Part one of term paper
After viewing Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious for the first time, the film did not strike me as particularly complex. Nothing specific about the film lodged itself in my brain screaming for an answer—or, at least, an attempted answer. Yet, upon subsequent viewings, subtle things became more noticeable. (Perhaps Hitchcock's subtlety is what ...

Part two of term paper
... in the film shows how the above tools lead to a better understanding of the character's motivations. The most obvious recurring object in the final scenes is the poisoned coffee cup. In the first scene of the portion being analyzed, Sebastian suggests to Alicia that she drink her coffee, and Hitchcock zooms onto the object as she slowly takes a sip. In a later scene, Mrs. Sebastian pours the coffee into the cup for Alicia, and sets it on a small table in front of her. Here, Hitchcock not only zo ...