Analysis: North by Northwest Opening

North by Northwest is a Thriller by Alfred Hitchcock, released in 1959.

The opening starts with nothing but a Green background. This colour implies Envy and Guilt, which in turn implies that these could be themes within the motion picture. But then, thin, white lines appear on the screen, crossing from the right hand side to the left from a central point off-screen. Lines are a recurring theme in Thriller openings - they convey themes like prison cell bars, bullet motion, and cutting. As soon as these lines going across the image have appeared, a second set of lines appear from the bottom, crossing the first lines, although they all move straight upwards as opposed to spreading like the first set of lines. This grid traps the viewer in with it's many boxes, and also gives an impression of mathmatic calculation - precise thoughts, like those of a criminal.

As soon as this grid is established, the titles themselves begin to appear, starting with the name of the production company - MGM. Each half of the name comes from a different direction - "Metro" comes from the top, and "Goldwyn-Mayer" from the bottom - which both looks good and adds a sense of direction to the piece. When the MGM name appears, the music builds up into a tense symphony of strings - the instrumentation gives a sense of fast, jumpy, scurrying motion, which gives the intro a pace it wouldn't have without it. This 'scurry' of sound also sets us up for later scenes. As the green-and-grid proceeds to exist, the rest of the credits that roll in all share the same animation as the MGM name - one half up, one half down - which is a nice continuing theme, and again supports the whole directional theme expressed previously.

But then, the green-and-grid fades away, to reveal what appears to be the glass face of a skyscraper. The white lines from the grid match up with the frames of the glass, which links the graphics and photography very well, and helps to tie the graphics in also. In the glass now visible, there is a reflection of what appears to be traffic below the building, both vehicle and human, but due to the nature of the glass, the reflection slightly warped. This, on top of the fact that what we're seeing a reflection, gives us a reflection, means that we are not quite seeing things how they really are.