Psycho

For being a film studies undergrad, there are a lot of movies I haven't actually seen. I've seen a lot of clips of movies, famous clips generally, but I have somehow missed seeing in entirely some famous films. This week I saw Psycho in the theater for my first time. And it did not disappoint.

Psycho was released in 1960. It was preceded by North by Northwest and Vertigo, and followed by The Birds. So right in the middle of a string of hits for Hitchcock. But this was a movie unlike any of his others, and perhaps audiences weren't ready for it. It was shot in black and white and on the cheap. It was a hit.

Since I had never seen it before, I had no idea what the story was. I was immediately caught up in the story of Marion Crane, a nice girl who wants to marry her divorced boyfriend but he can't because of the alimony. So they meet in a hotel whenever he's in town. Marion then gets a chance to take $40,000 and she does. And as she's fleeing she ends up at the Bates Motel. Then our heroine dies halfway into the film. Whoa.

 Then we get Marion's sister, her boyfriend and a private investigator trying to figure out what happened to Marion. There's one more death before a climax that legitimately creeped me out.

The entire is pretty masterful in its use of angles, music, lighting, direction, acting. Most know of the classic shower scene, with its use of music and quick cuts and lack of blood and gore. I was rather impressed by another scene, though. Norman has found Marion dead in the bathroom of her room. He steps outside of the room and there is a lovely tracking shot of Norman looking back to the house and then walking back to the office/parlor. Something about the shot seemed so perfect me; Hitchcock isn't know for extensive moving camera shots. This one was executed so well.

If you haven't seen it you should.