First off, I don't really know what to make of the title. Did anybody come up with anything?
But as far as interesting parts of the film, there were plenty.
There were various shots that made me lose sight of Thornhill.
I can't help but to think there was some deeper reason why.
In 33:51 there is a long shot of the inside of the general assembly building, when Thornhill walks in- we can see the huge infrastructure of the building and all the people but not our protagonist. This doesn't happen often at all earlier in the film, before all the action and drama begins. For example at 4:27 when Thornhill walks into his lunch meeting he is the only person walking in the building; the attention is all on him, portraying his clear and organized life at the moment. We know he is a busy and successful man; he seems to always have money in hand (being seen tipping the bus boy at the bar, paying for cabs and meals).
On the contrary at 36:45, the audience gets an overhead view and extreme long shot of Thornhill running out of the general assembly building. This shot makes us look at our protagonist as a mouse in a maze. We can empathize with how lost he must feel in this scene, after getting into even deeper trouble because he was searching for the truth.
If we follow my theory, it is noticeable that after Thornhill meets Eve, the camera seems to signify that he is a lot closer to finding way out of this mess; he is no longer filmed in huge crowds. The following scenes that do have many people in them, show Thornhill on the side or very visible in the room.
After he gets off of the train, from 39:47-40:00 we are kept in the dark about Thornhill's whereabouts. This was particularly troubling for me, when I first watched the film because in the previous scene the agents had just predicted Thornhill's inevitable death. By this time the viewers know that Eve isn't just a nice standby-er but a pretentious player in this plot.
Next ,at 81:55, we see Thornhill's cab clearly and visibly as the main thing in focus. He is no longer lost in the crowd of cars or people. At this point in the film he has a much clearer idea of the confusing plot that he is accidentally involved in. At the same time, and ironically, now he is in even more danger of being caught because of Eve's tie to the main villain "Mr. Van Dan".
The way the camera presents us our protagonist is so crucial. The fact that Thornhill is shown in many different angles in this film is unavoidable. In my experience these choices made me empathize with Thornhill a lot more and allowed me to become more involved in the suspense, romance, and betrayal that made this movie entertaining.
There were various shots that made me lose sight of Thornhill.
I can't help but to think there was some deeper reason why.
In 33:51 there is a long shot of the inside of the general assembly building, when Thornhill walks in- we can see the huge infrastructure of the building and all the people but not our protagonist. This doesn't happen often at all earlier in the film, before all the action and drama begins. For example at 4:27 when Thornhill walks into his lunch meeting he is the only person walking in the building; the attention is all on him, portraying his clear and organized life at the moment. We know he is a busy and successful man; he seems to always have money in hand (being seen tipping the bus boy at the bar, paying for cabs and meals).
On the contrary at 36:45, the audience gets an overhead view and extreme long shot of Thornhill running out of the general assembly building. This shot makes us look at our protagonist as a mouse in a maze. We can empathize with how lost he must feel in this scene, after getting into even deeper trouble because he was searching for the truth.
If we follow my theory, it is noticeable that after Thornhill meets Eve, the camera seems to signify that he is a lot closer to finding way out of this mess; he is no longer filmed in huge crowds. The following scenes that do have many people in them, show Thornhill on the side or very visible in the room.
After he gets off of the train, from 39:47-40:00 we are kept in the dark about Thornhill's whereabouts. This was particularly troubling for me, when I first watched the film because in the previous scene the agents had just predicted Thornhill's inevitable death. By this time the viewers know that Eve isn't just a nice standby-er but a pretentious player in this plot.
Next ,at 81:55, we see Thornhill's cab clearly and visibly as the main thing in focus. He is no longer lost in the crowd of cars or people. At this point in the film he has a much clearer idea of the confusing plot that he is accidentally involved in. At the same time, and ironically, now he is in even more danger of being caught because of Eve's tie to the main villain "Mr. Van Dan".
The way the camera presents us our protagonist is so crucial. The fact that Thornhill is shown in many different angles in this film is unavoidable. In my experience these choices made me empathize with Thornhill a lot more and allowed me to become more involved in the suspense, romance, and betrayal that made this movie entertaining.
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