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Hollywood is on a re-make frenzy, as creativity and innovation take the last hearse out of Tinsletown. Now that director Gus Van Sant is remaking the classic Alfred Hitchcock chiller Psycho, we asked our own Jeff Beres to take a sentimental journey...
By JEFF BERES Psycho’s got legs, man. Alfred
Hitchcock’s film Psycho
has been around a long time. It was made in 1960, so that’s,
uh, 38 years ago. It’s probably older than most people
reading It’s an adult horror movie. Back in the thirties when the horror film was born, adult audiences were the targets of producers. Over the years this target group has gotten younger and younger till the current "14-25" age group. So the grownups in 1960 probably hadn’t seen a horror film geared to their tastes for quite a while. A lot of taboos were broken, or at least teased, in Psycho. As Stephen Rebello points out in "Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho:" "The script is shot through with obvious delight in skewering America’s sacred cows: virginity, cleanliness, privacy, masculinity, sex, mother love, marriage, the reliance on pills, the sanctity of the family … and the bathroom." These are adult issues being confronted and adult audiences loved it in the sixties. But what about now? What keeps us coming back for more? According to Robert McKee in "Story," it’s the story that makes or breaks a film, which brings us to point … Lots of
noise has been made about Hitchcock’s decision to kill
Marion early in the film. Well, I read the Robert Bloch novel
"Psycho" and Bloch was the genius who killed the
heroine off early in the work, not Hitchcock. In fact, the movie
was extremely true to the novel. The major difference was the Hitchcock’s genius was with the camera. The famous shower scene; the shot of "Ar-bo-ghast" tumbling backwards down the steps; the camera creeping up onto the ceiling before "Mother" strikes; and little things, like the shot of Norman as Arbogast discovers the woman’s signature on the ledger matches Marion Crane’s signature. Watch the film again for this shot alone. Very strange angle, overlit, full of tension, exposing Norman’s neck, and making him look suddenly vulnerable. And part of the shot depends on…
It may or may not be common knowledge that Hitchcock didn’t want any music during the shower scene. Bernard Herrman wrote and recorded the now famous violin "screams" and Hitch felt it improved the scene and used it. The opening credits music also contributes to the film’s overall desire to disorient, confuse, then scare the viewer. The success of "Psycho" is another example of the idea that film is a collaborative art. No one piece of the puzzle creates a classic, but if any piece were missing, we may not be watching the film today. Thanks again, Jeff! Your points really "psyched" Renfield out (ouch!). If Gus Van Sant really wants to make a contribution to cinema, perhaps he should sit down and watch the original Psycho in all its black-and-white glory...and then come up with his own darn idea for a movie... Article copyright Jeff Beres. |
this article.
It’s also safe to say it’s becoming a classic. Why is
that? What makes a film so good that new generations like it and
us old farts watch it over and over again? Here are some
theories:
appearance of
Norman. Bloch drew him as a fat middle aged man. Other than that,
the book was a blueprint for the movie. This didn’t happen
by accident. The structure of the novel, and hence the movie, was
brilliant. We now take the early death of the heroine and the
dual personality of "Mother" for granted. But stop and
think about it; Bloch was staring at the same blank page every
other novelist or screenwriter stares at before he came up with
those ideas. Either idea on its own is great, but together, they
pack a one-two punch that first challenges and then gratifies our
desire for a satisfying storyline. While Block used inspired
storytelling ...
Anthony
Perkins’ performance. After watching this film for the
umpteenth time, I’m realizing how crucial Perkins’
performance was to the success of the film. If you watch it
again, look for all the subtle little movements and reactions
Perkins uses to gain our empathy and our sympathy. These tics and
traits give him a vulnerability that throws us off, at least in
the first viewing, from the truth, and makes the ending that much
more of a surprise. Then it’s even more fun to watch it
again once you know the truth. His character gains a lot of
depth, to say the least, once you know his secret.