Using Film in the Classroom/How to Read a Film

Content Background

Alfred Hitchcock realized that audiences found a “joy in safe terror”.¹  Edgar Allan Poe stated that “Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.” Very few would disagree with either of these great artists, most of us having had some of our most enjoyable and profound moments as an audience member riding out a text or film on the edge of our seat, delighting in the abject fear from the comfort of our favorite reading chair or theater seat. Suspense, the organizing concept of this unit, is defined as the state of uncertainty and expectation combined with anxiety or apprehension.  One needs to look carefully with a critical eye at the works of the two aforementioned artists most commonly associated with the suspense genre, each of them in fact often referred to as a “master of suspense”, in order to determine how suspense is created.  Edgar Allan Poe is arguably the finest practitioner of the suspense and horror genre in American literature; indeed, he is considered a pioneer in the field.  On the other hand, no discussion on suspense would be complete without director and filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock, a giant in the genre with over 50 suspense related films to his credit.  In order to analyze the chosen literature and film texts with a critical lens, my students will need to have a good grasp of the formal elements of both literature and film.  Of course, this unit is designed so that successful mastery of the elements will derive organically and purposely through experiencing the texts and films themselves.  However there are genre specific terms and concepts that need to be played with prior to diving into the narratives. The formal elements of text and film are very similar, as with the term narrative, which is the all important storytelling component. However, there are terms and techniques specific to only film or written texts. For instance, editing and cinematography are particular to film only.

For the purpose of this unit, we will not look at every element of literature, but narrow our focus to those that work in conjunction with the creation of suspense. Therefore, an understanding of the meaning of suspense is necessary, as well as some of the other elements that play a supporting role in the creation of suspense, such as point of view (narrator), mood, tone, imagery, and symbol.  All of these elements may be found in both text and film and must be understood in order to determine how a writer or a filmmaker is able to create suspenseful stories.  It is equally important for the analysis of film to have a basic foundation of the terminology germane to the genre of filmmaking in order to apply the elements to the works themselves. Exceptional vehicles for the examination of the elements of both literature and film can be accomplished through the analysis of small samplings of Poe and Hitchcock’s works.

One essential element of suspense literature is that of point of view. The point of view in literature is the narrator’s perspective and it is often the way in which a storyteller uses point of view that helps to create suspense in a narrative. Who is telling the story affects what we know or feel about a subject. For example, can the narrator be trusted? Do we sympathize with certain characters because of a certain type of narrator? What can we know or not know based on who is the narrator? ² In literature the most often used narrator point of views are the first person and third person. The first person narrator is a character in the story telling the story from their point of view. A third person point of view is an omniscient narrator who reveals the story from somewhere up above, all knowing and revealing what it wants to and when it wants to the characters and the readers. Put simply, the point of view refers to the position from which something is seen and how that determines what the reader sees. Both types can be used in powerful ways to create suspense

Another important window onto how suspense is created by a writer is the way they create mood. Mood is considered as the atmosphere of the work and how that atmosphere evokes emotions and feelings in the reader is controlled by the writer. Mood’s close partner, tone, on the other hand is the attitude of the writer towards the reader or audience and is usually conveyed by word choice. A writer’s thoughtful use of mood and tone are essential to the creation of a suspenseful experience for the reader. Another important component of suspense is the use of symbols. Symbols are used by a writer or filmmaker to confer significance to ideas and qualities thereby making them different from the literal sense. A helpful way to identify whether something is being used as a symbol is to notice when something or someone is “what it is and something more”.³ The use of a symbolic object or individual connotes an entirely different or more significant meaning to the item or words. Film is actually well suited to the use of symbol as a director has the use of lighting, framing, and numerous other devices and can be as obvious as he or she need to be. Imagery is also integral to the way in which a writer or filmmaker tells a great suspense story. The definition of imagery is visually descriptive or figurative language; imagery brings words or film narrative to life for the viewer or reader. A writer must use word choice masterfully to bring the words to life off of the page. The filmmaker, on the other hand, has a myriad of ways to do so with the use of cinematography, mise-en-scene, editing, and sound. After all, films are images and imagery.

When text and narrative are part of a film, there are some of the same elements at play but also elements that are unique to filmmaking. These elements can be broken down into five categories. First, there is the narrative itself. Like the narrative of a written work the narrative in a film is what the movie is about; the events of the story, the characters, and the world in which the narrative takes place. Cinematography, on the other hand, is unique to film and is dependent on photography. The cinematography adds to and enhances the narrative through how the camera is controlled. One can think of the cinematography as “writing in movement”, creating that all important element of filmmaking, the movement. Mise-en-scene is a third component of the formal elements of film and includes basically everything that appears in a frame. This includes the sets, locations, actors, props, costumes, light and shadows. Also unique to the film is editing, the use of time and continuity as the tools in presenting the narrative. How long a shot lasts, fade outs and fade ins, and how the separate takes of film are cut are all critical to the creation of suspense in film. Finally, the use of sound in film is crucial to the building of suspense. Dialogue, sound effects and music are all thoughtfully woven into the great suspense films.

Poe uses the literary elements in masterful ways in his masterpiece of suspense, the short story The Tell Tale Heart. A discussion of any of Poe’s works requires some knowledge of Poe’s life story and the peculiar and often sad events of it. Poe has become a symbol himself, representing darkness, dreams and death. But the truth of Poe as a man lies somewhere in between and each of his works reveals something of the man. The Tell Tale Heart makes use of the first person point of view, an effective tool for creating suspense in a narrative, with a narrator who himself is insane, or “mad”, a fact that he tries to convince his audience of in vain. He doesn’t describe himself as mad but “very, very dreadfully nervous”, hinting at his own instability making him and the entire atmosphere, or mood, of the story dangerous and suspenseful. The reader is unsure of what he might do next as the rules of logic do not apply here. The reader or audience cannot be sure of what is real and what is not; a suspense inducing quality of the story. Poe paces his story with a specific timing of events that also help to build suspense. For instance, the narrator goes into the old man’s room each night to shine a lantern light in on him as he sleeps, ultimately killing the innocent old man in a violent manner because of his cataract riddled eye, or as he calls it the “vulture eye”, thus creating tension and suspense in the reader. When the police arrive prior to the climactic final scene, the tension is momentarily lessened as we feel that the narrator might get away. However, ultimately, tension builds again when the narrator invites the police to stay for tea, asking them to sit directly above the floorboards where the old man’s mutilated body parts lie, a gesture reminiscent of the ultimately arrogant psychopath. The way in which Poe sets the scene is also a major factor in the build-up of suspense and tension for the reader. The story takes place at night, thereby emphasizing the narrator’s dark nature and the entire tense, unstable mood of the story. Finally, Poe’s use of descriptive vernacular helps drive the suspense in the story. “All in vain; because Death, in approaching him, had stalked with his black shadow before him, and enveloped the victim.” states our narrator, as he himself envelopes us in his own menacing mood and tone. We the reader have been lead down an unknown path by an insane psychotic but have learned a little something about the tricks that our minds, whether sane or insane, can play on us when we are guilty of something. Poe’s use of mood, tone, imagery, and point of view especially have created an enjoyable anxiety within us and created a suspenseful story that we will never forget.

A writer creates suspense through the use of their word choice and imagery, the narrator’s point of view, settings and time sequences, as well as the pacing of the story. The filmmaker uses all of these along with cinematography, sound, and movement to help bring a story or narrative to life. In a film, suspense is when a spectator’s tension reaches its highest level. Altan Loker eloquently describes film suspense as “bipolar tension-the state of holding energy in a form ready to execute two opposite actions, each of which is blocking the other’s way and involving guilt, free-floating anxiety and also specific fears caused by attachment of anxiety to particular objects and events on screen.”⁴ Hitchcock himself has pointed out that manipulating the range of narration in film helps to build suspense. In an interview with Francois Truffaut he stated: “We are now having a very innocent little chat. Let us suppose that there is a bomb underneath this table between us. Nothing happens, and then all of a sudden, “Boom!” There is an explosion. The public is surprised, but prior to this surprise, it has seen an absolutely ordinary scene, of no special consequence. Now let us take a suspense situation. The bomb is underneath the table and the public knows it, probably because they have seen the anarchist place it there. The public is aware that the bomb is going to explode at one o’clock and there is a clock in the decor. The public can see that it is a quarter to one. In these conditions this innocuous conversation becomes fascinating because the public is participating in the scene. The audience is longing to warn the characters on the screen: ‘You shouldn’t be talking about such trivial matters. there’s a bomb beneath you and it’s about to explode!’”⁵ This somewhat wordy quote gives us a more clear idea of Hitchcock’s genius with suspense.

The building of suspense in film is similar to literary works in that the creator can allow the reader or viewer in on what is going on to create the suspense, causing anticipation from the superior range of knowledge given to the audience. Conversely, Hitchcock as a filmmaker is also able to manipulate the narration through the depth of the spectator’s knowledge. Here is where the narration may go deeply into the character’s psychological states, as Hitchcock does so often in his films. The plot may only show us what the characters themselves actually say and do. Or it may be that the filmmaker takes a more subjective approach and allows us in on what the characters’ see and hear. This second choice is more apt to build suspense as we are drawn into the story as participants as well as spectators, especially with the use of specific film techniques like the tweaking of sound, motion, and point of view shots.⁶ By controlling the way in which information is released to the audience, the actual suppression of the narrative can disrupt the narrative causing a manipulation and distortion, or suspense. Hitchcock is a master at this as he builds up suspense in sections which are dependent on a variety of different complications.⁷

All of this can be seen or “read” in Hitchcock’s masterpiece of suspense, Strangers on a Train, through looking at the five formal elements of film above. Not only are we in on what the characters are seeing and feeling, but Hitchcock’s artful use of cinematography controls and manipulates the viewer. It is also a perfect example of Hitchcock’s extreme formalism as he has controlled each and every frame; his penchant for completely designing all of his own story boards is quite evident here. This is apparent right away in the opening segment as the spectator sees a train station and two very different pairs of feet walking opposite directions.. We see immediately from the style of shoes that these men are very different, almost opposites, with the feet belonging to Bruno Anthony encased in two toned stylish shoes and the other more rugged shoes belonging to the athlete Guy Haines. When their feet accidentally bump on the train, actually crisscrossing, we are well into the primary theme of the film, that of doubles and crossing, and are finally given privy to seeing the full characters of Bruno and Guy. It continues as the scene cuts to a view of the railroad tracks ahead, crisscrossing and going in opposite directions. We also witness Bruno order drinks for the two, doubles of course. There are certainly plenty of reasons for us, the audience, to suspect some sort of duplicity and double cross in the future. After Bruno has suggested the perfect murder plan to Guy in which they will each kill the other one’s burdensome relation, Guy rebuffs Bruno’s plan and leaves the train, inadvertently leaving behind his lighter that is decorated with a pair of tennis rackets that are crossed. This clearly foreshadows events to come of which we are uncertain. And as the narrative unfolds we will view the events through both Bruno and Guy as different focalized points of view will switch between them. These different perceptions of point of view seem to create interest and even sympathy with the two characters, one a murderer, one possibly complicit in some way.

The camera is instrumental in so much of a film’s narrative, and no less so than in Strangers on a Train. We are introduced to Guy’s estranged wife, Miriam, who wears thick lensed glasses, glasses that will be a prominent part of the suspense of the story. Miriam is ultimately followed to an amusement park at night by Bruno and stalked through a tunnel of love, replete with darkly ominous shadows on the wall and the sound of Miriam’s screams right before she emerges healthy and fine from the tunnel. This scene takes the reader on a bit of a roller coaster ride, appropriate for an amusement park setting, as we are tricked into thinking Miriam is killed in the tunnel. The dark shadows, the ever present cacophony of carnival music and sounds, and Miriam’s screaming have intensified our anxiety for her and Bruno. Soon after she emerges, Bruno is upon her. With the use of the camera lens, we are allowed to view Miriam’s own murder in a stunning point of view shot. We are privy to Bruno strangling Miriam, through at first a close up of Miriam looking at us as Bruno. We then find ourselves looking through her very own glasses, which have been knocked to the ground and turned up towards the murderer as Bruno strangles her closer to us through the lens. Not only is this chilling, but Hitchcock has used purely visuals and sound to convey the horror of this scene. Similar glasses will reappear later on Guy’s future sister in law, causing Bruno to fixate on the glasses, becoming drawn in closer to the lenses through some camera close ups, and ultimately going into a trance, strangling a party guest almost to death.

One of the scenes that exemplifies the creation of mood in a suspense film is when Bruno waits across the street for Guy to return home. He is standing in the darkness, half hidden by shadows and behind the iron grill fence, the shadows creating bars across his face. Guy goes over to him and his face is also covered by the bars. The dark and sinister atmosphere increases the anxiety for the viewer and makes clear that the men are complicit-the bars, or prison bars, symbolize the idea that these men are linked by the one perpetrating a murder and the other reaping the benefits from it.

We see the theme of the crisscross again during the first tennis match scene. We, the viewers, witness an audience at a tennis match in which every person is turning their heads back and forth along with the tennis ball-except for Bruno, who sits in the center of the crowd and is staring deadpan only at Guy. It is a very unnerving scene with only the sound of the ball hitting the ground with each play and the motion of the heads going back and forth with the sound. This is another great example of the power of movement and sound in film, elements not possible in written text. Another type of movement is used in the scene in which Bruno is the sole person standing off in the distance, completely alone on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial, again staring straight at guy. The movement this time comes from Guy’s car as it is driving past the monument while Bruno stands still, his gaze directly following Guy’s car. Much like at the tennis match, the movement is around Bruno, making him that much more threatening. He is an ominous dark spec against the massive white memorial structure and the juxtaposition here enhances the fear and tension of the viewer.

The use of editing, in this case parallel editing, and how it creates suspense, are on full display in the scene of the second tennis match, one in which Guy has his mind on retrieving his lighter, recognizing that Bruno intends to bring it back to the place where he murdered Miriam in order to frame Guy for her murder. Guy is clearly agitated during this match as the camera begins to film him using long shots to capture the pounding of the rackets and balls. The scene then switches to a taut scene in which Bruno accidentally drops the lighter into a sewer grate on his way from the arena to leave the lighter at the site of the crime. Guy has seen Bruno leave and is tense and panicked, anxious to finish the match. Meanwhile Bruno makes numerous attempts to retrieve the lighter by sticking his hand and arm down into the grate. We see the lighter fall even deeper and are vicariously drawn into Bruno’s dilemma as he must stretch further and further as it looks more and more like an impossible task. At last he retrieves it and makes off at the same time as Guy finally finishes the match, the entire time with the two types of editing switching back and forth, or crisscrossing. The tennis match has gone from long shots that were shorter each time, switching back and forth to the scene in which Bruno is determinedly trying to retrieve the lighter, where the camera is getting closer and closer to the hand in the grate. The audience is holding their collective breath as Bruno attempts over and over again to retrieve it. This incredible example of parallel editing creates the tension that is so necessary for suspense to occur. The pace is ever increasing in this scene, a narrative sequence ripe for suspense.

The final scene returns us back to the same amusement park setting as the murder of Miriam, this time with Bruno racing to get the lighter onto the Tunnel of Love island for the police to find and with Guy in hot pursuit. The music is loud and carnival like, there are brightly lit rides and throngs of people as they race through the scene, ending up on a merry go round full of adults and children. They fight violently among the riders, causing a policeman to shoot at them, accidentally killing the man running the ride, causing his dead weight to lean onto the handle that controls the speed of the ride, increasing the speed to its maximum, most dangerous speed. Amid the screams of people on the ride, as well as onlookers, Bruno and Guy continue fighting, with the camera shots going in closer and closer mixed with far away shots of the wildly careening merry go round, until the ride destroys itself and Bruno dies with the lighter clutched in his hand. The lighter with the crisscrossed tennis racquets, a symbol for Bruno and Guy’s crossed paths and their double nature, has also been at the core of the building of suspense. A simple object that when used in the capable hands of Hitchcock is critical to our suspense filled ride.

Hitchcock admitted that Poe was indeed a factor in his love of and interest in the suspense genre. He maintained that the origins of his desire to make suspense films was directly linked to his experiences with reading Poe’s works and reading about Poe himself. With Poe he discovered lessons about how an audience responds to terror and the fact that there was a joy in experiencing fear and anxiety while safe and sound. While learning how to create and sustain narrative suspense, he learned from Poe to focus an audience’s attention on a certain object, such as the vulture eye in Tell Tale Heart and the lighter in Strangers on a Train. Poe and Hitchcock’s mutual interest in all things irrational provided subject matter that further created audience unease and provided infinite possibilities for the creation of suspense in their narratives. It is clear after reading Poe’s works and viewing Hitchcock’s films that both men understood that people were in general motivated by irrational obsessions and guilt. Poe called these impulses “imps of the perverse”. The fact that both led lives that were full of self-demons and were tormented in some way is one reason why Hitchcock looked so closely at Poe’s works. He maintained that the sadness of Poe’s life made a tremendous impression on him and he felt that both were prisoners of suspense in a way.

There are differences of course between the two. Poe used logic and the intelligence of often mad narrators to unsettle our serenity. Hitchcock took this a step further into even more dangerous territory by tricking us into actually rooting for the criminally insane. In effect, Hitchcock forces us to actually question our own character and sanity. In a perfect world, these two would meet and thrill each other with their creativity and ideas. Alas, it is probably for the best. The whole idea is just too terrifying...literally!