Film Analysis of Psycho
PSYCHO is a unique film because it is a black and white film in the
age of colour. Secondly it showed the first naked body on screen. Also
it showed the first ever toilet flush. It is a dark disturbing tale as
we do not know who the murderer is and what motive they have to murder
Marion and inspector Aborgast. It took only three weeks to make and
only cost $850,000 to make. It may not compare with modern day S.F.X
film but it is a worthy film when you consider the cinematography
used. Some great cinematography techniques used in the film are; the
rapid jump cuts in the shower scene, and extreme close-ups in moments
when action is taking place. The two scenes we will be analyzing and
interpreting in detail are;
*The shower scene
*Aborgasts' death
Prior to the shower scene the audience has seen Norman the motel
manager reading Marion’s signature, smiling he walks into the motels
lounge. Whilst in there he lifts a framed picture off the wall, this
reveals a small peephole, this provide a perfect view into Marion’s
bathroom, whilst she is getting undressed and preparing for a shower.
He then replaces the picture and with a stern expression he strides up
to his ‘mysterious’ looking house. This gives the audience the
impression that he is up to something devious or criminal.
The mise en scene of the bathroom is important for the setting of the
scene because every item in the bathroom was clean and sparkling
white. The sparkling white colour scheme represents cleanliness,
purity and innocence. The bathroom is very similar to most bathrooms.
This decision was...
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...ached themselves to Aborgast, they want him
to stay alive and out of any potential danger. Also once Marion has
been murdered, the audience want the murderer to be caught and sent to
prison, Aborgast should be the person that convicts the murderer,
instead just when he believes he could get information from the mother
he is murdered.
In contrast to this we see very little of the killer. All we see is a
black figure in the shape of a woman running at Aborgast. We only see
this much of the murderer because it creates more mystery about the
identity of the murderer.
In conclusion when analyzing I have tried to show how Alfred Hitchcock
created a movie classic, with a small budget he still uses great
cinematography techniques which have turned a worthy novel written by
Robert Bloch, into a classic ‘chiller’ movie.
In the film, American Psycho, Patrick Bateman was a wealthy investment banker who also happened to be a serial killer. He was highly intelligent and was charming which attracted many of the women who came his way. Unlike most people in the world, he lived in constant pain. He was rarely happy with himself, and also hated everyone around him. He felt that he needed to inflict his pain on others in violent ways. He always had something disgusting to say such as, “I like to dissect girls; I am utterly insane.” It is outside of the norm to speak in this way, therefore he would be considered deviant. He displayed feelings of distress as he became frustrated very easily with himself and others. Everything
In order to reasonably deduce who the murderer is we first need to use economic reasoning to understand who it is not. Spearman manages to use the economic concept of game theory to explain why two of the most incentivized characters in the novel and the confessors of the crimes, Ricky LeMans and Vernon Harbley, indeed admit to a crime they never actually commit. Game theory as explained by Eric P. Chiang in CoreMicreconomics is, “the study of strategy and strategic behavior and is used in any situation in which one must predict the actions of others and respond by choosing among more than one strategy, each resulting in a potentially
bank. Marion went home there was a close up shot on the money then on
The film Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, is a psychological thriller that was created in 1960. The main theme of this film revolves around psychological illnesses. The film focuses on the main character, Norman Bates, and his psychological problems which include a split personality, voyeurism, sadism, guilt and self-punishment, and anal fixation. Throughout the movie you can see Bates exhibit these traits at different points; however, some traits are not as clearly evident as others. This film takes an in-depth look at how someone who possesses a mental illness might behave or think.
them focus on the money, as it is a large amount and is cash it helps
As he reaches the top of the long narrow stairs, he is suddenly faced with a microphone. With a nervous look and sweaty palms, he slowly makes his way to the mic then stops. The microphone is black and cold to touch. Then he looks up to find that he is in front of hundreds of people watching him like a hawk. For two or three minutes, he focuses on the large patient crowd who are anxious to listen to him. Before he begins, he suddenly realizes that he is in front of thousands of people instead of hundreds. His eyes widen as the butterflies in his stomach begin to swirl madly in a circle. Eventually he starts to talk. “Hello everyone” pause “I w-w-w-would” pause “would like to, um, I w-would like to introduce myself. My name, name is Alex”. For
the eye. As we find out later in the film, Norman is his mother so
Perhaps no other film changed so drastically Hollywood's perception of the horror film as did PSYCHO. More surprising is the fact that this still unnerving horror classic was directed by Alfred Hitchcock, a filmmaker who never relied upon shock values until this film. Here Hitchcock indulged in nudity, bloodbaths, necrophilia, transvestism, schizophrenia, and a host of other taboos and got away with it, simply because he was Hitchcock.
Cinematography of Hitchcocks Psycho Alfred Hitchcock is renown as a master cinematographer (and editor), notwithstanding his overall brilliance in the craft of film. His choice of black and white film for 1960 was regarded within the film industry as unconventional since color was perhaps at least five years the new standard. But this worked tremendously well. After all, despite the typical filmgoer’s dislike for black and white film, Psycho is popularly heralded among film buffs as his finest cinematic achievement; so much so, that the man, a big
...en in the form of black and white. The movie was able to hold on to my gaze through all the suspense. I enjoyed the score composed by Bernard Herrmann in the film because it would hint at something that might happen and I felt myself tense up whenever the music came on. The characters were relatable and incidences that occurred in the film were realistic, which made the movie more comprehendible. I would warn people about how mind-boggling the film gets after the shower scene because everything afterwards becomes very fast paced. I feel the viewer would need time to think about the film and pausing is a must in order to fully understand what is going on. I would recommend this film to suspense lovers especially because Psycho is one of Hitchcock’s greatest works of art. I am glad I chose this movie to watch because the movie was well sorted out and very engaging.
The film American Psycho has strong references to the American consumer culture of elitists in the 1980s. However, the film main reflects popular culture among elitists in the time period but it also applies to a broader spectrum of the population. The main character is personally obsessed in a way with pop culture to be able to emulate others and apply that to how he should act.
“The victims were enjoying the scenery, Doe explains, “the night was warm and beautiful with their dreams ahead of them as big as the stars of that night until the flashlight quickly approached them.” Mike Mageau was attacked in a similar fashion as the first murder: shot once they responded to the killer’s demands of leaving the car; in fact Doe states, “Mageau was certain the man was a police officer, which was the reason he opened the window...to show his ID.” After the shooting an anonymous person contacted the police department, and “He,” Doe explains, “identified himself as being responsible for killing the previous victims, Faraday and Jensen.” However, this one was different since Mageau was alive, though left in critical condition, progress to the investigation could have been substantial enough to identify the killer. Nonetheless, as claimed by Doe, “Progress really was not made” due to the amount of blurred and ambiguous information the police received, which ended up wasting five weeks without making any
Psycho is a widely renowned movie. Alfred Hitchcock is an amazing director. His keen eye allows the viewer many different aspect in the movie. Hitchcock's use of black and white in this movie really showed that. Black and white pictures or films seem to capture moments in time perfectly. The difference between film and picture is that in the picture it has a sort of timeless grace. A black and white film instills a sort of terror or suspense in its audience. In today’s time mainly all movies are made in color. Most people have gone color blind in a sense. They
Sound is an incredibly relevant part of filmmaking. Although often misunderstood, it helps to generate a more realistic episode by recreating the sonic experience the scene needs. Its main goal is to enhance the emotions that each section is trying to convey by adding music and effects alongside moving images. Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960), is one of the most popular films of the XX Century (Thomson, 2009). Commonly recognised as a masterpiece for its cinematographic, editing and musical values, it changed cinema forever by “playing with darker prospects (…) of humanity such as sex and violence (Thomson, 2009)”. This paper will analyse the sound effects used in the shower scene and its repercussions
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