"The Strange Corpse Case" is a film made by Hitchcock in 1955, according to the English title, it should be called "Harry's Troubles", but Hong Kong translated it as "Strange Corpse Case", giving people a creepy feeling and deviating from the original meaning of the film. In fact, a corpse in the movie is not "strange", but it has been buried three times, and it has been planed out three times, but it is a little "strange". When the film was screened in France that year, it was translated as "Who Killed Harry?" It is closer to the content of the movie.
If you follow the translation habit of the ten miles of the Ocean Field before liberation, this movie can be called "three digging corpses".
Although it has such a frightening translation, the content of the film is quite warm, and there is no atmosphere of horror at all.
This is also a Hitchcock movie that I like more, in contrast, a movie like "Rear Window" is mysterious, lacks authenticity, and the traces of fabrication are too thick, while the concept of "Strange Corpse Case" is very wonderful, its beauty is that a corpse "blows a pool of spring water in a small village", accidentally changing the interpersonal relationship between the village and promoting the flow and circulation of emotions in the town. Horror has such an effect, it should be said that Hitchcock's discovery.
From the film, we can see Hitchcock's consistent motivation and motivation for filming, that is, murder, murder and other eerie realistic elements, under Hitchcock's mirror, often become a key to his in-depth exploration of interpersonal relationships and emotional motivations, or called "back window peep".
The following author from three aspects, to explore why Hitchcock films are almost all with death, showing the spectacle of killing, but in his films, there is a positive energy background, after watching it, there is no sense of terror, but full of confidence in life?
Although Hitchcock had his superb suspense techniques, why did he finally translate these techniques into his valuable life themes? And at this point, why do our entertainment movies often only show evil, but do not have the light and transmission of good, thus giving people a feeling of disgust?
Beyond hitchcock's technical research, deep into the core connotation of value in Hitchcock's films, is the real entrance to uncovering Hitchcock's secrets and values.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >, The Story Dynamics of The Strange Corpse Case: Why is Hitchcock interested in homicide? </h1>
Hitchcock's films are always a homicide, and in "Strange Corpse Case", from the beginning, in the mountains on the edge of the picturesque village, a well-dressed corpse appears.
Suddenly, the originally calm village was swept into a clamor and commotion that the corpses inevitably caused.
It can be said that Hitchcock, in his films, always changes his way, showing the candlelight axe shadow of a murder, and then, using this sword and light sword shadow as an excuse, to organize the themes he wants to express in his films.
Why does a homicide have so much magic for a movie?
It can be said that this actually reflects the laws of a movie. "Violence" and "death" and these associated murders, murders, vendettas, etc., are born with a self-contained circulatory system, these accessories collectively known as "death elements", placed in a work, can make a work of art have a firm support, to obtain the ability to walk independently. This can be called an "eye" or a "node".
For example, we jump out of Hitchcock and look at the violent themes of Quentin's films. If quentin's film does not have the final sudden sudden violence, then the lengthy and cumbersome life narrative of the first half of his film is a tasteless flowing account, but at the end of a sudden arrival of violence, the loose elements of the film are suddenly wrapped in a tense theme, and given a sense of deep investigation and exploration.
Similarly, murder has such a function. Hitchcock unabashedly once used black humor in his movie "Train Freaks" to show that ordinary people, when they hear murder, they extend their ears, raise their eyebrows, and lean over to inquire about movements.
It is this deep understanding of the human heart that makes Hitchcock always come up with a death incident to attract the attention of the audience.
In "The Strange Corpse Case", it can be seen that this mentality of Hitchcock is typically reflected. The film is adapted from a short story, but the original work once turned around in Hollywood, and Hollywood studios believed that the story of the novel was bland and not enough to constitute a dramatic conflict, and the film lacked value and gave up.
But Hitchcock didn't see it that way, he knew that as long as there was a light of death in a movie, then he was not afraid of not getting people's attention.
Therefore, a corpse on a hillside in "Strange Corpse Case" can make Hitchcock's eyes glow, surrounding this corpse, showing the realistic survival and emotional direction of various people in the village.
It can be said that a death light and shadow can open the value process of interpreting the fate of a small village.
In "Strange Corpse Case", a corpse is displayed from the beginning, evoking suspense, what caused his death? With a good idea, then the characters will continue to emerge, appear one after another, and deduce themselves according to the logic of their own destiny.
"Strange Corpse Case" has such a good antecedent setting, the film uses a corpse as the driving force of the story, and immediately lets the characters of the small village show a thousand strange sentient beings in front of this corpse.
First of all, we see that the old captain of the hunt mistakenly believes that he shot and killed the deceased, so that he thinks that he is suspected of murder, so that he is tightly wound, and from beginning to end he enthusiastically surrounds the corpse, not leaving him.
And then an old maid in the village, she believes that Harry's insult to her before he died caused her blow, which led to his death, so she also tangled with the corpse. When she saw that the old captain himself confessed the account of the murder, she felt guilty in her heart, so she was grateful to the old captain and invited him to the house as a guest. It can be seen that a bizarre death has caused the previously estranged interpersonal relationships in the small village to begin to merge intensively. This is the unexpected effect of death.
Later, Mrs. Rogers, a young mother with a small child, also came to the corpse and identified the deceased as her titular husband, Harry. But she did not have a good feeling for the deceased, but was very happy about his death. This character is the closest to the deceased, and her strange behavior constitutes the biggest suspense in the movie. The initiation of her inner secrets brought about another chain reaction to the painter she had been secretly paying attention to, and the painter was also involved in this death case.
In this way, we can see that the death case, the pair of captain and old maid, and the young mother and painter, are placed in the engine of self-operation, and in the face of this death, they begin to act autonomously, automatically joining the process of the story. That's where the film is cleverly conceived.
The painter, out of his affection for the young mother, and the captain, out of his conviction that he had killed someone else by mistake, the two of them set out to bury the body together, thus having the first burial of the body in the film.
Next, the movie unfolds its wonderful "three digs" funny process. When the old captain found that all three of his bullets had targets, then, after ruling out that the deceased was killed by his own shotgun, he first asked for a body exhumation in order to wash the killing of snow on his body, so that there was the first "digging up the body" in the movie.
The old maid was grateful to the old captain for taking the initiative to claim that she was the murderer in the death case, and had a deeper contact with the old captain, and after thinking about it, she was ready to confess that she was the murderer, took the initiative to clarify the truth to the police, and let the old captain cooperate with her to complete the excavation of the body. So there was the second "exhumation" in the movie.
The people involved in the death case came together again, and in order to protect the privacy of the young mother and prevent being stigmatized by Harry's death, the painter suggested that the body be buried again. Therefore, several relevant people in the small village in the movie buried the body again.
The relationship between the painter and the young mother developed rapidly, and soon entered the point of talking about marriage, and at this time, when the free body of the young mother must be restored, then there must be evidence of the death of her nominal husband Harry, and in this way, the third "exhumation" had to be carried out.
It is precisely this different motive effect that makes the "three burials and three diggings" of the corpse constitute a comedic factor in the movie, and it has also become an emotional collision between men and women in the small village who have only heard about it but have not interacted, which has contributed to the bridge of interpersonal relations.
The death case not only gives the film a momentum for plot development, but also gives a strong impetus to the fusion and collision of the characters in the film.
From this point of view, Hitchcock vividly showed the importance of death in "Strange Corpse Case" for story synthesis, character shaping and film structure. If others believe that "the drama is not enough, love to make up", then Hitchcock insists on "the drama is not ok, kill to push".
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > II. The Absurd Creation of The Strange Corpse Case: Why did Hitchcock let death create a black humor atmosphere? </h1>
In "Strange Corpse Case", Hitchcock did not render the horror atmosphere from the beginning, but highlighted the pleasure of a paradise in the mountains and rivers, and the story motivation in the film, the corpse named Harry, is also a suit and leather shoes in the movie, neat as new, even if three burials and three diggings, the clothes of the deceased have not been damaged.
Hitchcock used more of his intentions to create a ridiculous atmosphere of black humor, first of all, on the screen to relieve and disintegrate the shadow of the death case, highlighting a contrasting peaceful atmosphere, to show the secular atmosphere he wanted to express.
That is to say, to attract the attention of the audience under the guise of terror, and then tout the survival of ordinary people who are completely retrograde.
Therefore, the characters in "Strange Corpse Case" give the audience the impression at the beginning as if they are missing a tendon. Originally, the sudden appearance of a corpse on the edge of the village would definitely cause an uproar, but all the people of all colors who passed by the corpse turned a blind eye and did nothing.
This diametrically opposed attitude toward death is precisely hitchcock's deliberate approach to black humor.
We can see that the old captain who first appeared was more than generous and unintelligent, and found a corpse, and he did not have serious thinking and rational judgment at all, and categorically believed that he was the murderer. In the process of dealing with the deceased, he was repeatedly interrupted by various people passing by, and he also casually ridiculed: If I sell tickets here, will there be so many people coming?
After the painter found the body, he did not think of reporting the crime at all, but comforted the old captain, thinking that the deceased "may be a masterpiece of heaven, so that you can have the honor of ending a person's life."
Later, the rapid emotional interaction between the captain and the old maid, the painter and the young mother in the film is presented in an exaggerated and funny way. The characters in the movie all have a paranoid comic-like personality setting, and it is this deformed setting of the character's detachment from reality that can ignore the haze and pressure brought about by death.
On the contrary, the deputy sheriff in the movie, who has been diligently pursuing the death case, seems out of place against the background of the villagers who have missing a tendon in their minds in the film.
That is to say, after Hitchcock distorted the personality and mode of the villagers in the film, the real real reality of the character setting, but it seems abnormal. As a result, the deputy sheriff has become an outlier that the villagers are eager to solve and push away.
That's where Hitchcock's brilliance lies. In the movie, he depicts a group of villagers who are obviously not rigorous enough in thinking, get along with each other, ignore the existence of the law, and ignore the existence of the law, and the deputy sheriff, as the spokesperson of social morality, has become an unsociable monster, which shows that when the film creates a kind of value identity of the subject, it is likely to restrict the real survival norms in real life, and those who represent the true value in reality are suppressed by the grand value system in the movie and are alienated into heresies.
Hitchcock was able to do this because he defined the personality and thinking system of the villagers, highlighting their humanity and goodness, in contrast to the deputy sheriff who represented the laws and regulations of human beings, who was an unreasonable person.
The villagers portrayed in Hitchcock's lens, although they exploit the loopholes in the law and try to exonerate themselves, they don't look smart enough, they ignore the other, but they are all kind, helpful, brave to take responsibility, less a tendon, but more ordinary people's simplicity. They may show a mentally retarded tendency after the absurd treatment, but they can better reveal their good feelings and innocent nature, and it is this sincere nature of the character that makes them more cute than the strict, stereotypical deputy sheriff.
It can be said that the villagers who have been treated through black humor have immune function, can escape the cold sanctions of the law, they are naïve, selfless, love what I love, although they have been not far from the gloomy death, but it is enough to make them become the deserved positive energy leader in the movie, which is why Hitchcock movies can overflow with positive energy.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >3, the value of "Strange Corpse Case": Why can Hitchcock establish a positive pedestal of human nature in the movie? </h1>
Behind Hitchcock's films always living with the shadow of death, there has always been a warm part of human nature, because Hitchcock has been in the film, with his lens, showing the sincerity and truth of people, all of which dilute the horror of murder and murder in the foreground and the haze of death associated with it.
In "The Case of the Strange Corpse", we can see that Hitchcock made a moral determination of the personality of the deceased Harry, denied the value of this person, and consolidated his death on the level of death and deprived the audience of sympathy for the deceased, so that the audience would accept and accept the carnival and pleasure of the villagers on the sadness of the deceased.
Harry's identity is assembled through the various fragments in the eyes of the villagers in the village, and these fragments synthesize a rough impression and identity of Harry.
Among them, the young mother, Mrs. Rogers, is naturally the most critical figure in Harry's moral characterization, because nominally she is his wife, but, in the film, we see that it is she who is the first to express a sense of relief for his death.
Then, next, through the young mother's confession to the painter, we further understand that Harry's existence is against human morality, and from a moral point of view, it is incompatible with the harmony and tranquility of the village, and he is excluded from the survival system of the village, which is the most natural.
The young mother introduced that she originally met a man, that is, the ex-husband with whom she gave birth, but the ex-husband was soon killed, and then the ex-husband's brother Harry appeared in her life, she was forced to make a living, had to remarry Harry, but on the wedding night, Harry did not quit, because he believed in astrology, thought that this day was not suitable for intercourse, since then the young mother was disheartened with him, felt that he could not be relied on, gave birth to the child, and left him. Recently, Harry found out her address and came after her. Unwilling to live with him, she knocked him unconscious and drove him away.
Her telling, which was only one-sided, was clearly in her favor, but it could be seen that Harry was a shadow in her marriage and did not deserve sympathy, and that letting him die was the best option.
Next, Harry mistakes the old maid for his wife on the mountain, and wants to do something wrong, and the old maid gives him another blow, causing him to break his head and bleed, thus making the old maid think that she is also a murderer.
In this way, Harry's "Strange Corpse Case" is a negative image that destroys the quiet life of the village, he must die, and his death is showing a positive energy in the movie.
In the face of Harry's trouble, the people in the small village showed their gentle part, eliminating the pressure that Harry brought to the residents.
The people associated with Harry's death in the film, including the old captain, who was originally thought to have killed Harry, the old virgin, she was the one who gave Harry the last blow, and the young mother, Mrs. Rogers, Harry's nominal wife, was the first person to stun Harry, these three people are more or less related to Harry's death, but the three people shown in the movie have a human touch, a pure and kind personality, and far more positive energy than Harry.
The painter originally had no connection with Harry, but because he liked his young mother and Harry's wife, he was also involved in this black humor drama of "three exhumations". In the film, the intention emphasizes his ancient and warm feelings, originally he was a painter with no talent and no name, and then it came to run, a rich man looked at his paintings, bought his works that have been unpopular, at this time fame and fortune, but the painter did not get carried away by his own profits, the remuneration he collected from the rich man was all used to improve the quality of life in the neighborhood, and the items he asked for for himself were an expectation of his future life - the double bed, which is also the biggest funny rest in the movie.
It can be seen that the characters in the whole village, in Hitchcock's lens shaping, are full of warm heritage and charm, and under the previous derogatory treatment of the deceased, they have vigorously raised the spiritual cultivation of the characters in the small village, thus forming a huge gap between the two, and lifting up the positive energy of the film essence to "lift the seedlings", how can such a film not glow with a strong and high spiritual strength? This is the true essence of Hitchcock's real comfort.
"Strange Corpse Case" from my personal point of view, is a Hitchcock film enough to rank in the top five films, aside from the Hitchcock-style horror rendering and suspense showmanship, "Strange Corpse Case" tells the story, close to the people's life, cut into the world's hearts, the mirror language adopts a surreal deformation method, highlighting the huge gap in human nature, character, personality, lifting up the most precious positive energy in life, the whole film has the quality of art film, like a fable, like a sketch, Gain insight into the big life in the small place, and refract the human feelings from the horror. At least I feel more tender and romantic than the bluntly crafted film of "Rear Window".