North by Northwest Title Sequence

Ten years ago I took a film class in college and although I can't remember a jump cut from a cross-cut I do remember enjoying Hitchcock. North by Northwest became one of my favorites especially because of the score. I was a cello performance major as an undergrad and played in many orchestras. The score to this movie is wonderful.

I have not been able to figure out (and not for lack of trying) how to get this part of the movie on to Video Ant. There must be something with copyright issues and I don't own the movie. So, since it's a short clip I will annotate in sequence on my blog.

Before the credits appear, lines begin to crisscross a green background. I believe Hitchcock from the start is playing with the feeling of being off-kilter. Suddenly credits appear in the middle of the screen, but still askew.

The green background of criss-crossed lines gives way to the side of a building and more likely a sky scraper as heights plays a big role in this film. We can see cars reflected in the shots. Now the constant traffic adds to a sense of bustle and the repetitive percussive nature of the music keeps us on edge as the titles rise and fall like people getting on or off an elevator.

We then move to the ground just outside the building we were looking at and it's a mass of fast-walking people criss-crossing through each other on the street. It feels like a mad bustling world of business or busy-ness. We are looking from a slightly high shot which changes to a birds-eye view shot when everyone starts moving down the steps together into the subway.

We then start jump cutting from street (adding cars and buses to the mix) to train station stairs to two women fighting over a cab - which the first time two people seem to interact. Up until now the bustle seemed orderly on the edge of chaos, but now these two women fighting over a cab changes the tone. It looks like a dog eat dog world of competitiveness. We are also at or slightly below the level of the women in this shot.

There is one more cut to the bustle of the street and then we see our director miss the bus in a fun and abrupt way.

The combination of the relentless orchestral score and relentless motion of people and vehicles makes for an extremely engaging and suspenseful start to one of Hitchcock's best films. Hitchcock effectively uses all the techniques mentioned above from music to editing to create a tone before anyone utters a word. If he is trying to convey a industrial capitalist cut throat society he succeeds.