North by Northwest

North by Northwest is one of Alfred Hitchcock's famous mystery/thriller films is a colorful combination of spies, counter spies, and lovers. Thornhill is the average advertising man in New York who is mistaken for a federal spy. Soon after he is taken away and nearly assassinated. He escapes near death and is on the run from then on, both from his killers and to find the real person he is mistaken for. During his journey he is false accused of murder, falls in love and escapes numerous near death experiences.
At the start of the film, Hitchcock pans the city of New York in his establishing shot and then quickly moves to mismatch editing with his view of the masses of people moving from left to right through the different scenes (places) in New york creating a very fluid continuity between shots that is key to understanding time, distance, and spaces relationship in the film. As continuity flows throughout the movie you can see shots of eye line match--two gentlemen gazing ominously at a man and then showing the man, Thrornhill, who is soon after kidnapped. Another fabulous example of his brilliant, yet suttlecontinuity within different shots comes in his examples of his reverse shot where the audience only sees a federal gov.'s back as he gazes out the window in search for answers and metaphorically looking at Thornhill.
Throughout the movie one will also discover the numerous signifiers that constantly change the meaning of different images. One image that stuck out to me was at the United Nations conference when the ominous man in the corner began putting on his black gloves. In this case, the gloves would be the signifier, the meaning of the image, and the signified could be a cover up, danger or murder. The signified is not what is actually in the image, but rather, the meaning of the image. Another signifier in the movie is when Thornhill was in Kendal's room and his sun glasses break. The signifier here would be the sunglasses and the signified could be that his true identity is revealed to her.

Finally, during the climax of the movie, the famous Mount Rushmore fight scene, continuity and discontinuity are happening at the same time. While the images are short and quick, showing the contrast and conflict, continuity is still shown with our understanding in time, distance, and space relation during this scene. This conversion of continuity and discontinuity heightens the symbolic energy in a great struggle of good against evil in a surreal outlook as it happens on the foreheads of our presidents.
"North by Northwest is a classic suspense movie, a film that is unparalleled even today in terms of producing an optimal combination of plot, humour, action, and intrigue without resorting to cliches...
However, writing and direction alone, as imaginative as it is here, do not make for the greatest movies. All of the actors do an excellent job in realising the potential in the script: Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint offer rock-solid performances," as said by http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies/north_by_northwest.html. I couldn't have said it better myself. ( I have to stop writing now because my computer is acting up and I don't want this post to be lost before I get to post it."