10 Iconic Images From Alfred Hitchcock Films

By Andrew Edward Davies / December 9, 2012

In my last article about Alfred Hitchcock, I mentioned that the British icon was my favourite director. There are many reasons why he holds this position in my heart, including his macabre sense of humour, his memorable characters and iconic actors who've played them. Something I also love about Hithcock, what makes him so important to the history of cinema, is his visual mastery and the many iconic images, moments and shots found in his filmography. While you could write a book on the many memorable moments in Hitchcock's films, for the purposes of this article, I'll be focusing on ten select images that have imprinted themselves in the minds of cinephiles and made a lasting impression in cinema history, including several images that still inspire filmmakers to this day.

1. The Vertigo Shot

Hitchcock had a knack for putting the audience inside the head of his films' protagonists and antagonists. Showing us their face and then showing what they see- it was simple, but effective. The greatest example of this in Hitchcock's films, and one of the most innovative techniques in the history of film, is the Vertigo shot, seen in his masterpiece of the same name. Seen from the perspective of the film's protagonist, acrophobic detective Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart), the shot illustrates the feeling of vertigo. Hitchcock achieved this shot by simultaneously zooming in and tracking backwards with the camera. As a result the foreground of the shot stays in place while the background expands backward. The paradoxical nature of the shot gives the sequences where Scottie experiences vertigo a certain nightmare logic, which goes hand in hand with the film's dreamlike quality. The shot, also known as a dolly zoom, has become part of cinematic language, being used by Steven Spielberg in Jaws and Peter Jackson in The Lord of the Rings.