2022.12.02
The final wink that broke the fourth wall
My favorite scene in this movie is the final shot of Blanche winking at the audience. It's a perfect ending to this work, which is full of mischief and is full of humor. Hitchcock and screenwriter Ernest Lehman were reportedly at odds over this scene. But with this wink, Hitchcock wanted to show Blanche's triumphant victory in convincing even her lover George that he was a real medium.
There is another thing to keep in mind with this wink. It's breaking the so-called "fourth wall." In contrast to the upstage (left), downstage (right), and back of the stage on stage, there is a ``non-existent wall'' on the stage surface facing the audience that allows a fictional space to exist as a fiction. This is because if you break through that wall, it will encroach on real space and you will no longer be able to maintain your fiction.
Of course, there are many works that dare to put this method into practice. In Godard's `` Do What You Want '' (1960), the characters were talking to the camera, and in the world of American comics, in `` Deadpool '' (16), characters were talking furiously at the screen. However, Hitchcock himself probably had no intention of dismantling the film in a meta way. It was simply the most effective way to convey to the audience the fact that Blanche discovered the jewel without any supernatural powers.
However, at the same time, Hitchcock must have been very aware that he had little time left as a filmmaker. After working on ``Family Plot,'' he began working on a film adaptation of Ronald Kirkbride's spy novel `` The Little Night, '' but he did not have the energy left to complete the project, due to kidney failure. He passed away at the age of 80. Branch's wink was probably not a meta-cinematic "deconstruction" but an honest acknowledgment to the audience. A final wink from the god of suspense to us movie fans. The author accepts this.
*1 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074512/trivia/?ref_=tt_trv_trv
*2 “Teiban Film Art Hitchcock/Truffaut” Shobunsha
Text: Rui Takeshima
A pop culture writer who wants to be kicked by Hit Girl. Host of the web magazine "POP MASTER".
(c) Photofest / Getty Images
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