Film Genres of Alfred Hitchcock
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. Alfred Hitchcock is equally adept at the Gothic and Melodramatic genres and shows this in Rebecca (1940) and Marnie (1964) as respective representatives of these genres. There are a number of elements common to each of these films, though the emphasis given the different elements and some of the details differ and identify the films with different genres as a result. In both films, the primary character is a woman who becomes involved in a romantic relationship. Each of these women is ultimately bound to the past, a past which interferes with the present and which makes a meaningful relationship nearly impossible until the holdovers from that past are resolved. The nature of the past that affects the present is different, however. in Rebecca, the past is represented in a dead woman who effectively--though not literally--"haunts" the house where the husband brings his new wife. Maxim de Winter was once married to Rebecca, and her presence is still felt throughout the house where they lived together, a presence reinforced by her clothes, her room, and her portrait. The new wife--a woman set apart from everyone else by the fact that neither the novel nor the film gives her a name, though the whole story is seen through her eyes--feels this presence most acutely. She also believes that Max loved Rebecca so much that he cannot escape from her memory, making the role of new wife especially difficult. This turns out not to be the case, but the new wife believes it and
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and female is much more important to her health than is true in Rebecca, where health comes from escaping a dead woman rater than a specific trauma as is true for Marnie. The differences are subtle in many respects, for the similarities are strong in that each couple tries to escape a memory affecting one of them, but the tone of the two films is very different.
2. The opening sequence in Rebecca and the opening sequence in Marnie have certain similarities showing that they were both directed by the same man and that there are other features the films have in common. At the same time, the tone is different in each film from the first, setting them apart as examples of the Gothic and the domestic Melodrama, respectively. The most obvious difference from the first is that Rebecca is in black and white and Marnie in color, and Hitchcock makes strong use of the tonal values and other characteristics of each to set his mood and provide the viewer with important information.
Both films begin with lengthy tracking shots. Rebecca is narrated by the central character, the new wife, while Marnie unfolds without external narration and without allowing the viewer inside the head of the main character, Marnie. The distinction is imp
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1699
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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