Dialogue should simply be a sound among other sounds, just something that comes out of the mouths of people whose eyes tell the story in visual terms.
Alfred HitchcockRead
I am a typed director. If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Hitchcock suggests that his distinctive style influences audience expectations, even in familiar narratives.
Alfred Hitchcock's quote highlights how his unique filmmaking style, characterized by suspense and psychological thrillers, alters audience perceptions. By mentioning 'Cinderella', he illustrates that if he were to direct a well-known tale, viewers would anticipate a darker twist or an unexpected element, showcasing his knack for subverting traditional stories and creating tension.
Themes
FilmSuspenseAudienceExpectationNarrative
In practice
Example use cases
In a film studies class, discussing the impact of directorial style on storytelling.
More from Alfred Hitchcock
All quotes →Luck is everything... My good luck in life was to be a really frightened person. I'm fortunate to be a coward, to have a low threshold of fear, because a hero couldn't make a good suspense film.
Alfred HitchcockRead
I can't read fiction without visualizing every scene. The result is it becomes a series of pictures rather than a book.
Alfred HitchcockRead
Seeing a murder on television can help work off one's antagonisms. And if you haven't any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some.
Alfred HitchcockRead
There is something more important than logic: imagination
Alfred HitchcockRead
One must never set up a murder. They must happen unexpectedly, as in life.
Alfred HitchcockRead
Similar quotes
Fiction is a branch of neurology: the scenarios of nerve and blood vessels are the written mythologies of memory and desire.
J. G. BallardRead
If I wanted to do clothes or if I wanted to make a building or design a choreography, you are able to do that - they are all under a similar kind of design umbrella.
Zaha HadidRead
Music television is all about the media-oriented version of what it is to be a rock star; it's not about what Bob Dylan or Jimi Hendrix were about - which included great images, sure, but they had spiritual and political and revolutionary content, too.
Patti SmithRead
I didn’t want a completely passive viewer. Art means too much to me. To be able to articulate something visually is really an important thing. I wanted to make work where the viewer wouldn’t walk away; he would giggle nervously, get pulled into history, into fiction, into something totally demeaning and possibly very beautiful
Kara WalkerRead
To be an artist you have to give up everything, including the desire to be a good artist.
Jasper JohnsRead
An art which isn't based on feeling isn't an art at all... feeling is the principle, the beginning and the end; craft, objective, technique - all these are in the middle.
Paul CezanneRead