The Birds (1963)The Birds (1963)

Abstract

Abstract “The Birds (1963): Trauma and the right of reply” examines the shot in which Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) wakes from traumatized slumber on the Brenner family couch, only to find herself plunged psychologically back into the horrific assault on her by dozens of birds in the attic just a few minutes before. In it, Melanie looks directly into the lens of the camera and, as it pushes further into her pain, pushes it back. It is the great emotional climax of this film, and it is a kind of “right of reply” from the actor forced to endure the shoot. The film’s star, Hedren, whose inarticulate, spasmodic gestures—seemingly spontaneous and quite unpremeditated—functions as a warding-off of the camera’s complicity and ours in all this senseless assault, had good reason to fight the camera and its director, as this chapter explains.