Hitchcockian

Hitchcockian films are those made with the styles and themes similar to those of Alfred Hitchcock's films.

Characteristics

Elements considered Hitchcockian include:

• The cool platinum blonde.
• The presence of a domineering mother in her child's life (e.g. Psycho).
• An innocent man accused.
• 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 (e.g. Vertigo, the windmill scene in Foreign Correspondent).
• Average people thrust into strange or dangerous situations (e.g. North by Northwest, 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 (e.g. North by Northwest, 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 (e.g. the microfilm in North by Northwest).
• Referring to crime for mystery rather than presenting it explicitly (e.g. Dial M for Murder, Alfred Hitchcock Presents).

Films not directed by Hitchcock

Aside from Hitchcock's own films, some films or scenes considered Hitchockian include:

• Gaslight (1944) ^[1]
• Witness for the Prosecution (1957) ^{[2] [3]}
• Charade (1963) ("the best Hitchcock movie that Hitchcock never made"^[4])
• From Russia with Love (1963) ^[5]
• The Vanishing (1988)^[6][7]
• Basic Instinct (1992) ^[8]
• 12 Monkeys (1995) ^[9][10]
• Panic Room (2002) ^[11]
• Unknown (2011) ^{[12][13][14][15]}
• Side Effects (2013) ^[16][17][18]

• The films of Brian De Palma ^[19]

See also

• Alfred Hitchcock
• Alfred Hitchcock's filmography

Notes

References

• Michael Walker (2005), Hitchcock's motifs, Amsterdam University Press, ISBN 978-90-5356-773-9 

External links

• Entertainment Weekly's EW.com feature: What, exactly, makes a film "Hitchcockian?"