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

Can you remember what we said last time? What sort of feeling do these credits  (generic) create /arouse within the audience? What has the graphics during the film credits allowed us to understand about the movie? What will be the main themes of this film?

These credits create a feeling of tension within the audience. We understand that the story will be worrying, it will show us an eventful and never ending journey in which both the audience and the characters will feel manipulated. We feel as if we were lost in a maze.

Les vitres apparaissent…

1. What do the lines turn into? What does the ske(a)tch (bande dessinée avec lignes) / drawing / cartoon turn into? Were our suppositions about the last shot correct? What can we see in the reflection of th windows?

            In the following shot we realize that our supposition was correct as the lines turn into (become) the windows in an office block building. It is indeed (c’est bien …)the reflection of every day traffic that we can see in the windows. Therefore (thus), it becomes clear that movement is the principal theme in this film.

2. What can we see when we analyze this image closely (attentivement)?

we realize that this image of moving traffic repeats itself again and again. If you look at a car you can see it re(i)tu(eu)rn again and again.

3. What can we deduce from this? What is the film di(y)rector’s intention? What is the me(a)ssage Hitchcock wants to send out?

The characters in this film are in a type of maze or labyrinth (labyrinthe) and the audience also gets lost in this maze.  Hitchcock has created a sort of nightmare.

4. What sort of music can you hear? What effect does the music have on the audience?

The beginning of this film which was made by Saul Bass, is a type of abstract synopsis which is sy(i)mbolic for the rest of the film : so it’s a successful and good beginning. The most important themes are announced : the movement, a never ending movement, the manipulation, and the feeling of being lost in a maze which has been created by modern society and which leads to a regression, to a wild world, where single force wins without any critical spirit.

SUITE GENERIQUE IMAGES REELLES 

1. What are people doing in this shot? What do they look like? What does the music reflect? How are people wa(o)(l)king? In which direction are people walking?  In which  sort of city does the film take place? What sort of shot does the di(y)rector use here? Why is it interesting?

The music reflects this agitation. People are walking fastly (in a fast manner) and they frequently walk in the same sense.  We can see the(i) exit of a building that con’firms to us that the film takes place in a big city, a bu(i)sy city. The next 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. 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.  People are following each other like sheep. They are heading towards their death. They are putting their heads in the lion’s mouth. They look like goldfish in a bowl.

2. What does this shot show us? What sort of shot is it? What does this shot allow us to feel? Why is this shot interesting?

The next shot shows us people walking in all directions from left to right, from right to left and from the background into the foreground.  We can also see the heavy traffic. This shot is a medium shot which allows us to feel included in this bu(i)sy city.

3. What does it remind you of? What does it make you think of? Have you already seen this place? What sort of geometrical pattern (forme) do people travel in? What comes to mind when you see that?

Now we see people exiting the subway station and this type of life is like a never ending ci(e)rcle because we have seen people entering this subway before.  It reminds us of the beginning of the film when we saw the never ending circle of traffic in the reflection of the office building windows. It reminds us of the repetitive music too.