North by North West; The Perfect Thriller

                                              North by North West; The Perfect Thriller

Released; November 22 1959.

Director; Alfred Hitchcock.

Screenplay; Ernest Lehman.

Trailer; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk0GbTMMbP0

Summary; An innocent New York advertising executive is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies and is pursued across the country finding a way to survive.

James Mason

                 

Cary Grant

Eva Marie Saint

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                                                Hitchcock's working methods;


In this movie, every scene was planned visually in order to help with the set out of the movie. Before shooting scenes in the movie, Hitchcock would have learned all the dialogue and rarely needed to look at the script just like a conductor conducting an orchestra without a score. When Hitchcock was directing, he never looked at the camera, he would always imagine as if he was looking at a screen in a cinema.

Thrillers are characterised by fast pacing and frequent action. an example of this in the movie id the drunk driving scene.

- Drunk Driving Scene " https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlY5kaZC2N0 "

Thrillers have resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more powerful and better equipped villains. I think this is true for this movie as James Mason acts as the bad guy/villain and Cary Grant had to thwart his plans and survive.

                                            Hitchcock's Two Clever Techniques

Setting was important for Hitchcock. Mount Rushmore is a symbol of order but Hitchcock sets a scene of disorder in that setting.
Hitchcock said that that the audiences need relief from suspense and a change of pace, so he would add a few scenes with humour to give the audience a laugh.

                                                                                                                                                                   

"A thriller is a villain driven plot whereby he presents obstacles the hero must overcome."

I think this is true in this film because the villain (James Mason) presents obstacle that the hero (Cary Grant) must overcome.

"THE MCGUFFIN"

The director said that the McGuffin is a plot device that causes the action to happen and this device usually comes at the beginning of the film and co=an sometimes return at the end of the film and in this film, the device is the Microfilm. In some cases the audience don't really care about this device that is used.