The hitch-hiker

The Hitch-Hiker, Ida Lupino, USA, 1953, 71’ OV with Spanish subtitles

In the Hollywood of yesteryear it was not usual to find women manning the camera. The Hitch-Hiker, the first film noir helmed by a woman, defies all the preconceived notions associated with the female gaze upon a predominantly masculine genre. There are no women in this movie, only three men, a car and the road. It is a border road movie that subverts what could be considered the first law of road movies: the main characters can't take decisions, they are at the complete mercy of a villain who holds them at gun point, giving orders from the back seat, without a second of respite from sun-up to sundown. They might be at the wheel, but they're certainly not in control. The confinement to which the characters are submitted in the film is brought to bear upon the spectator, who feels just as asphyxiated, without any possibility of escape. Lupino, perhaps best known for her work as an actress, masterfully orchestrates the dramatic tension, combining chance and cruelty with electrifying effect, carrying out a crafty exercise in the use of genre that borders on the tenebrous, in order to talk about power and human fragility. There is much of The Hitch-Hiker in the psychological game that we'll later find in movies such as Funny Games (Michael Haneke, 1997). The plot unravels unfailingly towards resolution, but it is in the moments of respite along the way where every possibility crystallizes, where the suspense that keeps us on the edge of our seats lies. As the antagonist warns us in one of the scenes of the film, "You are going to die. Plain and simple. It's just a matter of when."