OVERLAY REPORT

In the context of Éric Rohmer’s **Suzanne’s Career** (1963), the characters Bertrand and Guillaume go to a cinema to watch Alfred Hitchcock’s **The Birds** (1963). This meta-reference serves to highlight the social dynamics and the "moral" landscape of the students in Rohmer's film. In Alfred Hitchcock’s **The Birds**, there are two primary, onscreen deaths of named characters: 1. **Dan Fawcett:** He is a local farmer in Bodega Bay. He is the first person discovered to have been killed by the birds. Lydia Brenner (Mitch’s mother) visits his farm and finds him in his bedroom. The death is depicted with gruesome detail: his eyes have been pecked out, leaving empty sockets, and there are dead birds scattered around the room. 2. **Annie Hayworth (played by Suzanne Pleshette):** She is the local schoolteacher and Mitch Brenner's former flame. She dies toward the end of the film during a massive bird attack on the Brenner house. In an act of self-sacrifice, she pushes Mitch’s younger sister, Cathy, into the safety of the house but is trapped outside herself. Melanie Daniels and Mitch later find her body lying on the porch, having been pecked to death by the birds. Additionally, a **gas station attendant** is killed during the chaotic bird attack in the town center. While he is performing a task at the pumps, he is struck by a bird and knocked unconscious; a trail of gasoline then catches fire from a bystander's dropped cigar/match, leading to an explosion that kills him and several others in the immediate vicinity.