Hitchcock's Narrative Strategies

SUSPENSE: GENERAL OVERVIEW

Hitchcock’s genius was not simply his ability to create suspense, but his ability to allow the viewer to share suspense with a character. This very much relates to how his films fundamentally function; we are made to relate to characters, identify with them in order to experience suspense on their behalf. At the same time, we are often privileged with knowledge that the character is not privy to; thereby creating a sense of self-consciousness that positions us (as audience) outside of that narrative world. Hitchcock pulls us into the story and then makes us aware of the artificial framework of that story. While a film like ‘Sabotage’ definitely makes us feel a sense of anticipation and unsureness (dictionary definition suspense), it is at the same time a film ABOUT suspense as a narrative strategy. Hitchcock’s films show us that a final form can subtly reveal the methodology functioning behind the work, without letting that methodology strangle or deaden the visual form. This reminds me of Peter Greenaway’s comment that while he builds his films systematically, he does not want them to be perceived systematically. How, in my own work, can I work with a generative methodology that doesn’t overcome the final visual piece?


SUSPENSE: AND STRUCTURE

As Ian Cameron observes with regard to ‘The Man Who Knew Too Much’, “Hitchcock has realized that suspense cannot be produced in an instant, but must be built up carefully. We are ensnared gradually via curiosity, suspicion, apprehension and worry.” (Hitchcock; Suspense, Humour and Tone; p.26)

There are some fascinating precedents to learn from in looking at how Hitchcock used suspense to structure film narrative. In building my own sequences (both in a book and as motion sequences) – it would be helpful to understand conventions of building suspense in a visual sequence. What can I take from filmic narrative structure and use in my own visual sequences to amplify the textual content of my own narratives?

Hitchcock and Mise en-scene

As I approach narrative strategies in my own graphic design, the films of Hitchcock constantly come to mind. It is particularly Hitchcock’s use of mise en-scene within the fictional worlds of his films that could be useful for analysis. Susan Smith writes about the important role of mise en-scene in “…the overall spatial system of a film- how it organizes, segments and presents the various settings of its narrative world – is crucial in orientating the viewer’s attitudinal (not just literal) perspective.” (Hitchcock; Suspense, Humour and Tone; p.76)

First, why is it useful to my graphic design work to look at how Hitchcock used suspense, humour and tone in his films. The answer; my thesis enquiry is about how narrative strategies can generate graphic design and vice versa. Specifically, I am looking at forms of fiction (such as detective) that use suspense as a way of controlling the audience’s path through a narrative flow of events. Suspense becomes then a part of the narrative process; essentially one that stalls that narrative process. It uses the structure of the film, the novel, the sequence; to conceal rather than simply reveal – in the service of making that sequence more compelling/engaging. Arguably, no-one did this better than Hitchcock.

The relationship between the formal/spatial structure of a narrative and the viewer’s perspective is completely central to “The Black Dahlia” project and my entire thesis enquiry. The ability of the designer to control the viewing frame (be it the frame of the page or the frame of the screen) in order to effect an audience’s reading of any given narrative, is the underlying focus of all my studies. Hitchcock is a fascinating case study in that he was a master of using point of view as a determinant of suspense – and to inject tonal qualities into a scene.

Breaking down how this was done – one observes a basic pattern of suspense in many of Hitchcock’s films. This allowed me to begin to consider what suspense really means in a film, and what it could potentially mean in a visual narrative I create. The dictionary definition only covers one aspects of suspense:

sus·pense n
1. the state or condition of being unsure or in doubt about something
2. a feeling of tense excitement about how something such as a mystery novel or movie will end.

This is perhaps the expected, recognizable definition, based more on the word as an emotion than the word as a state of being. Moving beyond cliché (or perhaps starting within cliché and moving away from it), I considered suspense as “ the condition of being physically suspended”. Over what does Hitchcock suspend his audience? With Hitchcock, the important point is that there is a suspension between two states. These are often point of view states – Hitchcock masterfully shifts from point of view to non-point of view structures within one scene – which is crucial in creating a sense of ambiguity and tensions. So too is the audience suspended between different narratorial strands; one suspense situation is pitted against another (in Rear Window). Audiences are shifted from experiencing local suspense storylines to a deeper meta-suspense underlying the film as a whole.















This makes me consider how this form of suspension might play out in my own project. In my book re-telling of “The Black Dahlia” I am working with the juxtaposition of narrative strands to heighten the suspense of the story. I am specifically using the conventions of the book (sequence created by frame of page, scale of type on the page, placement of type on the page) to heighten the suspense of the telling. This is an exercise in suspense; the pace of telling a story is controlled here both by the page, and how other voices within the story slow down the central narrative line. Having pages that deviate entirely from this main story is necessary, “…in slowing down the action almost to stopping point, they take to an extreme the waiting , delaying tactic on which all suspense depends….and consequently realize suspense’s potential ability to produce narrative stasis if the flow of information and the trajectory towards resolution are thwarted to an abnormal degree.” (p.34)