Week 3: Shadow of a Doubt

            Once again, Hitchcock produced a wonderful thriller movie using his terrific cinematographic techniques. "Shadow of A Doubt" introduces a story of young Charlotte "Charlie" Newton who is told that her idolized uncle Charlie is a widow murderer. At first, the young Charlie can't believe and accept that. However, she finds out many evidences proving her uncle is a murderer. Finally, her uncle is dead when he is trying to kill her to protect his secret. Throughout the film, there is a flash backward and forward about the image of the ball where many rich women are enjoying and dancing with other men. This creates a very interesting point for the movie. The viewers will be wondering why that image appears randomly in the movie without any explanation. In fact, rich widows are the aim of the murderer in this movie; in another word, they are the main idea of the whole story, the important role of the movie, and the reason for everything happening. At the beginning of the movie, there is a shallow focus on the money to indicate the role of money in this movie. Money earns Charlie other people's respect, but money also make him become a serial killer which he later pay by a terrible death. Later, when Jack first tells the young Charlie about her uncle's secret, her face is also focus. Since she admires her uncle so much, her face by that time shows all her disappoints and doubt. She can't accept that story and she also don't want to accept it. The audience can obviously tells the pain and worry in her heart by simply looking at her focused face. Then, at the dinner, when uncle Charlie is angrily talking about the widow and comparing them with animal, his face is zoomed and focused. This doesn't only aim to show his hatred to the rich widows but also to bring to audience the feeling of suspense. This is how Hitchcock built up his interesting movies and indicates their themes without directly telling the audience. He used object, light, movement and other special techniques to reveal the meaning behind it.