Analysis Of Alfred Hitchcock s I Confess - 1542 Words

I believe that in I Confess, the first four minutes is not only the most important, but it also relates back to the rest of the film perfectly. In the beginning of I Confess the audience is shown several shots of the beautiful povince of Quebec to emphasize the location and then we see a murder and a confession occur in the same night. In this essay, I m going to be analyzing the mise-en-scene, cinematography, and sound of the cinematic masterpiece I Confess by Alfred Hitchcock. Father Michael Logan is an extremely holy character in I Confess as he discovers one night during an out of the ordinary confession that one of his parishioners (Otto Keller) has murdered a wealthy member of the community (Vilette). Keller is a desperate German†¦show more content†¦They are greeted with musical stabs each time they appear and add suspense as the audience wonders that the signs are pointing at. The fourth time the direction sign shows up, the camera pans to the right and looks into a window. The open window reveals Vilette s dead body and the music escalates very quickly. The suspense in the first 45 seconds of this film is expertly crafted and although the murderer is revealed directly after, it leaves the audience curious. Beside the corpse is the murder weapon (a blunt instrument) and you can clearly see Vilette s head bleeding at the top, revealing how he was murdered. From the image of Vilette s body, the camera pans to the doorway where the beaded curtain is left swinging showing the audience that someone has just left the crime scene. Next, the audience sees a man in a priest s clothes hurrying down the sidewalk late at night. The lighting is very important in this shot as it sets a very serious, ominous tone. The character also looks over his shoulder hastily as if he s worried someone might see him. The camera goes to a wide shot to show that two young girls are right behind Keller as he briskly walks away from his crime. Then the shot fades into Kelle r walking towards the camera down an alleyway. The lighting is still extremely gloomy and shadowy as he takes off into a dark corner. The next shot has a revealing as Keller takes off his priest clothing and he looks around suspiciously.