The sun glasses (props) that he wears are aviators which cover the whole of the eyes and the area around them. In particular these glasses hide the facial expressions of this man and we cannot see what he is thinking or how he is taking in Marion’s lies and nerves. This means that there is a lot about this person we do not know. Will he play a bigger part in the film? Is he on to her or is he a villain in the film? As these questions enter our minds Hitchcock is playing on our imagination and gambling that the most powerful thing in the world will give us images and pictures that we do not want to see or ideas.
During the scene with the police officer, Marion has been always superior up until this point even though during this time in America it was very much a misogynist society. But she seems to be almost de-railed by this police officer as he keeps pressing on at her and Marion thinks that he knows that she has stolen the money and she is in shock and a nervous state when she talks to him – not her normal confident self that we have seen throughout the duration of the movie up until what I believe is a pivotal point.
Marion answers with a guilty conscience and defends herself through each sentence. Furthermore, there could be connotations through the American Police Force, which arguably at the time, was considered a great force and Americans and this has evolved in generations. Arizona also had the death penalty at this time and even though Marion has not committed a homicidal offence, she could be thinking that she may be going to be killed by the electric chair and is scared of that. This would explain her mind as it imagines the worse when she is in trouble. When she drives away, the light of the sun reflects of the metal of the car and it is hard to see behind her but we get rear view shots of the car and the police car following behind.
As the music fades in we get the same music as before and now we can tell when tense moments are occurring. There is nothing really frightening about this scene; she is merely away from the police man who may be following her. But once we hear the music our hearts start to race as we think we know something will happen because of the music and the high tempo and pitches builds up inside us and we get nervous as we anticipate what will happen and because we get over the shoulder views/views from Marion’s perspective than we feel as we are identifying main character and we begin to feel what Marion does and when we see the policeman no more, the music slows down and fades out and our feelings quieten down – because we cannot see the policeman and presume he has retreated which shows the anxiety lifted from Marion for a while and from ourselves. Also, but our mind still asks questions which still make’s us wonder. Also the (POV) rear view mirror shot is always following but never too close – just like a stalker.
Marion drives away, the music continually plays and we feel something is going to happen. We think that the police man may be following her again and so does Marion. Later on in the film, Marion heads to the sanctity of a motel. However there is still a car light behind her and we think she may be followed by the policeman. However When the light disappears she pulls up to a hotel and there is no one there, this scene creates tension using camera angles and lighting. We get a low angle shot of the hotel in the dark – and also of house during the day – showing how the house looks haunting to the viewer as it looks larger and more threatening. Hitchcock uses Pathetic Fallacy with the weather connotation something bad will happen shortly.
The hotel is desolate and isolated (there is no other place nearby expect a diner a few miles away) and we believe deserted apart from one man and his “mother”. The fumble with the keys and the awkward manner of Norman Bates makes the tension unbearable. We see a view of the front windscreen (point of view) and see what Marion sees. The lighting is very poor and we feel trapped as does Marion as the pathetic fallacy of the rain (something bad will disappear and there is still a bright light behind. There is a similarity between the films of Hitchcock as the Birds Of Prey located in the hotel symbolize the film Birds, where the birds turn against humans and attack people. This symbolism is prevalent throughout the film also connotates Normans predatory instincts of the birds.
In this paragraph I will delve into the history of Norman Bates the character. As created by Robert Bloch, Norman isn't a likable character. He's a fat man in his forties who drinks habitually and peeps through holes. But when Hitchcock suggested Anthony Perkins for the role, Stefano (screenwriter) began to see the character differently: "I suddenly saw a tender, vulnerable young man you could feel incredibly sorry for. I could rope in an audience with someone like that." – Exactly the effect aimed at the audience. Two protagonists. None are perfect. Both can be hated or loved.
The scene - we know that something will happen here because it is desolate and empty. But to the sixties audience nothing may happen and because the motel looks so normal when they see what happens they becomes even more scared and look around and think about motels they may stay in or live nearby and they become self - conscious and the film’s events take a life of their own. The first thing to notice is that this Motel is empty and we take care to note that as it is unusual for a motel to be empty during any time in the year.
The shower scene originally was not to have any music involved because Hitchcock extraordinarily did not want any, but Herrmann changed his mind after they were disappointed without the music. The shower scene is a frightening and terrifying experience for a number of reasons. Firstly, we see beforehand Norman Bates looking through a secret spy hole into Marion’s room.
So this is why he made sure she stayed next to the office. He also spies intensively as if he has done it before. And because the people who stayed here before disappeared, does this mean he has something to do with it? And even though Marion is the main character and a villain she is also the main character we follow so we still treat her as a heroine and we feel she needs to be warned and fear for her.
As we build up tension in ourselves we relate to the character even more and it is as if he is watching us. There is dramatic irony here as we know Marion is going to give the money back – but also realise that this would defy conventions of all films thus leaving the film with little plot and we foresee her death .When Marion showers, she makes the mistake of not locking the front door. This is because she is so paranoid and nervous from earlier on that Norman has made her feel better and she trusts him. But when she showers she is almost cleansed and baptised again as she feels sorry for what she has done. It is like her sins are washed away and God forgives her. (Symbolism) As the water trickles, this is again pathetic fallacy. The water is the rain and we know something is to happen otherwise why would we see her showering? The tension increases as she looks innocent and we gasp as a shadow appears – at first we see a man but ever so quickly we see a woman. (This foreshadows later on in the play when we see who his mother really is. Himself)
The music fades in very loudly and each movement of the shadow closer to the curtain is matched by a beat from the music and when the curtain is pulled back Marion who is completely unaware looks almost like familiar with the person and she screams so loud which may frighten people. Then she is stabbed and the stabbing sound is made with a slice of a melon. The music creates low sounds and blood trickles down the water as Marion slides down the white wall. The emphasis on white as white is a colour of pure innocence and the blood splatters on it so that we can see it more. The camera shows backlighting which is used to obscure the villain and make it difficult to see the villain. The sound that the knife makes penetrating the flesh is actually the sound of a knife stabbing a casaba melon.
Now the audience is scared and self – consciously wonders who it could be and becomes scared for them. The cinema it self is like a shower as a shower has 3 walls and an entrance/exit, quite like an average cinema and because the audience cannot escape they feel trapped and fear for their mortality. Now days we may even laugh at how that scene can be scary but in the sixties this was diabolical and sinister and people tried to escape the pictures and even when they showered that night still be scared of a fictionist character and story. Hitchcock constantly defies the conventions of the genre throughout the film and when we anticipate something is to ensue but it doesn’t and then something unconventional/unique happens. We never see the knife going into Marion, but we here the sound effect which means the watcher has to think of what it might visualise as. We see the close shot of Marion while she is showering – making her look trapped, defenceless in the cubicle. This shot is added to further to create an extreme close up of Marion’s face – more specifically her mouth screaming when she is stabbed, and then her eye when she dies. This is a tense moment as we know she has been killed and the camera focuses on the eye and how it’s reaction to the shock and death situation. Therefore, when we are shocked at the disastrous slaughter of our innocent heroine, we are left to desperately pick up the pieces of our shattered illusions, and consider if this could happen to those around us. Convincing the audience of the reality of the film let Hitchcock mould their conceptions, develop sympathies and build up identification between them and fictional characters. This hugely increased the despair and shock, the feeling of loss even, when a character is brutally murdered.
Without delay, Hitchcock begins to construct sympathies for Marion Crane. Using several cinematic techniques to create an effective mise-en-scene. Mise-en-scene is everything that a viewer can see within a certain frame, and is comprised of many aspects. For instance Hitchcock uses a high-angle, mid range establishing shot to position Marion in her context, and highlight her virtuousness and defencelessness. She is also well lit, showing that she has nothing to hide. Later on, when she has, shadows appear around her. When her hand reaches out at the screen – it is reaching out at the audience but we can’t help her. This is what defies filmography from reality. (Sometimes audiences get so caught up in a film that they believe they are in the picture – when a director manages to do this, Psycho, Exorcist ...etc. this adds further tension to the movie).
For example the protagonist is murdered only 40 mins into the film which is completely bizarre and defies the conventions of the genre - as we expect the protagonist to last the duration of the movie. However in Psycho after Marion is murdered we watch Norman Bates dispose of the evidence and the police endeavour to solve the case. In addition Norman Bates can be considered as a victim in this film. Norman has a split personality disorder and thus takes his mothers place at times and this is not through his own fault and whatever he does is unintentional. So when Norman kills Marion it is in fact his mother’s side of him which he has no control over and that is why he wipes away the evidence so that his mother/him doesn’t not get arrested or found out.
Norman is a victim of himself and his own personality and can be portrayed and viewed as an unlikely sympathetic figure as he appears vulnerable to the audience from the first time we see him. And at the end of the film we lose Norman perhaps for ever and this can effect audiences and they can take a view of Norman that they perhaps have never seen as we realise he did something not knowing what he was doing and has been taken over.
The music also adds tremendous effect to Hitchcock creating tension well in the film. The music was only strings for Psycho because Hitchcock and Herrmann felt that he could complement the black-and-white photography of the film by creating a black-and-white sound. Can such a thing exist in music? It can when we remember that the string choir of the modern symphony orchestra, the largest body within that ensemble, may have only one basic tone-colour, but it also enjoys certain other advantages not possessed by the other instrumental families when isolated from their normal symphonic context.
The strings span the longest effective gamut of notes: they have an effective range of dynamics unmatched by the other groups; and within the boundaries of their basic single tone-colour they can command a great number and variety of special effects. And when the expressive range of the string orchestra is compared to that of black-and-white photography, Herrmann's analogy becomes perfectly clear. Just like the "no colour" images of a black-and-white film, the string orchestra has the capability--within the limits of its one basic colour--of producing an enormous range of expression and a great variety of dramatic and emotional effects, with all the gradations in between the events in the film.
Sir Alfred Hitchcock is very successful at manipulating for the reasons that Hitchcock did things that have never been done before (such as showing Marion in her underwear – showing connotations of clothing – white is innocence but she is having an affair with a married man. Surely white is the wrong colour?
This toys with our minds as it defies not just this film’s particular genre but others as well) and the audiences minds are constantly thinking about the protagonists and antagonists next moves/motives. We are almost sub – consciously put in the position of the Detectives but with some extra information (as if we are a fly on the walls) but still we struggle to decipher why and what is happening.
To conclude, the audience is persistently guessing until the end of the film and the ending in itself is a disappointment as it leaves a lot of questions in our minds. Was justice prevailed? Did Norman get killed/punished? But this is a good effect as when the movie ends you feel angry that nothing has happened and your mind completes the film in your head and you have your own version. In my opinion Alfred Hitchcock is exceptional at manipulating the minds of the audience and creates his first ever horror film as a cinematic masterpiece.
