This scene is a flashback from memory, as told to us by a young woman, starting with a shot of sunny countryside, over which a voice says “It was a beautiful late summer’s day”. In the long take, where the characters are sat at each other’s side on the grass, we see the wind get up, blowing the grass and her hair, the light dim, and the rain start to fall on the characters. They run and seek shelter in three possible places, much like in the tale of the Three Little Pigs, but in the wrong order: A brick house, then a wooden house and then, finally, a flimsy little house open on four sides. The elements of the storm that we see owe nothing to those of a real storm, for they are in fact created by Hitchcock with studio wind machines and fake rain projected into the shot. In the wide shots you can clearly see the curtain of rain situated in front of the camera, which gives the illusion of real rain.
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This scene is a flashback from memory, as told to us by a young woman, starting with a shot of sunny countryside, over which a voice says “It was a beautiful late summer’s day”. In the long take, where the characters are sat at each other’s side on the grass, we see the wind get up, blowing the grass and her hair, the light dim, and the rain start to fall on the characters. They run and seek shelter in three possible places, much like in the tale of the Three Little Pigs, but in the wrong order: A brick house, then a wooden house and then, finally, a flimsy little house open on four sides. The elements of the storm that we see owe nothing to those of a real storm, for they are in fact created by Hitchcock with studio wind machines and fake rain projected into the shot. In the wide shots you can clearly see the curtain of rain situated in front of the camera, which gives the illusion of real rain.