The Lodger: Week 1: Blog 1

            Alfred Hitchcock’s 1927 film, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog, is a story about a serial killer called "the Avenger" who is out to kill blond women in London. At the beginning of the film, the suspicious character, the lodger arrives at Mr. and Mrs. Bunting's home to rent out a room and he meets their beautiful model daughter, Daisy. Daisy, who is being pursued by the policeman Joe, falls in love with the lodger despite the fact that the lodger is a key suspect in being the Avenger. Throughout the film, Hitchcock demonstrates many power relations through the use of cinematography.

            An example of power relations can be seen in the scene when Joe, arrives at the Buntings' home with a warrant to search the lodger's room. Hitchcock captures Mr. and Mrs. Bunting with his camera angled so that the stairs seem very grand, the path to the door seems very narrow, and the door seems very tall (1:04:50). This use of camera angles makes the couple appear to be small and defenseless. Upon his arrival, Joe is wearing a hat, which makes him a head taller than the Buntings (1:05:12). This difference in height causes the couple to have to look up at him because he has authority as a government figure. Joe is also wearing a light colored suit (1:05:12) illustrating the fact that he has come in good nature to pursue justice; ironically, this color scheme is misleading because he has really come to unintentionally arrest an innocent man. Because of the Bunting's inferiority, they are unable to do anything about the situation even if they wanted to.

            When Joe goes upstairs with his warrant, he finds the lodger and his love, Daisy, in an embrace as they kiss each other. The two lovers approach Joe and once again, Joe is taller than the lodger and Daisy, establishing his authority over both of them. (1:05:51) Joe is also dressed in lighter clothing compared to the two of them (1:05:51) ironically leading the audience to falsely infer that he is the good guy where as the lodger and Daisy are guilty in the eyes of the audience - the lodger for supposedly being the Avenger and Daisy for falling in love with "the bad guy."

            As Joe's men search the lodger's room, Hitchcock captures a shot of Joe, with his back turned to the audience, partially covering Daisy and the lodger (1:06:54). This once again establishes that Joe has power over Daisy and the lodger but the fact that his back is turned to the audience gives his authority an ominous aura that foreshadows his misuse of power.

            After having found solid evidence, of which included a picture of a victim, against the lodger, the lodger collapses making him have to look up at Joe and Daisy and then through a racking focus the camera captures Joe in an low angle of frame once again demonstrating the lodgers inferiority to Joe and Daisy (1:11:08). Once the lodger claimed that the picture was of his murdered sister, Daisy looks up as the camera captures her from a low angle of frame (1:11:45). The camera angle makes it seem as though the main focus of the shot is Daisy and a higher figure that she is looking up to for consolation.

            After the lodger's arrest, every one heads down the stairs and the camera captures Joe following Daisy down the stairs as he stares at her through a low angle of frame (1:14:12). Joe look especially taller than Daisy both because he is a few steps behind Daisy and because the camera angle intensifies the effect. His stare is symbolic of him finally having authority over Daisy because the lodger has lost his authority over her after having being arrested by Joe.

            There are many power relations within this just this scene and Hitchcock makes them evident through his use of cinematography. These power relations surface controversial issues such as the power of the government to arrest innocent people and the power of men over women.