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Plot: Our protagonist, Scottie (James Stewart) is is a detective with a career ahead (played by a man in his 50s for some reason) who has a traumatic experience when his colleague dies of falling off a rooftop during a chase. Scottie develops a fear of heights and retires until an acquaintance asks him to follow and take care of his wife Madeleine (Kim Novak), who recently has started to act mentally unstable. She believes she has been possessed by her dead great-grandmother's ghost, who committed suicide. While looking after her, Scottie falls for Madeleine...
Theme: In spite of being a thriller, the story is about a tragic love or rather the tragic love of two broken people.
Content: Unlike today, the big twist of the story takes place in the middle of the story instead of waiting till the end. Hitchcock did this to help us understand Madeleine's perspective. The studio first removed this twist but then edited it back.
Form: To achieve the visual expression of the fear of height, the most noticeable is the so-called dolly zoom technique, where the camera is moved backwards while they are also zooming in. They say the film is also innovative in several editing methods. The nightmare-sequence mixed with animation is quite eye-catching even with today's standards. Music is much more than just background music, it is part of the images.
Impression: If the twist had not taken place in the middle of the story, my surprise would have definitely been bigger, but then I might have missed Madeleine's perspective. Well, not as if I did get it now... Maybe it would have been more effective if it had been shot from Madeleine's perspective.
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Plot: Rosebud - whispers Kane (Orson Welles), the media tycoon with his last breath. A short piece of news is made about his life but it's way too boring, so a journalist is told to investigate his life, including the meaning of "rosebud". So he visits all the important people in Kane's life...
Theme: The film presents the fictive life of the media tycoon (strongly resembling William Randolph Hearst), and we can see into his personality and motives. In the meantime we also learn about how mean the media and politics work.
Content: They say the narrative was innovative in its time, because it showed us different perspectives of the same thing. In this plot it served the function of getting Kane know. It was also unusual to have flashbacks and non-linear narrative: we did not see Kane's life in chronological order but in a way to deepen our knowledge of him. For this reason the film is compared to the style of Marcel Proust.
Form: The film is famous for its innovative visual elements, particularly the deep focus. For, me, however, is most apparent the composition of the scenes, the way characters are emphasized with lightning or positioning. For my delight, it did not lack expressionist elements as well.
Impression: Its hard to criticize the film, both the content and the visuals are cleverly made, but for me it lacked the catharsis. It had many great scenes, but none of them could really reach me.
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