The research path I followed is the following:

Reading or watching the material regarding suspense techniques in Hitchcock’s films so that I could identify a common threat that I could investigate into since writing the critical report on suspense techniques in Hitchcock films in general it would have been dispersive. In fact I decided after completed a few readings that I would get into detail of if the suspense felt by the audience is the same felt by the characters of his narratives.

Article: Toward a theory of audience response to suspenseful films

This article took an interesting take on the reason of how we can scared as an audience and why after so many film and the rewatch of those films they still manage to make us sit on the edge of our seat also mentioning Hitchcock’s works as masterpiece of achieving cinematographic suspense. In his article, Martin f. Norden analyses the issue from A psychological point of view and how as humans we are actually searching for scary situations to release build-up tensions. He also refers to the phenomenon of “catharsis” which deals with purgation of emotion (pity and fear) through art resulting in renewal. But the most fascinating aspect it can be found in statement referenced in the article “Stress… makes man more similar to lower animals” which makes us all on the same level and leads to a suppression of analytical and critical skills which makes us vulnerable and easy to manipulate for the spectator since we are more receptive to visual and auditive cues: this can also answer the question on why we still feel suspense for a scene already watched of the techniques of suspense with which us, as audience should be acquainted to.

Hitchcock Suspense, Humour and Tone

Susan Smith in her book analyses thoroughly the role of suspense in Hitchcock films, and it was one of the sources I used the most within the critical report and it also had few common threads with other sources I found. The feature which helped me the most is that the three elements (Suspense-on which I have focused-, Humour and Tone) where analysed also from a viewer point of view which was essential for me in order to better understand the suspense felt by the latter and that felt by the character protagonists of Hitchcock’s narratives. I also found a detailed descriptions of different types of suspense which Hitchcock employs: these modes are used in a non-exclusive way and each concur for its part to generate suspense. Throughout her analysis, Susan Smith, refers to many other critics and cinematographers offering a wide and comprehensive view over the most important elements that create suspense in Hitchcock’s films.

Interview with the Master of suspense & psychological thriller genres 1973 “tomorrow show on nbc”

Hitchcock on the Dick Caveat show (1972)

While researching I also referred to footages of interviews with the director that helped me to frame the director’s view about the techniques he employs.

Film and Suspense by Altan Loker-

Loker analyses how the audience gets involved with a story, when and how it happens, since there has to be some realistic elements which contributes in creating a story on a side for every spectator.

According to the author point of view a good film has to give to the spectator the impression to be the witness of the events represented: the audience has to wish that the situations showed in the movies were real, though these process belongs to the story of each spectator and therefore it cannot be the only element to build a solid fiction. Moreover according to Altan Loker the feeling of reality can be an obstacle to obtain the audience satisfaction when looking at the film, especially when dangerous or frightening situations are shown. Loker concludes that this is the main reason why it is quite easy to please the audience while it is quite difficult to obtain their consent while representing dangerous or fearful moments.

The book also analyses the implications of Freud’s theories on Hitchcock suspense techniques, though of course, the father of modern psychoanalysis never became aware of the use of his studies in drama. On the contrary Hitchcock has made a large use of such studies, that he well known, in his works, because he well understood that the mechanism of the human mind revealed by Freud could help him in obtaining the feelings he wanted to evoke in his audience. Some Hitchcock movies as Psycho and The Birds are indicated in the book as the clear examples of his fascination for Freud’s studies.

Hitchcock a definitive study by Truffaut

This is one of the longest interviews Hitchcock ever released by another famous director François Truffaut.It is a very informative and entertaining introduction to Hitchcock’s works offering interesting insights on his films, his life and it also mentioned suspense. I thought I could use as a source fro my critical report since I have read other books regarding the subjects and from the references I was curious and interested in reading it myself.

Chapter from Camera Obscura, Camera Lucida: Essays in Honor of Annette Michelson “Hitchcock and Narrative Suspense”

The chapter regards Hitchcock suspense and how it develops in his narratives. It arrives to the conclusion that Hitchcock works of suspense are defined by the inversion of moral co-ordinates which are what is desirable to happen but less likely and what is undesirable but more likely to happen. In this inversion of moral-coordinates characters commonly defined “bad” end up being accepted by the viewer who feels complicity for them if not sympathy, and the occurrence of situations that would normally appear undesirable are judged as more likely. It also analyses the two different aesthetics defined by Hitchcock himself: the first one being the pure suspense situation where the audience knows elements of which the characters are not aware and the elements of the narrative are organised in a way that those probabilities mentioned before tend to intensify the likelihood of the undesirable outcome where there is a higher manipulation of the audience. the second one, the subjective or impure suspense situation, is characterised by the alignment to the psychology of a character rather that being privileged as audience with further information and there is no calculus about the narrative outcome.

Neurocinematic study of the suspense effects in Hitchcock’s Psycho

I felt that since suspense can be felt by every viewer there must be some studio conducted in order to explain near cognitive brain mechanisms behind the suspense effect employed by Hitchcock are watched.The scientific study I have found concerns Neurocinematics, which focuses on movie research from an empirical perspective, adopting functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and other cognitive neuroscience technologies as well as theoretical methods. The experiment aimed to detect audiences brain activity when watching movies and verify the manipulative power of narrative film. The scientist observed brain activity watching the sequences of Psycho and a non-narrative scene form the entrance of the Beijing university to compare the two activities of the cognitive brain while watching them. What was found is that the average brain activity of the subjects was influenced by the content of the film, activity in the visual and auditory brain regions was also influenced by the characteristics of the visual and the soundtrack designs. The audience’s brain cognitive activities were found to be particularly active during dissonant music, critical visual information and camera close-ups (rather than framing wide scenes).

After I gathered a few information which I could analyse in my critical report I decided to create a conceptual map with interesting notes and quotes I could work with and find a common thread with some of the sources I have found. To create the map I have used pallet: https://padlet.com/capriomarianna99/kjphad07odi3nke2

Films

While researching I rewatched and watched for the first time the Director’s work since many sources I have found referenced to some scene to explain the suspense techniques he employed with concrete examples. To Catch a Thief, Murder!, Notorious, North By Northwest, Psycho, Rear Window, Rebecca, Sabotage and Vertigo this a list of the films I have watched in order to get a better perception on Hitchcock’s suspense.