Notorious: an academic reading

Notorious and its Relation to Hitchcock as Auteur
Alfred Hitchcock searched the dark depths of mankind in many of his films. For this and other reasons, many proponents of the auteur theory are quick to name him as a prominent auteur- one of the best ever. Notorious, one of his well-known classics, provides an excellent example of his style. While it exemplifies his style, it also veers away at times from some of his typical ideas.
Hitchcock fits the idea of the auteur. Most of his films have similar themes, narrative styles, character situations, and other connectable traits. Notorious fills many of these elements, most notably in its narrative. Hitchcock used irony of quarlixastd in many of his films to build suspense. This particular type of irony comes when the audience knows something the character does not. It creates a sort of helpless feeling by the viewer, who may feel a desire to warn the character of upcoming danger. Of course, the viewer cannot talk to the characters, and the film tugs at the viewer’s emotional connection with the particular character.
Hitchcock was a master of this narrative style. This technique, in fact, is arguably the main stamp of any Hitchcock film, and has become a must today for any horror or suspense film. Psycho, the classic suspense movie that helped spawn a mass of serial killer or “slasher” movies, exposes the Bates Motel as a dangerous place after Lila Crane’s murder. The viewer, if he or she has any emotional connection with the characters, may internally scream, “Don’t go in there!” In Vertigo, the viewer hears the confession letter of the fake wife while the detective is gone, but she decides not to tell him when he comes back. This scene builds tension, because the detective originally thought of that exact situation, but he has no proof. The viewer may want to tell him, “Keep at it! You’re right!”
Notorious, in this sense, fits well with Hitchcock’s style. The viewer knows that Alicia’s marriage to Alexander is for a reason- she is a spy. The viewer also knows later that he has figured Alicia out, but she does not know. Also, the viewer knows that Alexander poisons her coffee, but again, she does not. This knowledge, like most of Hitchcock’s movies, makes the viewer feel a desire to help the character, especially here, because Alicia is the heroine and her husband is a bad man- he’s Nazi war criminal.
The themes of Hitchcock’s films vary, but several story elements appear often. Many of the elements of noir films (without getting into genre discussion too much) apply to Hitchcock films: murder, deception, detective work, financial crimes, and adultery. Psycho may focus on a murderer, but Lila ends up at the Bates Motel because she needs to escape. She has stolen money from her boss, and she is also having an affair. Vertigo deals with a man who creates an elaborate scheme to kill his wife, make it look like a suicide, make her look crazy, and throw everyone off while he gets away as a victim. He hires a lady to act as his wife and deceive the detective. Dial M for Murder contains a man’s plot to kill his wife for both money and revenge for her adultery.
Notorious belongs to a group of Hitchcock films that tackle these subjects on a grander scale. The marriage is deception, and the Nazi criminals living in Brazil are doing quite well, so it fits some of the noir elements. This film, however, is not just between several American citizens. It deals with government action, and that differs from the previous films. Hitchcock used somewhat similar scenarios in North by Northwest and The Man Who Knew Too Much. These films may deal with murder, deception, and money, but on a larger scale of dangerous government agents and complex international scandals.
Recurring themes mix with similar characters to create certain situations that appear often in Hitchcock’s films. As with noir films, the narrative usually has a detective or investigative agent. Psycho and Vertigo have regular detectives, while Notorious has an F.B.I. agent investigating the Nazis. North by Northwest and The Man Who Knew Too Much focus on undercover F.B.I. agents.
Another element of Hitchcock films that deals with a specific character is mental stability. Often, one character has a mental illness or a psychological flaw, and it can get worse as time goes on. The most obvious example of this is Norman Bates. He is the Psycho. His mother’s abuse and their obsessive relationship drove him to an extreme personality disorder. Vertigo focuses on the detective’s fear of heights, and the villain uses this flaw against him. His guilt intensifies when he cannot save the wife from jumping off the tower, and he becomes invalid for a period of time. Rear Window’s protagonist grows more and more unstable as the film goes on. By the end, he has lost touch with reality. The murderers in Rope are disturbed to start out with, and as the one becomes more daring, the other gets very paranoid. Marnie focuses on its title character, a very erratic woman.
Notorious does not have an obviously disturbed character, which separates it from the norm. It does, however, hint at a few mental problems. Alicia’s poisoning leaves her in a confused, sick, eventually delirious state. While not an innate flaw (and more of a physical problem), her sickness alters her mind’s clarity. The relationship between Alexander and his mother pales in comparison to the Bates’, but the mother’s harsh demeanor evokes similar feelings. Both mothers feel jealous and suspicious of the females connected to their sons.
Hitchcock films also often have attractive young females who appear vulnerable. Sometimes these women are stereotypical damsels in distress, like in The Birds. Sometimes, these female characters have secrets to hide, and their past ties into the criminal plot. As mentioned, Lila from Psycho steals money and has an affair. The detective in Vertigo follows who he believes to be an erratic wife, but she is not the real wife. Marnie, the disturbed young title character, initially hides her problems. Family Plot, Hitchcock’s last film, focuses on a phony psychic woman.
Notorious contains a perfect example of this female character in Alicia, because she is both secretive and good. She is young, attractive, and vulnerable. She has a past; the whole reason she needs to spy is because her father was a war criminal. She cannot enjoy his riches unless she helps the United States in its investigation. She has secrets, and she deceives her husband, but she is really a good person at heart. When her lover rescues her, she becomes the poor, innocent damsel.
Characters of Hitchcock films may also deal with some kind of isolation. Ian Cameron points out the isolation of Lila and Norman during their meal in Psycho, and of how their conversation amidst the stuffed game reflects this feeling (65). Rear Window contains an extremely isolated main character. Each day the loneliness wears on him more. The fake wife of Vertigo becomes an isolated stranger. Because of the deception usually involved, this is a common feeling amongst many other characters as well.
Although Notorious has some elements in common with North by Northwest and The Man Who Knew Too Much, one thing that it misses is a case of mistaken identity. Even though most of the characters are deceiving, Notorious does not have an accidental identity mishap like these two (and several other) films by Hitchcock.
The setting of Notorious differs from many Hitchcock films. Although the opening sequences are in Miami, most of the movie takes place in Brazil. Hitchcock films do not generally use exotic settings. Some of the spy films such as The Man Who Knew Too Much take place overseas, but most of Hitchcock’s films are set in America. He did make some Europe-based films while he was still working over there in his younger days, but after he came to Hollywood, he chose the United States much more often as a setting.
Hitchcock focuses often on the darkness of mankind, specifically emphasized by one or a few characters. The situation is just within this smaller, personal group of people. His movies tend to show just how evil or demented people can be. His characters that do wrong fall into several categories. The first category includes simple, weak men (and women) who make horrible mistakes. The husband in Vertigo exemplifies the criminal who is selfish and evil, but not a super villain. He kills his wife, which is an atrocious act, but he is not a huge danger to society. Lila from Psycho is no evil mastermind, but she makes a very poor decision. The second category contains mentally ill characters like Norman Bates, Marnie, and Jeff in Rear Window. They have problems, which excuses them in some ways from contempt. Even Norman, the killer psychopath, comes off at the end as a totally demented child, though he was aware of the harm “his mother” did.
These characters all have flaws and are despicable in many ways, but Notorious reaches the true depths of humanity with the Nazis. The inclusion of Nazis is another facet of Notorious that stands out from most of Hitchcock’s films. The previously mentioned characters were evil and criminal in many ways, but the Nazis represent a far darker reality.
Reality is an important word because Hitchcock’s villains are usually realistic in many ways. He does not create fake monsters; these are real people committing real crimes that could happen, and have already. The atrocities that the Nazis pulled off during the war overshadow the bad people of other Hitchcock films that usually focus on just a few bad individuals. Notorious, admittedly, also does focus on a few bad individuals, and it has personal conflicts, but these individuals are part of a larger evil not seen in most of Hitchcock’s other films. The spy films like The Man Who Knew Too Much contain secretive government enterprises, which is somewhat related, but it is still not as powerful as including the Third Reich.
The auteur theory suggests that every great director has stylish characteristics in his films. It also suggests that an auteur has an interior meaning for his films, a tension between the director and his material. Hitchcock dealt, quite simply, with bad people doing bad things. Every film starts with a crime. His tales of the dark side of human nature might initially suggest intense pessimism about humanity as an interior meaning, but the way these films end suggests that things are not so bleak.
Hitchcock endings are usually not very happy and bright, but they also are not always terribly bleak. Notorious has one of the happiest endings for a Hitchcock film. Alicia’s lover rescues her before she gets deathly sick, and they have the evidence against Alexander. Most of the endings do provide closure to the story, which is important for Hitchcock films, as they are classic Hollywood films.
Most of the endings also include a sense of justice. The criminals usually pay for their mistakes in some way. Notorious ends with the case against the Nazis pending. In the cases of deception and cheating, the cheaters are often caught or killed. The irony of Vertigo comes at the end when the fake wife panics at the sight of a ghost (which it is not), feels grief and guilt, and jumps to her own death. Lila dies, and though it is not because of her wrongdoing, it keeps her from being a totally innocent victim. Her crime leads her to the motel, so one could argue that it is her fault, in a way, when she encounters danger. Norman gets locked up in the end, so that provides safety and justice.
Hitchcock perhaps was sending the underlying message that these people got what they deserved. Many innocent people died and were harassed repetitively in his films, but the traitors often fall to an almost supernatural type of justice. This justice is almost like karma, as if the crimes of these characters have made them cosmic candidates for trouble. The decisions the criminals make come back to hurt them in the end.
All of these characteristics Notorious follows many of the characteristics typical of an Alfred Hitchcock film, but it has a few exceptions. Even though it has a happy ending, this film’s Nazi villains hint at something even darker than Hitchcock’s typical criminal. Hitchcock was an auteur for the evil things that people do. Notorious is a classic example of Hitchcock’s suspense wizardry. The thriller lies within a long line of work by perhaps the most respected director ever.

Dead Poets Society

In the autumn of 1959, classes began for a privileged group of young men in New England. These boys started their semester at the Welton Academy, an expensive private school where almost all of the graduates reach the Ivy League. They were all following the orders of their parents, who expected them to succeed and go on to major careers.
This is the setting for Dead Poets Society. Director Peter Weir and writer Tom Schulman have created an environment of upper class adolescence- a school where the richest boys in New England go to prepare for college. This school, with all its glamorous tradition, gets a jolt from new teacher (and former alum) John Keating. Keating tries to change things and be different, and for this he gets into trouble. In this sense, Weir’s finest movie shows his disdain for the ordinary. Dead Poets Society is Weir’s personal attack on conformity.
Weir succeeds in providing an emotionally stirring movie that is also aesthetically pleasing. The setting is quite breathtaking. As Frank Scheck says, “John Seale’s photography is gorgeous, giving the film an autumnal glow”(618). This film was shot at a private school in Delaware (even though it was supposed to be in Vermont) with magnificent architecture and a forest environment that is particularly stunning in the winter scenes. The lighting reflects the dramatic mood. There are a lot of scenes at night or in the school that are very dark, giving the film a somber feel to it.
The film does not contain a lot of scores (except for the final scene). Most of the music is diagetic. Music is important to several scenes - records playing while the boys kick soccer balls, jive music on a homemade radio, the dance music at Chet’s party, the flighty music at the play, and the somber chorus at Welton on opening day. The triumphant score in the last scene of this film ties everything together well and accentuates the epiphany of one student.
Weir likes to use long shots that show the class as a group. Of ten he will film their activities as though he was an onlooker from far away, especially when they are outside. In the school, he usually shoots the boys in their dorm rooms from the hallway. These scenes are much more personal and conversational. The editing style also changes when the film goes indoors; there, Weir uses more reverse shots (and more shots in general). Outside, he uses a lot of long takes. In fact, most of his shots last more than a few seconds, except for a few intense conversational scenes.
He enjoys framing people in medium and close-up shots in personal scenes, especially the scene at Chet Danberry’s party. This is one of the few scenes where he gets into the head of the character, spinning the camera to evoke Knox (one character)’s drunken state. Often, he has different levels of positioning people. He does not move the camera around too much; many shots are still. There are a few scenes where he follows people walking or riding bikes, but for the most part he does not move the camera in shot. There is one particular scene of Knox searching for his girl, a frantic long take as Weir follows him around the public high school.
The acting is exceptional. Robin Williams stars as Mr. Keating in a role that got him an Oscar nomination. Scheck doesn’t think that Williams is used correctly and that he could be less restrained (617). Of course, this restraint would also fit his character, who is fighting the school’s old ways to teach his students in the manner he likes. He uses sports to help them remember poetry. He instructs them to rip out the pages of a textbook he thinks is useless. He encourages them to think of something besides the businesses they are about to control, the careers they are going to have, and the prestigious colleges they are about to attend. He teaches them to savor the finer moments in life.
The young men who play his students have mostly gone on to successful careers, and they are all surprisingly effective in this film. The two main characters are Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke) and Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard). The other main boys are Knox Overstreet (Josh Charles), Charlie Daulton (Gale Hansen), and Richard Cameron (Dylan Kussman). Each boy has a particular problem to deal with. Todd’s older brother was a valedictorian, but Todd has no social skills. Neil has a lot going for him, but he must be respectful to his commanding father (Kurtwood Smith). Knox wants a girl who is already going out with a tough football star. Cameron is too strict, and Charlie is too disruptive. They all must overcome their separate problems throughout the film.
They way that Weir tells his story is a major part of the film’s success. He uses a restricted, objective narrative for most of the movie. We really don’t get to see into the heads of any characters (except for Knox’s one scene). He follows the traditional three-act format well. In the opening of the film we (the audience) are introduced to all of the major characters as they move into the school. We also get a hint of the problems that they may have, seeing Neil’s dad reprimand him; Todd’s immediate shyness at meeting Neil; and the actions of all the other boys. We are introduced to the school and the headmaster, who talks about the tradition they have.
The real action starts when the boys sit down for their first class with Mr. Keating, who instructs them to go down to the lobby and look at the nostalgic pictures of old students. He challenges them to “seize the day…make your lives extraordinary.” Later he gives them a reading of Shakespeare’s Macbeth in John Wayne’s voice, which Robert Seidenberg claims is the best part of the movie (57). The boys sit in amazement at Mr. Keating, who is unlike all the straight and unimaginative teachers they have had. They discover that he once went to Welton and founded a group called the Dead Poets Society. They decide to bring it back.
Eventually, the boys begin to change. They have learned from that class to be individuals, and they start doing things they would not have earlier. The meetings they have late nights at the cave of the Dead Poets Society only further encourage them to be different. Knox tries to get the girl he wants but cannot have. Neil decides to get into acting, which is not something his father would approve of. Mr. Keating even gets a response out of the quiet Todd in class. All of the boys are feeling great about themselves when the mood shifts.
The pint of no return in the movie comes when Neil lands the starring role in the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. His father tries to make him quit but he does it anyway. Then his father pulls him out of Welton and prepares to send him to a military academy. Neil kills himself because he cannot face that future. This night is the climax for several people: Neil, because it is his high point and also low point; Mr. Keating, because it is what will lead to his dismissal; and Knox, because he pleads for one last chance with his crush- and gets it. After Neil’s suicide, the teachers at Welton decide that Mr. Keating’s influence caused Neil to reach for unattainable goals.
The last scene of the movie is Todd’s epiphany. As Mr. Keating is clearing out his office, Todd stands up on his desk in protest. The shyest kid in the class becomes the leader, which shows how he overcame his problem. The last shot of the movie is from Keating’s point of view as he sees Todd standing and smiling at him (through someone else’s legs, as they are all standing on desks).
Gary Hentzi believes that Weir is definitely an outsider in Hollywood and that this movie deals with his ideas on culture (3). The main point of this film is that the boys have been such dutiful sons and need the injection of creativity that Keating gives them.
There is one scene where the headmaster approaches Keating and asks him about his unorthodox teaching methods. Keating replies that a good education should teach kids to think for themselves and ask questions about everything. This is Weir’s thesis for the film: too much conformity is harmful for these students. How can they learn if they are unable to be creative and express their true emotions? The headmaster wants Keating to teach them poetry and leave them on their own. This conflict of conformity vs. creativity is present throughout the entire movie in many different ways: Knox (who is creative) vs. Chet (who is a dumb jock, it seems), Neil vs. his dad, and Keating vs. the headmaster.
This is probably the masterpiece of Peter Weir’s career. It was nominated for Best Picture in 1989 and won Best Original Screenplay (Seidenberg 57). He has also directed famous movies such as Witness, The Year of Living Dangerously, and The Truman Show. Weir has a style that Hentzi calls “new age humanism”(5). His films are usually about society and how one person dares to defy it. This film goes along with that idea, as Mr. Keating tries to fight conformist ideas in the high society that is Welton. He succeeds, though tragically.
Dead Poets Society remains a classic film of inspiration. Although it includes a lot of heartbreaks, the film makes a strong case against conformity. Peter Weir’s masterpiece touches anyone who has ever been in a classroom environment and challenged the metonymy of high school education. It was an easy choice to screen for this course, but it could be seen in any school setting. The lessons that the students received that year at Welton Academy were more important to their lives than any major class they could take.





Works Cited

Hentzi, Gary. “Peter Weir and the Cinema of New Age Humanism.” Film Quarterly. Winter 1990-91. 2-11.
Scheck, Frank. “Dead Poets Society.” Films in Review. December 1989. 617-18.
Seidenberg, Robert. “Dead Poets Society: Reciting Tom Schulman.” American Film. July-August 1989. 57.
Weir, Peter. Dead Poets Society. Video: Touchstone Pictures, 1989.