Frame by Frame: Shadow of a Doubt

I've talked before about the power of the closeup. When the frame is so close to a character's face, we the audience can feel the character's emotions more strongly. We develop an intimate connection, an empathy.

Few directors understood film technique as well as Alfred Hitchcok, and he understood better than just about anyone else how, to borrow his phrase, "play the audience like a piano." His films are filled with iconic closeups, but I want to examine one from Shadow of a Doubt, where he combines a closeup with another technique - the zoom - for chilling effect. 

Shadow of a Doubt stars Joseph Cotton as the Merry Widow Murderer, a sociopath who murders rich widows to steal their money. Theresa Wright plays his niece who gradually learns the horrifying truth about her beloved Uncle Charlie. 

The moment I want to talk about is a monologue by Joseph Cotton. 

Frame by Frame: They Live

The reveal, that moment when a movie shows us the truth about what's going on. In the right hands, this is the most powerful scene of the story.

Directed by John Carpenter, They Live is the story of a homeless drifter named John Nada who learns aliens are using subliminal messaging to brainwash and control humanity. The bug-eyed aliens exploit Earth as its own Third World, keeping most people in poverty while they enrich themselves and pillage the planet. Any similarities to Reaganomics and rampant consumerism are completely intentional.

Nada learns the truth when he finds a pair of sunglasses. When he puts them on, he sees the truth buried beneath the facade, and this moment, this revelation, is a wonderfully eerie and effective moment.

Let's break it down.