Section européenne Cinéma-Audiovisuel-Anglais du lycée Alain Colas - Nevers

Reprise du plan de la foule descendant dans le métro 

We are going to analyze more closely a shot of the credits we saw last time. Can you tell me, please, what angle shooting is used here, where people are going, and what do people look like ?

1. What do people look like? What do the people resemble ? AT what kind of animals can we compare? What about their freedom of thought, what about their right to autonomy? What does this subway entrance look like?

The shot shows us a crowd of people going down the stairs to a subway entrance. There is a certain urgency, everybody seems to be in a rush. People are following each other like sheep in a sort of never ending circle. You said quite rightly last time they look like goldfish in a bowl. It’s a hi(y)(gh) angle shot that allows us to view the subway entrance as the mouth of a predator which consumes these people as sheep (moutons). It’s a bit worrying. They are heading towards their death. They are putting their heads in the lion’s mouth.

We can ask ourselves whether these people have the freedom to think and do as they please because they seem / look like puppets or robots with no auto’nomy.

Plan des deux dames âgées se disputant le taxi 

We are going to analyze now the shot which involves two women ; look at it

1. What do you see in this shot? Who can you see? What are they doing?  Does it shock you? If so why? How old are they? Do you find their behaviour (comportement) normal for elde(r)ly (âgées) wo(i)men?

The next shot shows us two wo(i)men who are fighting over a taxi. Even though (meme si) they are quite old, things don’t seem to be fast enough for them, they too are in a hurry.

2. What appears on the screen? Can you describe what happens? What is the significance of this cameo appearance? (when the film director makes a brief appearance in his own film ) Do you know other examples? Do you Know other filmmakers who make brief appearances in their movie?

 The name of the film director appears in this shot : “di(y)rected by Alfred Hitchcock” but in the next shot we can see A H himself trying to get on the bus but he can’t. it’s a paradox because even the director cannot control his own movie. This symbolizes that he is no longer able to direct the action of this film because everything is going too fast.  

Night Shyamalan or Charlie chaplin : We cannot really tell it as cameo because they play a character that has its importance in the history

Cameo : De Gemma onychia on a fait Gemmahuja; de Gemmahuja Camehuja, et de celui-ci Camayeu; de même qu’à son tour Gemmahuja a produit Gammenhü, Cameo. Nom spécial d’une pierre plus connue sous LE NOM D’onyx. Onyx, tel est le nom de cette pierre, quand elle n’est que polie ou à l’état brut; mais on l’appelle Cameo, quand elle est gravée, et cela de manière que la figure et le fond soient de couleurs différentes. Chaque camée est un onyx et les deux noms désignent la même pierre.

We go back to the first building, in the hall.

1. Who can we see? With which characters does the scene begin? What are they doing? Can you describe the camera movement? What sort of feeling does this movement create within the audience?  What can we understand about the main character traits of Thornhill?

We see the main (principal) character exi(i)ting the lift (elevator) with his secretary. He is wa[o]lking fast, he can multitask, he can do many things at the same time, he is dictating to his secretary, whi[y]lst/while (tandis que) he is walking and greets the lift groom without really paying attention. In reality, He is only in’terested in himself. The backward tracking allows us to see everything in the shot and we see the main character advancing towards (vers tjrs s) us as if we were in the entrance hall. It’s a very realistic scene in which we are included / involved. We feel rushed and stressed like them. Thornhill has taken to this society like a duck takes to wa(o)ter. He is self-a(e)ss(ch)ured, he is self- con’fident, he is sure of himself. While exiting the building he pushes the people around him, in particular we can see him push the man next to him.