Psycho

Fig.1

Psycho was directed by Alfred Hitchcock who won two awards for this movie. Psycho won a Golden Globe award for the best-supporting-actress – Motion picture, and an Edgar award for the Best Motion Picture Screenplay.
The story starts off with Phoenix secretary Marion Crane (played as Janet Leigh), one of the employers started flirting with her and giving her ideas of escapism leaving his money on the desk. She steals the money (40, 000 dollars) and tries to avoid the police, meanwhile, a have storm made her stop for a night at a Motel. She then meets Norman Bates (played by Anthony Perkins) explains about his mother being mentally ill who murders Marion later on in the scene. The story carries on investigating who the murderer was.

Fig.2 Money

This Film was successful for one of its popular scene known as the “shower scene.” The reason for this is because Hitchcock was able to make the audience feel tense by using different camera shots and many quick shots. He was also smart with camera angles and where it should point to divert the audience’s attention to that specific object. Hitchcock said himself “I was directing the viewers," the director told Truffaut in their book-length interview. "You might say I was playing them, like an organ." It was the most shocking film its original audience members had ever seen. "Do not reveal the surprises!” (Ebert, 1998) This supports the statement that he is ‘tricking’ or confusing the audience by focusing the camera on the money ‘Marion’ stole and seeing ‘Marion’ at the beginning of the filmmaking her look like the main character, however, the main character is ‘Norman Bates.’ “Marion Crane does steal $40,000, but still she fits the Hitchcock mold of an innocent to crime.” (Ebert,1998) This supports the argument that Marion was not the main focus of the movie, however, the key to this story.

In conclusion, Hitchcock uses the camera to divert the audience’s attention to the money making them confused about the plot of the story, as the character they thought was the main character dies. Going back to what Hitchcock said, "Do not reveal the surprises!” In the end, this was a success as it made the audience tense as now they would not know what to expect next.

Fig.3 Mise-en-scene

The mise-en-scene was well thought of. For example, Hitchcock uses longshots where you are able to see the ‘Big house’ and the ‘motel’ which almost looks personified as the predator and the small motel as the prey. “Hitchcock would never have been so pompous; he made Psycho fast and cheap (it cost a mere $807,000) to entertain a mainstream audience, using his regular TV crew and shooting in black-and-white to give the production a vérité news-footage feel.” (Kermode, 2010) Relating to what Kermode said about the sets and the lighting used were successful as it gave the film an interesting and sinister appearance.

Fig.4 Shower Scene

The shower scene was one of the scenes that were thought of carefully. For example, “78 camera setups and 52 cuts, the extraordinarily labor-intensive work that went into the shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1960 shocker Psycho, a sequence which took fully seven days of a 30-day schedule.” (Bradshaw, 2017) In conclusion, the shower scene became popular because of how the shots were taken and how the death of ‘Marion’ was not seen on camera but intelligently was able to see the shadows and shots of the action taken part in the scene.

Bibliography;
Bradshaw, Peter (2017) – 78/52 review – Hitchcock's Psycho shower scene gets an expert autopsy : https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/oct/13/7852-review-hitchcock-psycho-shower-scene [Accessed: 06/03/2018]

Ebert, Roger (1998) – Psycho: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-psycho-1960 [Accessed: 06/03/2018]

Kermode, Mark (2010) – Psycho: the best horror film of all time: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/22/psycho-horror-hitchcock [Accessed: 06/03/2018]


Illustration;
Figure 1. Psycho Movie (1960) [Poster] at: http://horrornews.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Psycho_1960.jpg [Accessed 06/03/2018]

Figure 2. Money (2015)[Still Film] at: http://www.horrorhomeroom.com/the-function-of-money-in-hitchcocks-psycho/ [Accessed 06/03/2018]

Figure 3. Mise-en-scene (2016) [Still Film] at: http://bloody-disgusting.com/reviews/3380237/6-nights-bates-motel-reviewed-6-psycho-movies/ [Accessed 06/03/2018]

Figure 4. Shower scene (2017) [Still Film] at: http://uk.businessinsider.com/7852-psycho-shower-scene-2017-1?r=US&IR=T [Accessed 06/03/2018]