Exam 1
October 20, 2008

Part I. Below are ten descriptions of people. For each of the ten, write the name from the list below that best matches the description. (Last name is acceptable.) Do not use any name more than once, and note that there are more names than descriptions.

1. Likely source for Lisa’s profession in Rear Window
2. Likely source for Jeff’s profession in Rear Window
3. Wore “cassock” in Hitchcock movie
4. Designed “New Look” in Rear Window
5. Shares name with key character in I Confess
6. Hitchcock wanted Thorwald to resemble this person
7. Author of the play Our Town
8. Played lead role in Our Town on Broadway
9. Cast member of Rear Window who made the highest salary
10. Cast by Hitchcock after being seen in a television commercial
Robert Capa
Montgomery Clift
Anita Colby
Daphne du Maurier
Edith Head
Tippi Hedren

Alma Reville
Thelma Ritter
David O. Selznick
James Stewart
Thornton Wilder
Theresa Wright
Part II. Choose EIGHT of the following ten quotations. For each quotation, give: the movie and who is speaking. (You can abbreviate the name but be sure it’s clear. For the speaker, name or describe actor or character.)
Example: “It’s the end of the world!” Answer: drunk in the restaurant in Birds.

1. “At night you sleep your untroubled ordinary little sleep filled with peaceful stupid dreams. And I brought you nightmares. Or did I? Or was it a silly inexpert little lie? You live in a dream.”

2. “You have no friends. What has happened to your friends? . . . It would be better if you were as guilty as I. Then they would shoot you quickly, and you mustn’t suffer much. . . . Oh! . . . Help me! Quickly!

3. “You don’t know the meaning of the word ‘neighbors.’ Neighbors like each other, speak to each other, care about each other. But none of you do.”

4. “They said when you got here the whole thing started. Who are you? What are you? Where did you come from? I think you’re the cause of all this. I think you’re evil! Evil!”

5. “Whose is it? Ain’t it beautiful. I’d just die for a ring like that. Yes sir, for a ring like that I’d just about die.”

6. “Santa Rosa has gained and lost a son, a son that she can be proud of. Brave, generous, kindly. . . . No true love ever dies. . . . So the memory of our loved ones, the beauty of their souls, the sweetness of their characters, live on with us forever.”

7. “Men, are you over 40? When you wake up in the morning, do you feel tired and run down? Do you have that listless feeling?”

8. “Sam, three southern fried chicken, baked potato on all of them.”

9. “This is Alfred Hitchcock speaking. In the past, I have given you many kinds of suspense pictures. But this time I would like you to see a different one. The difference lies in the fact that this is a true story, every word of it. And yet it contains elements that are stranger than all the fiction. . . .“

10. “That feminine intuition stuff sells magazines, but in real life it’s still a fairy tale.”


Part III. Choose THREE of the following five. For each choice, write a full paragraph in which you discuss the critical concept in italics by identifying specifics in Hitchcock’s presentation, particularly his visual presentation.

A. The opening of Shadow of a Doubt, after the credits but before any dialogue is heard, in relation to the Doppelganger theme.

B. Father Logan’s silent walk through the city prior to turning himself in, in relation to themes of moral choice and religious duty.

C. The initial presentation of Grace Kelly as Lisa , including her early dialogue, in relation to the concept of “the gaze.”

D. Point of view and subjective camera in Rear Window, in relation to disagreement among feminists over women’s access to these things.

E. Aspects of the treatment of Lisa Fremont AND of Melanie Daniels that have been interpreted as “sadistic voyeurism.”


Part IV. Choose EIGHT of the following ten questions, and answer each briefly. Each can be answered in a few words or a sentence; do not waste time providing information not asked for.

1. What was unusual about the filming technique Hitchcock used in Rope?

2. Michel Chion says that we see the “fourth wall” only briefly in Rear Window. What wall is he specifically referring to?

3. What argument did Hitchcock use to get the Production Code office to allow the ‘topless’ shot of Miss Torso?

4. Who was shown in the scene of Rear Window that Hitchcock shot but didn’t use? (Name or describe.)

5. What led Montgomery Clift to resist looking up when Hitchcock directed him to do this at a key moment?

6. Of the four main characters in The Birds (Melanie, Mitch, schoolteacher Annie, and the mother Lydia), which is the only one that has an equivalent in the short story on which the movie is based?

7. Give one important story element that was changed in the adaptation between Our Two Consciences and I Confess.

8. Two of our films have shots at the end using the iconography of the “Pieta.” Identify “Pieta” and specify the two films.

9. What particular approach or technique did Hitchcock learn from German cinema such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari? (One word answer.)

10. Interpretations of Rear Window have found contrasting gender/sexual symbols in the long camera lens (male symbol) vs. the _____________ (female symbol). Hitchcock also uses the female symbol in the first shot of Marnie. (One word answer.)


EXTRA CREDIT:

Give answers to any the items you did not choose in Parts II and IV. (Up to four extra-credit answers. Write those answers here at the end of your exam, not with the other answers from Parts II and IV.)