God Sees All… And So Do We
POWERS OF TEN (or better, COSMIC ZOOM) as remade by Hitchcock… with a small assist by me.
Hitchcock’s overhead shots have a particular function. They certainly act as storytelling shots, with Hitchcock the Master explaining the set-up to us. But they also fit into his world of subjective camera effects: the POV in question being that of God.
But if the above observation seems trite or familiar, please entertain yourselves by identifying all of the films sampled above…
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shadowplay 
May 18, 2012 at 7:52 pm
And, seen from above, we’re all bugs. Or, in the context of Hitchcock, cattle.
May 18, 2012 at 8:14 pm
I guess Saul Bass thinks the same way…didn’t he stage the shower scene?
May 18, 2012 at 11:03 pm
Bass’s contribution is disputed — he certainly drew the storyboards, but one imagines Hitch supervized. And Bass’s claim to have directed the scene has not been verified by anyone else: if he was directing, Janet Leigh didn’t notice. Hitch did grudgingly admit he let Bass direct part of Martin Balsam’s murder, but claims he had to reshoot part of it.
May 18, 2012 at 11:11 pm
Here’s something Bass actually directed — and it’s not at all like Psycho
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jVRePj1Iq0
May 18, 2012 at 11:42 pm
It’s a GREAT sequence, thanks to Bass and Mr Bernstein. Apart from the kitty cruelty at the end.
May 19, 2012 at 9:44 am
As per Bill Krohn, Bass didn’t do any actual directing. What he did was the title sequence and storyboards for the two murder scenes. Hitchcock in his interview with Truffaut said that Bass just did the Arbogast staircase murder storyboards and nothing else, when in fact Bass did storyboards for the shower scene as well.
So Bass saying he directed the scene was getting back for legitimate grievance at Hitchcock for denying him his due in the film’s great set piece. When he made the claim, he sent his storyboards to a magazine as “evidence”.
May 19, 2012 at 10:39 am
That makes sense. Hitch does have a tendency to take credit for every damn thing in his interviews, although he does at least admit to mistakes (even though he’s sometimes wrong about them, ie the bomb in Sabotage).
May 19, 2012 at 4:16 pm
Funny thing, before you suggested it, I’d already had a go at identifying the various shots.
Fairly certain about most of them, but have some doubts about others. #2 is 39 Steps, presumably? #7 is Foreign Correspondent, maybe? #8 Torn Curtain? #12 is a real puzzler, Murder? Strangers on a train?
May 20, 2012 at 1:46 am
Not to forget this one and several other shots from above the—-
http://tinyurl.com/7lrel4o
Incidentally Norman Lloyd from this film is supposed to be doing a masterclass in Cannes this week.
As much of a fan of the Eames as I a, I agree that COSMIC ZOOM is the more interesting and entertaining version of the concept.
May 20, 2012 at 10:03 am
Those FX shots in Saboteur are staggering. Of course Hitch was right that he put the wrong man in danger. North By Northwest supplies the solution: have the hero dangle, but the villain fall.