Alfred Hitchcock's Auteur Theory

The emergence of Auteur theory in cinema can be associated with, among other things, the permanence of the medium. With regard to other art forms, especially theatre, the director is held hostage to the lack of repeated viewing and analysis concerning their final product. With cinema, this is not the case. In fact it’s repeated viewings that originally led to the advent of auteur theory when French film critics were able to view multiple films by a specific director in succession. They studied these films and recognized a series of reoccurring motifs, both narrative and formal, that created a signature style and form consistent in all of the director’s works. Alfred Hitchcock is widely considered a master filmmaker and one of the quintessential
figures concerning auteur theory. He is also widely considered one of the most popular and commercially successful directors of all time, and his strict relationship to auteur theory is strongly responsible for this, allowing him to make commercially appealing films while still injecting dense subject matter and artful formal elements to retain scholastic importance. Alfred Hitchcock is rightfully classified as an auteur and his British masterpiece, The 39 Steps serves as the best example of his authorship. The films display of his trademark narrative and formal motifs, its reflexive nature, and its commentary on subjective viewing help support this as his most auteuristic film. The film’s final scene exemplifies this argument further, encapsulating all of the aforementioned traits, as well as providing the most poetic ending in the Hitchcock catalog. As with most art forms, the master practitioner usually has a certain appreciation and understanding of the medium’s beginnings, and Hitchcock is a perfect example of this. His undying love for the golden age of silent film, or as he refers to it “pure cinema”, plays a solid role in addressing Hitchcock’s signature formal style and authorship. This element is present throughout The 39 Steps, but especially in the film’s final scene, as the events unfold over primarily just images and music. In shot #15, Richard is finally able to begin unlocking the puzzle because of the orchestral song change. This epiphany is signaled the viewers through the image of his facial reaction and the song change itself, providing a textbook example of effective “pure cinema”. Furthermore, the film’s diegetic orchestral score helps build tension over a series of POV and close-up shots. Shots #5 through #11 are perfect examples of this. These shots also serve to explore another key element to both Hitchcock’s signature formal style and the tension built in the film’s final scene; the editing. Hitchcock is famously known as “the master of suspense” and this title owes its accreditation primarily to his editing techniques. The final scene of The 39 Steps is riddled with examples of this, such as intercutting the events taking place within the theatre with the policemen gathering and tracking Richard outside the theatre. Furthermore, as this action is taking place, Hitchcock is also intercutting shots of Richard figuring out the relationship between the professor and Mr. Memory. By intercutting these two plotlines, the timing in the manner of discovery is synchronized to achieve the maximum climax. Although it’s adequately expressed by the film’s formal aspects, Hitchcock’s authorship is present literally before the film even begins, as he famously changed many elements of the book while working on the screenplay with Charles Bennett. The most prominent of these changes relate directly to Hitchcock’s signature narrative style, such as his implementation of a Macguffin. In the novel, the actual 39 steps play a much larger role, but they take a backseat in Hitchcock’s film to a love story that was also interjected by the director. The romance between Pamela and Richard, prominently displayed as the films main storyline, is completely absent from the novel. Both of these elements are strongly addressed in the film’s final shot, shot #39, in which Mr. Memory reveals the 39 steps as a Macguffin, which is followed by Richard and Pamela filling the frame as their hands slowly meet in the middle, associating their relationship as the film’s central narrative theme. When the reel does begin to roll, Hitchcock’s presence is no less evident, as a series of his reoccurring narrative elements are present early on.
Depicting a murder, placing the protagonist in the role of “the wrong man”, and putting them on the run within the first 20 minutes of the film is standard Hitchcockian procedure, and The 39 Steps stays true to this. Richard is placed in the role of “the wrong man” early on in the first act and is sent searching for truth immediately. The term “role” plays a key part in the previous statement, as it relates to another one of Hitchcock’s classic narrative motifs; role-playing amongst characters. The element of performance is perhaps the strongest of Hitchcock’s motifs depicted in The 39 Steps. As in all of his films, our protagonists are forced to play a series of roles in order to escape danger and gather information. However, The 39 Steps examines role-playing further by addressing and examining the role of the audience, the role of the camera, and the relationship between
them. The issue of reflexivity is prominent in all of Hitchcock’s work, but is central to The 39 Steps. The relationship between the viewer and the camera is addressed immediately in the opening sequence, as a series of POV shots subjectively place us in the film’s world as an audience member at the Royal Hall. As the film progresses, the POV shots begin to associate us more with Richard. Our relationship with him, as well as the reflexive nature of the camera lens, is magnified in the films final scene, specifically in shots #9 and #20. These POV shots are framed through the binoculars, Restricting our vision to exactly what Richard sees and exactly how he sees it. Furthermore, both of these shots play major roles in solving the mystery of The 39 Steps. In particular, shot #20 directly associates the professor with Mr. Memory using only visual means. Not just is this an example of Hitchcock’s “pure cinema”, but it also is fitting that only through the lens of the binoculars, a direct reference to a camera’s lens, is Richard able to piece together the puzzle. Hitchcock auteuristic exploration of reflexivity is not limited to just formal elements. The characters in all of his films share certain reflexivity amongst their thematic similarities and objectives. The reflexivity of characters in the world of a Hitchcock film is also perfectly expressed in the final scene of The 39 Steps. In this scene, we have a series of characters arriving at the theatre in search of something. Richard is searching for answers, Pamela is searching for Richard, as are the policemen, the professor is searching to gain information, Mr. Memory is searching to expel information, and last but certainly not least, the audience is searching for entertainment. By the film’s end, all of these characters have found something on their quest, albeit not what they were originally searching for in most cases. Richard and Pamela have both found love, the policemen have found the real criminal, the professor has found justice, and Mr. Memory finds the sweet release of death. The audience however, got exactly what they came for; entertainment. This emphasis on the role of the camera and the role of the viewer helps to support The 39 Steps as Hitchcock’s most auteuristic film. Just as the role of the viewer is address in The 39 Steps, the role of viewer-ship also plays an important role in signifying it as his most auteuristic film.
Fundamentally speaking, Hitchcock’s authorship is dependant on the critical reading and interpretation of his films, which requires a subjective viewing from the participant. It is in The 39 Steps that Alfred Hitchcock addresses this issue head on with his implication of the theatre as a means to examine the importance of subjective viewer-ship. By utilizing the subjective cinematography to associate us as an audience member, the element of view-ship in the theatre is focused on immediately. When we enter the first theatre experience with Richard, he is in passive viewing state, a simple tourist from Canada eagerly watching a performance. At this point in the film, we , the viewer and Richard, are held in the dark as to what’s going on regarding the film’s plot and storyline. Richard is spectator in this first theatre scene, a passive observer, and as the events unfold, we continue to know less and less about
them. By the time we reach our second theatre experience, we still know relatively little about The 39 Steps, however that soon changes as Richard is forced to actively participate this time around. As a performer, he is forced to address his audience, and effectively communicate with them. It is in this act that his paradigm shift begins to emerge. Although he still understands little about his circumstances, he does know to pay attention. After the second theatre experience, Richard begins to gain some knowledge regarding the plot, and also gains a partner in Pamela. It is in-between the second and third theatre scenes that Richard begins to actively figure things out, paying attention to detail and analyzing situations, similar to what a novice film scholar does in his introductory coursework. When we finally reach the film’s third theatre scene, Richard is practically a detective. His purpose there is solely to pay attention and figure things out. He’s come full circle form his passive observing role in the first scene to an active observing role of a critic. His analysis of the events are vital to his understanding of The 39 Steps, and in this subjective viewing state, he is finally able to piece everything together. Shots #6 and #7 are perfect example of this, as he now knows what he’s looking for and is able to find it. This character arch parallels perfectly to Hitchcock’s assertion that subjective viewing is necessary to understanding his films. We’ve already established the association between the viewer and Richard, so his theatre experiences in the film should be correlated with ours. As such, we’ve gone through the same paradigm shift as he did. We enter the third theater scene on the edge of our seats searching for the answers just as Richard does. This also provides another element of reflexivity in the film, as we are forced to learn with Richard instead of from him. By forcing us into a subjective viewing state, Hitchcock forces us to pay attention to his signature themes and motifs, thus providing ample proof that Hitchcock’s authorship is best expressed in The 39 Steps. Without the benefit of repeated and subjective viewings, The 39 Steps could easily be classified as a simple romantic thriller, however, due to film’s permanence, Hitchcock’s authorship is evident and abundant. His application of signature formal and narrative motifs, his analysis of reflexivity, and his critique of the theatre all serve as evidence that The 39 Steps is Alfred Hitchcock’s most auteuristic film.