Hitchcock Essay

[Louisa]

Hey everybody I'm new. I'm Louisa, I'm 20 and im currently doing a B.A. Film and Media degree.
I have an essay due in next week entitled:

"Evaluate the debate concerning whether Hitchcock's films are misogynist or feminist in their treatment of women. As well as referring to relevant theoretical and critical approaches, you must use examples from the films in support of your answer."

can anybody give me any help with this question in relation to The Lady Vanishes?? ive already looked at Rear Window and The Birds.

I also have a British Cinema module, and I have an essay due dealing with the masculine identity in British New Wave Cinema (Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and A Taste of Honey being the two I have to focus on.) If anybody could give me any help with this too I would be very very grateful!!

Louisa xx

[Gibbie]

Louisa,

Here is a University of Illinois college paper interview with Tippi Hedron on Hitchcock - it's up your subject's alley:
http://www.dailyillini.com/oct01/oct25/new...s_story03.shtml

Regards,

Gibbie

[MissGossage]

Was 'The Lady Vanishes' your choice or your lecturer's? Because I'd say 'The 39 Steps' offers rather more food for thought in that particular department when it comes to British Hitchcock, what with its handcuffed blonde.

[Steve Crook]

I'd also be interested to see a comparison of the portrayal (and treatment) of women in Hitchcock films and the films of Powell & Pressburger. P&P often seemed to give very strong roles to women.

[MissGossage]

This was rather more widespread in the 1940s than just Powell & Pressburger films (though I basically agree with you) - the Gainsborough melodramas also had very strong female roles.

That said, this was more down to plain common sense on the part of the studios, as the wartime audience was both enormous (1943-46 saw the highest number of cinema admissions in British film history) and largely female - and not just that, but female and surprisingly independent, as the women were working in factories while their menfolk were fighting the war. So there was a definite market at that time for films with strong female protagonists, and I'm sure Powell and Pressburger were well aware of this.

[Louisa]

It was the lecturers choice. She gave us 6 hitchcock films: Rear Window, The Birds, Sabotage, The Lady Vanishes, The Man Who Knew Too Much and Vertigo, and 3 seperate questions. The other 2 questions wern;t as interesting as this one.

By the way my lecturer wrote a book on Hitchcock called something like Hitchcock and Suspense or something like that. Her name is Susan Smith. She is annoying. lol We did Hitchcock in all her modules she taught in first year aswell.

[the question]

strangers on a train is a good hitchcock film i viewed it at the outset of my film studies elective.

[Steve Crook]

</div><div class='quotemain'>Louisa: By the way my lecturer wrote a book on Hitchcock called something like Hitchcock and Suspense or something like that. Her name is Susan Smith. She is annoying. lol We did Hitchcock in all her modules she taught in first year aswell. [/b]

Well you'll have to include a few good quotes from some other books on Hitchcock then :) "Hitch: The Life and Times of Alfred Hitchcock" by John Russell Taylor is one very good one.

[Carterh]

You may also want to look at 'The Art of Alfred Hitchcock' and 'The Dark Side of Genius' both by Donald Spoto. Screenwriter and novelist Evan Hunter recently produced a fasinating, if breif, account of working with Hitch on 'The Birds' titled 'Me and Hitch'. Truffaut book length Hitchock interview also contains some interesting insights .


C