Hitchcock-The Birds

In this film we learnt about the importance of symbolism in a thriller. In this thriller Hitchcock explores the parallel reality between humans and birds. Throughout the film this idea is constantly repeated. For example, in the very first scene where lead female Melanie meets lead male Mitch, the connection immediately begins to build when Mitch says to Melanie, “you should be put behind bars” the bars of course referring to a birds cage. Not long after, in the car scene with Melanie and the birds we see the love birds tilting left and right with the bends of the road just like a normal passenger would. This is another visual hint between the parallel realities between humans and birds. Later we are told a story about Melanie jumping naked into a fountain, slightly odd, something that a bird would more likely do. When the main characters seal themselves in the house for protection from the birds, we find that Mitch is wearing green trousers and Melanie is wearing a green outfit. Being that the love birds are green, this is probably another hint that Mitch and Melanie are the human equivalents of love birds. When we see a shot of the love birds in their cage, we realise that is the same for Mitch and Melanie as they have just caged themselves in the house just like the birds.
This has really helped us because we found out that subtle hints can make a big difference and change the dynamic of a story. Also in this film we learnt that the use of primal fears such as the flapping wings of birds can have a bigger effect than explicit visual tactics such as costumes and gory details. Also Hitchcock’s creativity when it comes to arranging characters in the frame has been very useful. For example he arranged the characters at different angles instead of a straight line. This makes the image more visually interesting and decreases the level mise-en-scene used.