Psycho is a thriller/horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Psycho was made in 1960 and set in Phoenix, Arizona. Psycho is a film still talked about today.
Psycho starts with the credits coming rather jolty, like a stabbing movement this shows it is a thriller/horror film. Whilst they are coming in the music we can hear a load, screeching noise. The film starts with an aerial shot of the town then zooms in on a window. It then has an interment two shot, during this two shot the blinds are closed showing that we should not being watching it or may be a relationship with a lot of secrets. There is diegetic sound and non-diegetic as Sam is talking to Marion there is a soft deep tone in the background. Whilst Sam is talking to marine there is a lot of cross-cutting this creates a bit of tension, again maybe a relationship with secrets. On her way to work Marion actually passes Hitchcock, this could mean she is always being watched. When Marion is shown the money she gets a confused look on her face. During this scene we are always looking in from an over the shoulder view so it’s like the audience are in the room. When Marion puts the money down on her bed the camera then does a close up on the money the connotation is how we know by this shot that the money is going to play a major part in the rest of the film, and is taking control of her, we also see a packed suitcase. The music in the background makes it like the money and the suitcase isn’t a good idea.
The next time we see Marion whilst she is in her car. It is all calm until she sees her boss, the music then suddenly jumps in with non-diegetic noise and we are then made to feel this journey is a bad idea. The scene then crosses from a rural area with a lot of people to a quite country side. Marion is then waked up by a policeman whilst she’s sleeping in her car and is integrated by him. There is a close up of the police man and then an extreme close up, Hitchcock has done this to intimidate Marion and us. The police man shows authority before he has even said anything as he is wearing blacked out glasses with no emotions on his face. Marion acts very suspiciously and seems to be nervous. The police man just like the audience suspects some things going on and follows Marion. He is led to a car garage. When she is there is an over the shoulder shot where she has the garage and police man either side of her so the connotation of her being trapped. Marion seems very nervous and scared and when speaking to the salesmen she is urgent, when she is talking to the salesmen the lighting is very interesting, she is in the dark for the majority and he is in the light, this shows everything Marion has done since she has had the money has been bad. Marion also decides to exchange her car and counts out the necessary cash from the $40,000 in the ladies’ rest room. Here Hitchcock uses the first of series creative ‘mirror’ shots to emphasise the duplicity of her actions
Once Marion has bought the car and lost the cop she carries on her journey. We then have a point of view shot of the rain heavily falling on the front window, this makes it seem that she is not in control. She then takes an unwanted stop at a dark, creepy motel. She asks for a room of a man who runs the motel. He a first seems nice but as he speaks more he seems to get a bit weird. He asks her to sign in, as she does she hesitates and signs in with a false last name. As she does this the theme of double identity and reflected image is then continued Marion tries to deceive Norman by signing in with a false name, as we can see Marion in the mirror once again. When Norman, the owner of motel gets Marion a key, he starts with his hand hovering over 3 then 2 and finally chooses 1. This makes him seem strange and we as an audience wonder what is behind the room number, or has Hitchcock done this for it to be a countdown of her life.
Marion then joins Norman for supper and he takes her into his office, in his office are a lot of stuffed birds. This is quite strange and once again we worry about this mysterious motel owner. A good shot down by Hitchcock is a low angle of Norman with a stuffed eagle behind him. An eagle is a predator, relating to Norman. Norman and Marion start to talk and Normans Mother, Every time she is brought up Norman learns forward, once again Hitchcock making us wonder who and what has happen in Norman’s life. That scene showed the characters are trapped, Marion is trapped in a relationship going nowhere, Norman seems to be trapped by his mother, and Normans stuffed birds trapped as mounted trophies and Marion’s guilt for stealing the money.
When Marion leaves to go back to her room Norman removes a picture from the wall. He looks through the hole he was cut the wall of Cabin 1, we see a profile of his eyes staring at Marion undressing, then a cut to a direct POV shot, of Marion undressing – we have become Norman, the voyeur. Explaining his choice for choosing room 1.
We then see Marion get in the shower. The shower is lit up and is a personal place, Hitchcock puts us in a place we shouldn’t be. We see a shadow creep up through the shower curtain, the person has blurred out face which is strange as the bathroom was lit up before we could see the killer. Hitchcock may have done this to keep us guessing. The killer then stabs Marion, we see this but yet no more of the killer. The music starts to slow down, just like her heartbeat. There is then a couple of great camera shots, first of the blood running the drain, then the extreme close up of her eye. These shots show how all of Marion’s of running away to start a new life has ended before it has even started.
When we next see Norman he is dressed in all black, could this be related to Marion’s murder. He is interviewed by a detective who tries to trick Norman to revealing Marion’s whereabouts. There is construct battle between men and woman, there is a power struggle between Norman and the detective, Every time we see Norman he is chewing gum this is a sign of nervousness. Arbogast the detective who knows Norman is not explaining everything, so goes to check out the suspicious house where Norman’s mother is living. As he walks up the stairs he is stabbed by a figure that seems to be the mother. We see this from a bird’s eye view, if this was the mother it shows the strong minded female as got a hold over Norman.
We then see Norman carry his mother down the stairs. We are then confused as for every time the mother is from a high angled shot, maybe this is relating to Normans love for birds as we are seeing a bird’s eye view.
Marion’s sister and her lover visit the motel to find out what’s going on. When they meet Norman there is another case of false identities as Lila and Sam pretend to be married. When Lila, Marion’s sister is exploring Mr’s Bates room and scares herself in her own reflection. Hitchcock uses the ‘mirror’ motif to underline our basic narcissistic voyeurism.
Lila is then rushed into deciding to go into the cellar where she finds Mr’s Bates, the body of Mr’s Bates is a skeleton looking straight at Marion’s sister. The empty eye sockets of Norman’s mother’s stuffed corpse are made to ‘see’ her sons attack on Lila and his eventual capture by the effect of moving shadows created in them by swinging light bulbs.
Norman then rushes in to our surprise dressed as his mother with a knife about to kill Lila. This shows how Norman was both him and his mother, like a schizophrenic. The last part of the film is with Norman, who is locked away at the police station. He talks to himself in his head, but in a women’s voice which obviously is his mother. This means although he has been caught there is still a part of his mother inside of him
Overall I think the reprehensive of gender is very strong throughout psycho, and Hitchcock uses many methods to display this
No comments:
Post a Comment