The Birds is a suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock based on the 1952 novella The Birds by Daphne du Maurier.

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   ‘The Birds’ is a suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock based on the 1952 novella ‘The Birds’ by Daphne du Maurier. It depicts a small town in the San Francisco Bay Area which is, suddenly and for unexplained reasons, the subject of a series of widespread and violent bird attacks over the course of a few days.  The story mainly focuses Melanie Daniels, a wealthy socialite whose father is an owner of a large newspaper. Melanie visits a San Francisco pet shop to pick up a bird she had ordered for her aunt. There she meets Mitch Brenner, a lawyer who is looking for a pair of lovebirds to give to his sister. Mitch, who is also one of the main characters in ‘The Birds’, sees Melanie and pretends to mistake her for a salesperson. Melanie acts the role, believing that she is fooling Mitch, until he reveals that he has known all along that she did not work in the shop. This is the point in the film that Melanie becomes angry with Mitch but at the same time she sees him as a potential boyfriend or partner. Melanie then buys the love birds and follows Mitch up to Bodega Bay, a small village up the Pacific coast. It is then that everything turns bad...

     Alfred Hitchcock is considered the acknowledged auteur master of the thriller or suspense genre, manipulating his audience's fears and desires, and taking viewers into a state of association with the representation of reality facing the character. So it would make no exception with ‘The Birds’.

   At the beginning of the film there is an absence of colour and all you can hear is the diegetic sound of birds flying around. The sound slowly dies away and soon changes from black and white to colour, helping to revel the city of San Francisco. Throughout the film there is no non-diegetic sound, the film solely depends of the use of diegetic sound. So basically all you can hear in the film is the natural sounds. This can be good for a suspense film because with no non-digetic sounds it helps to take away the predictability of a typical thriller. An example of this is when the first attack happens. Melanie is attacked while in a boat in the bay, but there was no sound to indicate something bad or sinister was about to happen. Another example of this is near the end of the film where Mitch is walking out towards Melanie’s car. Again, there is no sound to indicate that something is about to happen, good or bad. There being no sound could be seen as a good thing because it was mentioned earlier, it helps to take away the predictability of a typical thriller and it helps not to spoil the film for viewers.

  Also, in the scene when Melanie is sitting on a bench outside the school, Hitchcock presents to the audience the moment of fear and tension when we see the birds gathering behind her. This is effective in a number of ways: firstly, it presents the idea that Melanie is venerable and defenseless. Hitchcock does this by placing Melanie is an isolated part of the scene; no one is there except herself. She is all alone and there is no one there to help her if she is attacked by the birds. Yet it also explores the notim that the birds are much more superior than Melanie as they have the upper hand, the high ground. As soon as Melanie lights up her cigarette we see one bird swoop in and land on the climbing frame behind her.

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  As the scene progresses on we gradually see more and more birds gather behind her. While the audience was aware that there were birds gathering behind her, Melanie was not aware of the situation and did not notice the birds. It is only when she looks round and sees a bird flying in the sky. She keeps a close eye on that bird until it lands with the other birds; at this point the birds have swarmed the playground. Another thing that makes this scene effective is the fact that there is no non-diagetic sound. However, as the birds ...

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