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Identity and Illusion in Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" Who are you? What is the source of your identity: (The magic words that make up your name? Your status as your parent's child? numbers in your teacher's mark-book? a particular position on a team:? the collection of all the roles you play? the sum total of all your personal relationships? what you do in a defining situation?) How to understand a work of art: What is the story about? A self-absorbed man, the chance victim of mistaken identity, with his life at stake, embraces an illusion and, in so doing, discovers his true identity. [25 words] How do you know that this is what it is about? "A self-absorbed man" · irresponsible, inconsiderate, steals a taxi, covers it with a lie · heavy drinker (comment by his friends) · dominated by his mother, divorcé with two failed marriages, a man who lives purely on the surface, refusing commitment or responsibility "the chance victim" · favourite Hitchcock theme: universe is a scary place; don't be complacent · Thornhill is not anybody in particular: it could happen to you · "Within ten minutes of the start of the film, the ground is cut away from under his/our feet." [Wood, p.101] "mistaken identity" · thought by enemy agents to be George Kaplan, a CIA agent · thought by the police to be the murderer of Lester Townsend, a UN diplomat · Thornhill searches for George Kaplan, believing that he can solve Thornhill's problems. But George Kaplan doesn't exist. Thornhill undergoes a genuine transformation of personality when he stops depending on others (his mother, Kaplan) to bail him out, and takes charge of his own life. "his life at stake": three attempts on Thornhill's life--loss of life being the ultimate loss of identity-- require him to develop resourcefulness and imagination and open him to care for someone other than himself. He learns to act as an intelligence agent, not an advertising executive, would act--but still inhabits a world of illusion. Three attempts: · arranged car accident · attack by an airplane · attack on Mount Rushmore "embraces an illusion" · there is no George Kaplan--fictitious decoy invented by the CIA · Eve Kendall is not a single woman tourist, nor Vandamm's mistress, but a double agent working for the CIA--but Thornhill falls in love with her · At Mount Rushmore, in order to save Eve, Thornhill adopts the role of Kaplan "in so doing" · starts with Thornhill's efforts to save his own life; ends with his willingness to risk his own in order to save Eve's · a long chase moving northwest q : beginning: North on Madison, Avenue, then west by taxi q New York to Chicago q in Chicago, North on Michigan Avenue, then west to the airport q Chicago to South Dakota (via Northwest Airlines!) q Cary Grant photographed mostly in the left of the frame, usually the upper left "discovers his true identity" · Thornhill at the end is not the same person he was at the beginning · implication that this marriage may do better than the two previous ones · biblical resonances: Eve, the temptress (Roger actually calls her this); Thornhill, "hill of thorns," a Christ-reference, the man who risks his own life for another; Vandamm, "from the damned," the figure of evil. · Hitchcock makes us identify with Thornhill so that, in a sense, we also change our identities through the course of the film. We identify with Cary Grant because he's a star, but at the beginning he's not a pleasant person. By the end, our identification appeals to our best selves. · The three sections of the movie correspond to stages of Thornhill's involvement with Eve: q unattached q involvement with Eve on train q after Thornhill learns the truth about Eve, he voluntarily accepts the role of Kaplan Identity and Illusion Through Images · Camera angle: elevated shots to indicate danger (fleeing United Nations, plan to kill Eve: "This matter is best disposed of from a great height--over water.") Recurring motif for immanent danger · Point of View shots: helps to implicate audience--we identify with Thornhill (e.g., drunken auto ride; plane attack; humorous use with punch by park ranger) · Frame composition: Thornhill between two thugs; Thornhill, disguised as a redcap, amid a sea of redcaps; Thornhill at the far edge of the frame in the crop-dusting sequence. In film, unlike theatre, you only get to see what the director lets you see, so an important question at every moment is: what is the director allowing us to see, how are we seeing it, why this choice of frame, shot and angle? Scene-by-Scene Analysis New York City Section Clip 1 [0-2:12] Credit Sequence. Interplay of vertical lines, representing the skyscrapers of Manhattan and anticipating the precipitous heights of Mount Rushmore. "Names fall up and down the side of a Manhattan skyscraper prefiguring the final clinging and falling from the steep rocks." [Spoto, p.353] Hitchcock's signature appearance: a bus door slams in his face just as we see the words "Directed by"--Hitchcock, like our hero, has less than expected control over his environment. Clip 2 [2:12-3:33] First portrayal of Thornhill, emerging from an elevator: dictating to his secretary, commandeering a taxi, a man in charge, a man of power. (And not a particularly pleasant person.) Clip 3 [4:37:6:37] Thornhill re-enters the Plaza Hotel, joins his companions. Described as a heavy drinker. He rises to telephone his mother just as the name of "George Kaplan" is being paged. The beginning of the mistaken identity is established and Roger Thornhill's world is about to come apart. The scene ends with Thornhill, formerly the man of power, firmly entrapped between two thugs. Clip 4 [9:22-11:38] Roger meets Vandamm. (Vandamm has taken on the identity of Leslie Townsend. Note the lighting and cinematography tricks as Vandamm enters and "interrogates" Thornhill--closes curtains, stands in light: sinister--violates the norm of high-key, three point lighting; high-angle shots of Thornhill, low-angle shots of thugs, "stalking" movement as Vandamm and Thornhill each trace a complete circle) Clip 5 [14:24-17:39] Roger is forced to become drunk, escapes from arranged accident. (Roger sees double. Many POV shots. Characteristic of Hitchcock's manipulation of the spectator's perspective and identification with the hero during moments of danger.) Clip 6 [32:20-34:12] Roger learns that George Kaplan is staying at the Plaza Hotel, and counts on Kaplan to clear up the misunderstanding. He searches Kaplan's room, with the assistance of his mother, when the telephone rings, and he learns that Vandamm's henchmen are back on his trail. He finds himself trapped in an elevator with his pursuers. A true Hitchcock moment: you are about to die and your own mother is laughing. Note composition of frame: everyone is laughing except Thornhill. Clip 7 [36:42-38:26] Roger goes to the United Nations, hoping that Lester Townsend, the owner of the mansion where Roger was held prisoner, can straighten out the mess. The real Lester Townsend is murdered. A flashbulb goes off: a camera image creates Thornhill's identity as a murderer. (A major theme in Hitchcock--the innocent man, wrongfully accused.) This is the second case of mistaken identity afflicting Thornhill. Note bird's eye shot of Roger fleeing: the self-confident advertising man has been reduced to an indistinguishable speck. Clip 8 [38:26-38:44] "United States Intelligence Agency" in Washington. The double dissolve tells us through images that: 1. time has elapsed 2. Thornhill has been identified 3. He has so far eluded capture The images convey both Thornhill's false identity (murderer) and his current true identity (fugitive). Inside the intelligence agency, the Professor explains that George Kaplan is just a fictitious decoy, intended to throw Vandamm off the track of their real agent. Roger Thornhill has conveniently given flesh and bones to the illusion, and if he dies along the way, that isn't their responsibility. The scene ends with the words, "Goodbye, Mr. Thornhill, wherever you are." The Twentieth-Century Limited Section Clip 9 [37:21-50:21] Roger boards a train to Chicago, George Kaplan's next intended destination. Eve Kendall helps him avoid police. Roger evades conductors. Roger and Eve meet again, apparently by chance in the dining car. They flirt. (Note the ROT matchbook. What does the O stand for? "Nothing." And in his life up to this point, there had been an emptiness in the middle of Thornhill's personality). Thornhill is a man whose life lacks significance, a "rootless man, always on the move, never seen in his own home." [Spoto, p.348] Clip 10 [54:57-57:28] Love scene in Eve's compartment. (Note impossible omniscient camera angles and the kiss. Instead of having the camera circle the lovers, as in Notorious, Hitchcock has the actors rotate along the wall.) Clip 11 [59:35-1:00:00] Porter delivers message to Vandamm and Leonard: "What do I do with him in the morning--Eve?" Impact on audience--For us, Eve's identity has changed. Chicago and Cornfield Section Clip 12 [1:00:13-1:02:48] Roger escapes in a sea of redcaps. High-angle shot--danger--will the authorities rushing into the crowd of redcaps locate Thornhill? Your eye is drawn to red among all the grey flannel.) Clip 13 [1:09:02:1:15:58] Ernest Lehman and Alfred Hitchcock spent a year composing the remarkably detailed screenplay for this film Eve has set Roger up to be killed, but Hitchcock wants to avoid the usual clichés of the genre. He tells interviewer/filmmaker François Truffaut: "I found I was faced with the old cliché situation: the man who is put on the spot, probably to be shot. Now, how is this usually done? A dark night at a narrow intersection of the city. The waiting victim standing in a pool of light under the street lamp. The cobbles are "washed with the recent rains." A close-up of a black cat slinking along against the wall of a house. A shot of a window, with a furtive face pulling back the curtain to look out. The slow approach of a black limousine, et cetera, et cetera. Now, what was the antithesis of a scene like this? No darkness, no pool of light, no mysterious figures in windows. Just nothing. Just bright sunshine and a blank, open countryside with barely a house or tree in which any lurking menaces could hide." [Truffaut, p.194] [Read quote from Lehmann screenplay, pp.100-107] Note the number of POV shots. Note the editing and composition: the earlier shots are longer and seem to contain "nothing". A deliberate attempt on Hitchcock's part to induce a state of relaxation and boredom in the viewer. In the climax, the shots come machinegun-like at an explosive pace. Clip 14 [1:26:36-1:28:42] Roger learns that Eve has gone to an art auction and follows her there, where he confronts Vandamm and Leonard, who are bidding on a pre-Columbian figure containing microfilm. VanDamm: "Has anyone ever told you that you overplay your various roles rather severely, Mr. Kaplan?" Identity. "Your next role will be playing dead." Later, Thornhill does play dead. Illusion. Trapped, Roger disrupts the auction by wild bidding, hoping to get arrested in order to escape Vandamm's henchmen. Police take him away as Professor is seen making call. (An improvised escape: another role, "acting the fool." Title of film comes from Hamlet, "I am mad north by northwest," i.e., only pretending.) Clip 15 [1:38:18-1:41:31] At the airport scene, the Professor fills Roger in: Kaplan doesn't exist, and Eve is a CIA agent. (Note how Hitchcock covers the Professor's explanation with airplane sound. We already know what he's telling Thornhill.) Rapid City Section Clip 16 [1:44:43-1:46:45] Mt. Rushmore cafeteria scene. Roger finally embraces the role of Kaplan, after spending the entire movie avoiding this identity. Eve's "murder" of Roger is staged. Forest meeting scene. Note composition: Thornhill and Eve on opposite sides of screen--echo of prairie stop. "For the first time in the film we are among trees, cool calm sunlight and shade--an apt setting for a new life." [Wood, p.108] Clip 17 [1:49:16-1:51:36] Roger, resurrected, learns from Eve and Professor that Eve is to fly off with Vandamm. Roger, furious, makes a little Cold-War-and-Nice-Girls speech and then is knocked out by a stunning POV shot. Clip 18 [1:59:10-2:02:13] Roger overhears and sees Leonard shoot Vandamm with Eve's gun full of blanks, proving she's a CIA agent. ("This matter is best disposed of from a great height--over water." Thematic use of high-angle shot.) Roger climbs into Eve's room; uses the ROT matchbook to warn her of her discovery. Leonard touches the matchbook. High angle shot. Eve about to board plane with Vandamm when we hear gunfire; Eve and Roger escape with microfilm. Clip 19 [2:13:18-2:15:53] Chase scene. Through forest, down Mt. Rushmore. Roger and Eve try to scramble down the rocks while Vandamm's henchmen try to kill them. Cliffhanger: Roger pulls Eve from cliffside into upper berth of train. "A final test of stamina, with everything staked on his powers of endurance and determination." [Wood, p.110] "Thornhill's long and arduous journey becomes a possible voyage toward self-discovery and toward love for another." [Spoto, p.350] I invite you to reflect once again on who you are, and encourage you to separate the "'real" you from the roles you play, so that even if you're compelled at once point or another to take on some part, you retain a sure sense of your own true identity. Resources Auler, Dan. North by Northwest: The Making of Hitchcock's Classic Thriller. St. Martin's Press, 2000. (never released) Bordwell, David and Kristin Thompson. Film Art: An Introduction. 2nd edition. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1986. Giannetti, Louis. Understanding Movies. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1982. Harris, Robert A. and Michael S. Lasky. The Films of Alfred Hitchcock. Seacaucus, N.J.: The Citadel Press, 1976. LaValley, Albert J., ed. Focus on Hitchcock. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, Inc. (1972). Lehman, Ernest. North by Northwest. (screenplay) [London] Faber and Faber [1999] Monaco, James. How to Read a Film. The Art, Technology, Language, History and Theory of Film and Media. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977. Naremore, James. North by Northwest. Rutgers University Press, 1993. (on order) North by Northwest Web-page: www.english.uiuc.edu/104/northwest Perspectives on Alfred Hitchcock. G. K. Hall, 1995 Rothman, Williams. Hitchcock: The Murderous Gaze. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982. Samuels, Charles Thomas. Mastering the Film and Other Essays. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1977. Spoto, Donald The Art of Alfred Hitchcock. (on order) Sterritt, David. The Films of Alfred Hitchcock. [London] Cambridge University Press. [1993] Truffaut, François. Hitchcock. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967. Williams, D. North by Northwest. Longman Publishing Group. 88 pp. Wood, Robin. Hitchcock's Films. New York: A. S. Barnes, 1969. Wood, Robin. Hitchcock's Films Revisited. Columbia University Press, 1990 |
