The Night of the Hunter
Extract Three "Hide and Seek" (0h44 à 0h46)
Objectifs:
 | Faire le lien entre les séquences précédentes: Who is the Man in Black? A good man or a bad guy? What happened to the children's parents? What can the children do now? |
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| Linguistique: champs lexical de la peur, de l'appréhension, de la tension, du suspense |
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| Grammatical: verbes de perception (we can see him search the house..); obligation (they have to hide); comparatifs (the man looks more and more frightening) |
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| Analyse de tous les procédés cinématographiques mis en œuvre pour faire monter la tension |
Description:A man is waching the children's house… He is calling the children ("chill-dren, chill-dren):
Interpretation: Does he wants to find them, talk to them, or play with them?
Description: the children are hiding in the basement/cellar.
Interpretation: they must be playing hide and seek. Could they be hiding from some danger?
Close shots = Concentrating on John's face and words
Description: John looks worried, anxious, frightened."If…" = "If we stay here, something awful will happen to us".
Interpretation:The children are not really playing. John has to make a decision: they have to escape, run away, because the man in black is after them, he must be after the money. He is a bad man!
Description: the man walks around the house, searches the house, the bedroom, under the bed. We can hear him go upstairs, we can hear his footsteps, we can hear him call the children.
Interpretation :those are hints showing the children are in danger. The man looks more and more frightening, threatening, menacing…The tension is growing.The children may be in danger, the man in black is after them.
The audience wonders if the children are safe in the cellar, if he is going to find them. Are they quiet enough? Will they manage to/succeed in escape/ing?
 | Check (or imagine) what happened to the children's parents. |
Pearl wonders where they are. They are not home. We know the father was arrested by the police. The children may now be orphans.
| Find at least 4 devices used by the director to make tension grow all along the sequence. |
There is no music.
The close-in shot on the children hiding in the cellar.
The numerous close shots on John's serious face, whispering.
The threatening footsteps of the man in the distance.
The children are trapped in the cellar.
The shadows on the wall.
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How does the sequence end? This is an anti climax. A new character, who could be the children's grandmother stops the man before he can find the children…. |
Conclusion The man must be after the children's money. He wants to make them talk to him, to reveal him their secret, in spite of their promise to their father….To be continued!
Follow up work
| Writing (200 words) |
Imagine the continuation of the story: The Children's Escape.
Journey? Means of transport? Hiding places? Meetings?
Imagine two possible endings:
1) A Happy Ending: the children get rid of the preacher. How?
2) A Sad Ending: the children are caught up by the bad guy. What happens to them?
In both circumstances, what about the money?
| retour à la présentation |
| extrait 1 |
| extrait 2 |
| évaluation |