How Long Should Lighting Be Over An Island

Vanishes by Alfred Hitchcock.

"English is an excellent film, excellent Hitchcock film."
Claude

Chabrol

P ara Hitchcock, a filmmaker as well established in the world of Hollywood had to be quite shocking to know who was the favorite cinematographer of many critics of the French journal Cahiers du Cinéma. In the mid 1950's suggested that the director, rather than the producer, screenwriter or the actors, was the author of the film he made, and this approach fits with the perception that Hitchcock controlled every aspect of his films. In 1957, Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol published a comprehensive study of Hitchcock and, in 1967, François Truffaut wrote a book containing an extensive interview with the filmmaker. Besides proposing a new way to view and analyze a movie, the critics created the embryo of the Nouvelle Vague, often invoking elements of the work of Hitchcock in his films, Rohmer embodied his vision of obsession Clara's knee ( 1970), Truffaut adapted American crime novels as David Goonis and Cornell Woolrich, and Chabrol directed many films as Hitchcock mystery reminiscent Butcher (1970). This book reinforced the prestige of Hitchcock and were the pioneers of the large number of works that were later published on the filmmaker and his work.

Claude Chabrol, nicknamed "the French Hitchcock", parodying his master, Alfred Hitchcock.

then the brief passage devoted to Vanishes (The Lady Vanishes, 1938) Hitchcock picked up the book by Claude Chabrol and Eric Rohmer. In this book, the English analysis of the time it fell to Chabrol, whose nickname of being the French Hitchcock was a fair assignment:

"He came at last The Lady Vanishes (The Lady Vanishes / The Lady vanishes) in 1938. Also produced by Edward Black. Hitckcock in mind, this film should be the last film in England. It was decided to accept immediately after one of Hollywood's proposals, not yet knowing which. Wanted to end in triumph, doing something that was both the culmination of 4 years of searching, a summary table and an end point. chose to adapt a novel by Ethel Lina White espionage, The Wheel Spins, entrusted the script to the young couple Frank Launder, Sidney Gilliat and modified it further in the shooting with the help of his wife.

the Balkans, in a mountain hotel group the passengers on a train blocked by snow in the middle of humorous incidents, the murder of a guitarist goes unnoticed. The next day, everyone meets at the station platform for the game. On the train, Iris, a young Englishwoman who traveled to London to get married, start a conversation with an old lady, Miss Froy. The latter disappears and no one other than Iris, seems to have seen. Iris goes to look for compartments, helped by a young man, Gilbert, a specialist in folk dances, with which last night had some altercations in the hotel. Another traveler, Dr. Hartz, tries to persuade the girl who suffers hallucinations and that there is Miss Froy. After a series of tragicomic incidents, Iris and Gilbert discovered the old woman, which is actually a secret agent that Hartz had the mission to eliminate. But the car in which they are diverted to a secondary road and attacked by the military. Miss Froy flees through the trees, while Gilbert, who has confided his secret, takes control of the locomotive and wagon returns to the path of salvation. Everyone, including Miss Froy, finished safely in the welcoming city of London.

Vanishes / The Lady air disappears has dictionary. It quite accurately, the sum of the Gaumont-British series. It is about a movie that invites little comment. Are at the beginning of car models and mechanisms that Hitch loves to play. The actors are all excellent and the young Margaret Lockwood is certainly more enticing to Nova Pilbeam. Hitchcock

order imposed by the public, and without difficulties, the construction in two stages that had been so strange Rich and Strange (Best and Strange / Rich and Strange, 1932) and Secret Agent (The Secret Agent 1936) . The allusions to the present are biting and some white handkerchief waved in vain for one of the characters, a neutralist unfriendly, not fail to recall to Munich. The outspoken Sydney Gilliat dialog does not drown in all the director's personality.

English is an excellent film, excellent Hitchcock film. "

Hitchcock's book, which the Castilian edition is made by the Editorial Manantial and textures within your collection is translated and edited for sale Argentina, so that the titles of the films are in the original translation (the South America) and who had or currently have in Spain.

International Posters.

As Double analyst analyzes the letter of Chabrol, seek comment on some of the issues that the French director emphasizes in his text.

Vanishes is the work after Young and Innocent, also produced by Edward Black. After Vanishes had the time to roll Jamaica Posada was the last film Hitchcock shot in England before leaving for Hollywood and embark on the project Rebecca, his first film American.
Chabrol wrote that this film is the culmination of his search for the last 4 years, coinciding with the production of Gaumont-British. In this period, Hitchcock looks secured with a unique style, paying attention to criticism and praise, polished way of telling stories based on the dosing information to the viewer. It was clear which were his biggest hits and best applied in scenarios detective, police and spies. They could be action, suspense, mystery, humor and loving chances. This period begins with The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), film that eventually would become scheme and direct influence on the rest of his later films, The 39 Steps (1935), Secret Agent (1936), Sabotage (1937) and Young and Innocent in co-production with Gainsborough (1937).

By now he was aware of his personal projection, was known as the "Wizard of suspense" and invested effort in making his name a trademark. His omnipresence was evident even in the famous cameos that made. In Vanishes is found at the end of the film from the crowd of a railway station.

The cameo of Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes"

personal self-test of this is found at the beginning of the movie, just after the credits. A voiceover tells us that:

"The story unfolds in Brandika, imaginary country, and its language brandikiano course also imaginary, is used by the director, Alfred Hitchcock, for the convenience of the sequences throughout the whole movie. "

Indeed, if someone after the credits eluded him who was the director, this message let him clear.

The master of suspense attending the actors during the filming of "The Lady Vanishes"

The script brings together in a very small stage (the set was only 27 meters), a series of blatantly British characters away from their homeland, making caricatures of both more international customs. A young woman returns home to a marriage of convenience, an adventurous writer of Central European folklore, an old talkative and friendly, and the two most cynical British Hitchcock's filmography, Charters and Caldicott, fans cricket extreme and cynical as their own.

When appointing Chabrol Nova Pilbeam referred to the actress who had participated in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and Young and Innocent (1937) and also postulated as a protagonist in Vanishes but missed the train for Margaret Lockwood.

His work with the actors could be summarized in two statements of the principal actors. The first of Margaret Lockwood read:

"I guess what surprised me most was how little Hitchcock directed us. It was a sleepy and goofy Buddha with an enigmatic smile.

Michael Redgrave pointed something like:

"Everyone knew his reputation in England came over and technical preparation for working with the cast. The film did not depend on any particular interpretation and strangely this made us to be quiet. "

In Vanishes, it subverts the logic in favor of mechanism pure fantasy, with its center of gravity obviously another: Hitchcock is proposing a game in which it is appropriate to accept the rules, since the effects are quite gratifying. coexist multiple offers in this film: a show that takes place in the privileged decorated film is the train, a visual and intellectual filigree that distinguish true or not, naturally or pretense. The logic is displaced by the entertainment.

Another factor, which later would be important in the filmography of director chubby, was the topic related to psychology and the problems of the mind. During much of Hitchcock's career Freud's ideas were dominant, and although Hitchcock was skeptical of psychoanalysis, Freud's concepts are repeated in many of his films, remarkable Remember (1945), Vertigo (1958) , Psycho (1960) and Marnie the thief (1964). Hitchcock plays Iris, the protagonist, and the public to seek an explanation that Dr. Hartz provides us with the following sentence:

"Even the most simple can cause serious confusion in the mind of a person, there is no Miss Froy is an image of the subconscious "

suggestion that in the adversity of the facts and witnesses Iris shakes his conviction of being right. Interestingly
Miss Froy's name, has an amazing (or not) with Freud phonetic coincidence.

Promotional Trailer of "The Lady Vanishes"

With Vanishes, Hitchcock, won the perfect culmination of her time and left England to the U.S. with the firm intention to succeed in their attempt. For it had a solid track record comparable in quality and marketability of any American film spectacle.

José Martínez Trigueros.

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Other related articles:
-Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock.
-Chabrol, Rohmer y. .. Hitchcock.
"The unfaithful wife of Claude Chabrol.