The Lodger
The Lodger is probably the first movie from the silent era that I've watched all the way through. It was kind of interesting to see how the actors were able to portray a lot of what they were going through or felt without saying anything. Even when there wasn't any title cards to offer dialogue, the actors still said very little. I think this has something to do with and reinforces Alfred Hitchcock's feelings that dialogue is not as important. He says in his interview with Truffaut that, realistically, people don't always say what is really on their minds. And what they are thinking is both far more important and often far more interesting than what they say. Hitchcock said that you can show so much more about a person by watching them than by listening to them. I really like this idea, despite my favoring dialogue-driven scripts.
The movie brought about one of Hitchcock's motifs: the fear of authority. The lodger himself is run down wrongly by the authorities, who are made to become almost the face of the bad-guy even before we know that the lodger is innocent. They way they are portrayed is overbearing and arrogant, almost, which forces the audience to dislike them in a subtle way.
There are a few things that made me take note in the movie. For instance, the number of the house (the place most of the action occurs) is unlucky number thirteen. Another is the recurring theme of Tuesdays, which I find interesting because (in Greek culture) Tuesdays are greatly unlucky. Yet, also in Greek culture, the number thirteen is actually considered lucky. Hitchcock obviously meant this to be important because he took the time to put the number on the door and made sure that it was clearly visible at one point. Hitchcock also made sure to note several times that the murder kept occurring on Tuesdays. He even goes as far as to dedicate a title card to a character saying “It always happens on Tuesdays” (or some such) which, for Hitchcock, is a really big deal.
