays Code
Formally known as the Production Code – a set of rules which upheld ‘moral decency’. A form of filmic censorship
The Studio System
In The Golden Age, five Big and three Small studios had an oligopoly – a system of enormous power and control where they signed up stars for seven years, where they also distributed and showed the films.
1950’s emasculated man
After the end of WW2, men came back to the States and didn’t know who they were any more – their jobs had been efficiently done by women for the duration of the war, which create a sense of emasculation (feeling less masculine)
Gender conformity
Sticking to prescribed ‘gender rules’ - what was expected of men or women in the 1950s.
‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents…’
Hitchcock’s British TV series which made him well known
The Master of Suspense
The nickname, possibly self-created
The Hitchcock Blonde
Hitchcock preferred casting blonde leading ladies (Grace Kelly, Tippi Hedren, Janet Leigh, Kim Novak) - he said “blondes make the best victims – it’s like blood on virgin snow.”
Voyeurism
The act of enjoying watching someone else, often without their knowledge.
Pure Cinema
The adjective “pure” connotes a sense of worship, or purity, simplicity, the TRUTH of the cinematic experience – it was about what you could see and hear and how that made you feel. In literal terms, a period of time in a film with no dialogue.
Bernard Hermann
Hitchcock’s Composer on 11 of his films
Edith Head
Hitchcock’s costume designer on many of his films
Cameo
A small part, uncredited. Hitchcock had a cameo in all his films – this upped his profile.
Dolly Zoom
Camera move popularised by Hitchcock in which the camera zooms in as is it physically pulled in the opposite direction. Represents Scottie’s Vertigo.
