STRANGERS ON A TRAIN
1951
Alfred Hitchcock

Terms

Semiotics: Study of signs
Hermeneutics: breaking of textual code
Cryptanalysis: breaking of ciphers (letter substitutions) and codes (word substitutions)

Symbol: something which stands for something in an arbitrary way: e.g. the word "dog" has an arbitrary relationship with the animal. Each language has a different word.

sign/icon has an intimate connection betwen the referent and sign. The footprint of the dog is based in reality, not an arbitrary relatioship. index: something like a fever which is a "sign" that the person is ill. Trope: figure of speech/metaphor

Motif: a recurrent thematic element in an artistic work

In writing the papers it is necessary you DOCUMENT things. IN this case we are not particularly interested in what someone else had to say, but rather we are interested in what you can show from the film itself. In this particular film we are particularly interested in symbols or images or tropes or motifs which occur which bear some significance to the film

These are things which can be found in still photographs. The idea in the paper is to show how the variables in the different areas are used to tell the story in the film you are writing about.

STRANGERS ON A TRAIN
1951
Alfred Hitchcock

Hitchock is a master of suspense. Remember difference between shock and suspense.

(a) shock is sudden suspense takes time.

The film is about exchanges and as a result there are many ways in which things about exchange an be shown in the film. What might they be?

AFTER THE FILM

Doubles: Things repeat. The number 2 or pairs are shown: Film opens with 2 people, showing only their 2 feet with shoes and continues from there/ There are 2 tennis rackets, there are two sisters, there are 2 women in GHuy's life, there are two detectives, there are two women with glasses, there are two peeople involved in the murder (Bruno and Guy; 2 potential murder victims etc.
Notice the sign over the entrance to the tennis court where the audience sits. It says "And treat those two impostors just the same". The line comes from Rudyard Kiplings poem "If":

If—

(‘Brother Square-Toes’—Rewards and Fairies)
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools::

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’:

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!:

Notice that the two "imposters" which are refered to are Triumph and Disaster". How does this relate to the story? Does the entire poem relate to the story?

There are verbal and visual jokes. Guy is going to play doubles; Bruno orders 2 doubles, Hitchcock appears carrying a double bass

Reflections: (as in the glasses) are doubles - the thing and its reflection - the reverse of what is seen is reflected. These can imply two-faced people or duplicity - both doubles

Reflections (and false) in glasses