'North By Northwest'

'North By Northwest', directed by the famous Alfred Hitchcock (1959), is about a middle-aged advertising executive Roger O. Thornhill (played by Cary Grant) who is mistaken for a CIA agent, George Kaplan, by a gang of spies. After being charged for a murder he didnt commit, he is pursued across the States by both the spies and the government to find Kaplan and clear his name, whilst being assisted by a beautiful blonde (Eve Kendall - played by Eva Marie Saint).
In the opening credits of the film, there is lines shooting across the screen which creates the glass windows and frames of a city sky scraper. This is an effective way of showing us where the film is set. The non diegetic sound during this scene is fast, this shows and links in with the pace of the busy city, shows everyone is on the move.
When Roger walks into the hotel to meet his friends (near the beginning) there is classical music playing, hich shows the wealth of the place, and also tells us a bit about what the characters like. Most of the sound in this film is non diegetic and is all created by string instrumets, this kind of links in with the time the film was made. It has a contrasting effect on the mood and tone depending on whats happening in the scene, for example, when we see everyone rushing around in the city at the start, the sound is fast and links in with the pace of the city. When Roger and Eve are getting close in her room on the train, a romantic atmosphere is created with the music (non diegtic), this also happens in the woods when they say goodbye to eachother. At this point, the music is also quite sad. Near the start of the film when Roger is involved in the car chase, there is an unpleasant screeching noise made with the tyres, this adds to the tension of the scene and builds suspense.
There is a lot of cross cuting in this film, meaning lots of quick short cuts. During the film, there are a lot of scenes that fade out, showing time has passed since the previous scene, for example, when Roger is punched in the forest the scene fades out to when he is in hospital. Reverse shots are use aswell, to show both the characters reactons and how they are saying things, e.g. at dinner on the train when Eve and Roger are talking (eyeline matching). Also, there is effective use of off screen space. We know action is taking place in one room because we have just seen it happening, like when Roger pretends to take a shower in Eve's hotel room.
When Roger is drunk at th beginning, after he's been kidnpped, we see him trying to drive. The camera keeps switching from a close up of is face, to a point of view shot of him driving. The point of view shot allows the audience to see as he see's it, and also builds suspense as he is disorientated and cannot see properly where he is driving. They fear he might get hurt. In the last scene where Eve is hanging off Mount Rushmore, there are lots of quick cuts, which adds suspense to the scene as we want her to get up safely. There are lots of match cuts so the spectator can make more visual sense of whats going on. Point of view shots are also used to show the emotion and reactions of the other characters face, for example, when Roger looks down at a desperate Eve. Finally, there is a continuity cut which takes us from the Mount Rushmore scene to the scene on the train. There is also a contrast on this part, where there is desperation for Eve to be safe and not fall, to the romantic happy scene on the train.
Overall, I actually think this film was quite good. There was definately a lot of things i could pick out in terms of editing and sound, etc. One of my favourite parts of the film is at the beginning when Roger is kidnaped. He is sat in between the two men in the cab and starts making sacastic comments like "would you mind telling my friends that I've been kidnapped. They'll think I'm awfully rude for just leaving!". It amused me, and probably other members of the audience too. There was a good use of editing and sound, as both the diegetic and non diegetic sound always worked with the scene.