The ؾ College of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences recently hosted the latest installment of the Montesquieu Forum, featuring a lecture from visiting professor Samuel Zeitlin from University College London. Titled “Directions in Hitchcock’s North by Northwest,” the presentation focused on the directorial master’s use of linear motifs and numerical symbolism to create tension and release in his famous 1959 thriller.
The film follows an advertising executive Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) who is mistaken for a spy pursued by a shadowy agency that brings him from New York City to a famous climax atop Mt. Rushmore. Dr. Zeitlin observed that the modern thriller—in part codified by Hitchcock himself—relies on engaging the audience with a series of set pieces and tense standoffs that raise the tension to a nearly unbearable level. This is achieved not only through plot mechanics but deliberate symbolism placed throughout the movie’s visual presentation. As such, the visuals match an upward and diagonal trajectory much like the incline of a roller coaster.
Zeitlin argues that this match of form and content is evident from the opening credits designed by famous graphic designer Saul Bass. Intersecting lines and grid imagery create a sense of jagged, upward movement, and the diagonal movement of lines crossing the screen mirrors the use of murder weapons in many of Hitchcock’s films and his popular television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Additionally, the opening scene in Manhattan resembles and enormous grid and characters forced to interact with the world in strict 90-degree turns before the inciting incident occurs.
Zeitlin also focuses on the “ring composition” of this film and many others from Hitchcock’s “late period” (this includes classics such as Rear Window and Vertigo). The ring composition theory posits thematic and plot elements occurring equidistantly from the film’s center time mark, and he referred to the recurrence of a housekeeper and stairway imagery with exact timestamps to fit this theory. He also argued that the film’s effectiveness succeeds because the spiral motif (reflecting Thornhill’s internal state) with the upward trajectory of the plot’s progress creates a delicious tension that keeps audiences hooked.
Fellow ؾ CHESS members, students and cinemagoers were all in attendance, with a lively discussion that also explored the movie’s rich symbolism regarding advertising, masculinity and the trap of wealth.
