Norman Bates
Alfred Hitchcock is, as many know, one of the most important and influential filmmakers of all time. Utilizing techniques that were revolutionary, and themes that were controversial, Hitchcock captivated audiences like no other director of his time. One of the techniques he made famous, his use of the audience as a voyeur to the action on-screen, is part of what made his thrillers so haunting. Hitchcock used this technique to blur the line between the innocent and the guilty, as well as to put the audience in a position in which they became personally engaged with the characters of the film.
Psycho and Vertigo are two of Hitchcock’s most notable and recognized works, and they both contain excessive reference to voyeurism as a part of their success. Psycho opens with the camera panning across a cityscape and zooming in to a hotel room window, in which Marion Crane and Sam Loomis are seen partially undressed. Not only does the implication of their intercourse stand out as being quite sexualized for 1960, but this opening shot through the hotel window with the blinds closed three quarters of the way down also puts the audience in the role of the Peeping Tom. This causes discomfort amongst certain audience members, and quells feeling of guilt amongst those watching the film. Hitchcock is forcing us into this very personal space that the characters occupy, and in doing so he stirs increasing interest in the story, as well as a pressure in viewers to somehow alleviate the guilt of peeping as the film progresses.
Psycho and Vertigo are two of Hitchcock’s most notable and recognized works, and they both contain excessive reference to voyeurism as a part of their success. Psycho opens with the camera panning across a cityscape and zooming in to a hotel room window, in which Marion Crane and Sam Loomis are seen partially undressed. Not only does the implication of their intercourse stand out as being quite sexualized for 1960, but this opening shot through the hotel window with the blinds closed three quarters of the way down also puts the audience in the role of the Peeping Tom. This causes discomfort amongst certain audience members, and quells feeling of guilt amongst those watching the film. Hitchcock is forcing us into this very personal space that the characters occupy, and in doing so he stirs increasing interest in the story, as well as a pressure in viewers to somehow alleviate the guilt of peeping as the film progresses.
As Hitchcock’s quintessential masterpiece continues onwards, we are once again forced into the role of voyeur. This time, Marion is in her room at the Bates Motel, preparing to enter the shower. The camera focuses through a peephole crafted in the wall leading to Norman Bates’ room next door. This time, in seeing Marion in her bra about to enter the shower, we feel even more uneasy, as Hitchcock is now placing us in the viewpoint of the villain. This is a fantastic move at crafting tension, because we can see Marion through the eyes of a true peeping tom, and a sinister one at that. The audience of the film is lured into the psycho-sexual politics of voyeurism through this move, as we experience Marion’s personal time once again without her knowledge. Vertigo, another Hitchcock film heralded a masterpiece, also engages with the principle of voyeurism throughout its length, as well as acrophobia, depression, and possession.
With regard to voyeurism, Hitchcock’s boldest work was Rear Window, a film about a photographer named L.B. Jefferies (James Stewart) is confined to his Greenwich Village apartment after breaking his leg. Simply the nature of his profession induces images of voyeurism, but this film chooses to focus on his exploits watching out his back window with a pair of binoculars. As he looks out the window, his home-care nurse Stella tells him that “in the old days they used to put your eyes out with a red-hot poker. Any of those bikini-bombshells you’re always watching worth a red-hot poker?” She then goes on to the ultimate societal critique of the film – that “we’ve become a race of Peeping Toms”.
With regard to voyeurism, Hitchcock’s boldest work was Rear Window, a film about a photographer named L.B. Jefferies (James Stewart) is confined to his Greenwich Village apartment after breaking his leg. Simply the nature of his profession induces images of voyeurism, but this film chooses to focus on his exploits watching out his back window with a pair of binoculars. As he looks out the window, his home-care nurse Stella tells him that “in the old days they used to put your eyes out with a red-hot poker. Any of those bikini-bombshells you’re always watching worth a red-hot poker?” She then goes on to the ultimate societal critique of the film – that “we’ve become a race of Peeping Toms”.
Hitchcock is known for many of his techniques, but his distinct employment of voyeurism was a part of his means of breaking down standard cinematic trends and achieving a higher form of storytelling. Interested in sexual psychology, Hitchcock has played around with the use of mother figures, staircases, and blonde women in many of his films. Voyeurism is utilized in films like Rear Window to make the audience more aware of itself as an audience. This displaces the viewers outside of the sphere of the plot, yet also transforms the audience into a player in the action, as through their peeping, audience members take on a responsibility to the characters. This in turn blurs the lines between good and evil in his works, and creates an experience unlike any other directors’ films.