The Wrong Man (1956)The Wrong Man (1956)

Abstract

Abstract “The Wrong Man (1956): Towards singularity” examines a superimposition shot. Marking a turning point in this narrative of mistaken identity, it erupts like a luminous visual revelation in the film’s otherwise bleak realist universe. It involves not one but, by definition, two shots in lap-dissolve, extended at a climactic point to a superimposition. Yet it begs to be seen as one. The optical impression of spatiotemporal simultaneity effects a play of transparency and opacity, surface and depth, singular and dual/multiple, seminal to the challenging questions of identity and identification at the heart of film. The doubling/splitting of identity, the deceptiveness of appearances, the displacement of guilt—all are key tropes inflecting Hitchcock’s work. Through close analysis, this chapter reflects on the multiplicity of meanings bound up with the technique’s ambiguity, which ultimately disturbs our confidence in the uniqueness of human beings and points to an irrecoverable gap between seeing and knowing.