Marion then retires for the night and is reported missing after a week. During that week, a Private Investigator, called Milton Arbogast, goes to the Bates Motel in search of Marion Crane. But he is also reported missing while he was there. Marion’s sister, Lila Crane goes in search of Marion at the Bates Motel to find out what happened to her sister while she was there. It is Lila who discovers what happened to the Marion and Inspector Arbogast, as the film reaches its climax.
Hitchcock uses dramatic music throughout the film. The main features of the music in Psycho are the shrilling string instruments, which are clashing to create the tension and suspense within the film. The music also helps to keep the suspense of the story line.
Also, the use of mis-en-scene is used, which is a French term that means ‘putting on stage.’ This refers to everything that is arranged in one frame.
In addition, there are different camera and lighting effects used by Hitchcock.
Lighting is used in the film to create a sense of atmosphere. Hitchcock uses black and white lighting to make the atmosphere and mood to that of a mystifying effect. However, this could not have been accomplished, if it were to be produced in colour.
The black and white feel gives the film a more sinister look, whereas there is more shadows being created. An example of this is shown in the shower scene do the film.
On the other hand, the lighting, black and white effect and the music all portray the tension within the characters.
The effects of lighting and camera also play a big part in the shower scene. This is where Marion is taking a shower and she is then suddenly murdered. We cannot see the murderer’s face, as the backlight was used to hide their face and make the scene more horrifying and sinister. We see an outline shape of a woman on the murderer, so it informs us to believe that the murderer is a woman.
The shower scene itself, took seven days to shoot and over seventy cameras were set up for the shooting. The effect of the cameras shows how there were quick shots being taken in a short space of approximately two minutes. When the production of the film was released, there were over 70 quick shots taken in the forty-five second period.
The shots were made up of the climax to Marion’s murder and the murder it self. But we never see the knife stabbing into Marion’s body. As an alternative, we see shots of the knife and sound affects are added to the appearance of the knife, which is attacking Marion. This then gives the impression that Marion is actually being stabbed. Each shot taken was edited for a montage effect, which is the process of editing. Montage is the process of selecting; editing and piecing together separate sections of cinema film to form a continuous piece.
The sound affects and the shrilling music combine to add more suspense, but all sounds stop for a silence when Marion is helpless and pulls onto the curtain railing and falls onto the floor.
Additionally, The shower scene also contains many different shots from which they come from many different angles. Hitchcock uses a lot of different shots to show contrast to the way they look to the audience watching. We see a lot of close-up shots being used in the film, when Marion is stabbed; a close-up of her screaming face zooms into her mouth and more close-ups of her body are used during the stabbing. These close-ups play a realistic effect on the reaction that Marion is showing during the scene. Back lighting is also used during the stabbing, which shows an outline shadow of the killer, but it does not show their face. This brings mystery to the film
Another type of shot used in the scene is point of view shots; this shot is used to show the audience mis-en-scene from Marion and Norman’s perspective. This shot make the scene look more genuine.
Nearing the end of the shower scene, the intense music was playing throughout the scene, but it suddenly stops as Marion falls out of the bath tub and the shot shown of her falling out is high angle view. This is to get the whole view of the bathtub and of Marion.
The camera then zooms onto the plughole of the bathtub and the effect of fading is used to move onto the next frame. Editing did this, It shows the close up the plug hole fading into the close up of Marion’s eye and it then slowly zooms out with the sound the shower still running. The sound brings it scene into realism.
This is also where the audience begin to think about what is going to happen the body of Marion Crane.
Furthermore, Norman Bates’ character comes across as an anxious, nervous and quite disturbed man. We can tell when he is under pressure by stuttering when asked about the whereabouts of Marion Crane by the Private Investigator, Milton Arbogast.
“Well, um, she arrived rather late one night and she went straight to sleep and uh, left early the next morning…”
“oh, very early, … the, um, the, um the, next morning. Sunday.”
These quotes from the questioning with Norman Bates, it is clear that he was very nervous and tries to avoid the Investigator’s questions.
Norman also has an aggressive side to him. He becomes very persistent with Marion, when she suggests that his mother ought to be placed into an institution.
But Norman replies angrily,
““You mean an institution? A madhouse? ... Have you ever seen inside one of those places? The laughing and the tears! And the eyes studying you.”
This shows that Norman has strong feelings and emotions for his mother. The quote also suggests that Norman could have been in one of the institutions, as he seems to know a lot about them.
In conclusion, there are a few reasons that explain why Psycho was classed as a classic film of all time. The director, Hitchcock used modern techniques and varied them in different ways, which had not been done at the time.
He tested different lighting structures with many different camera shots and angles. An example of this can be the backlighting used, to give the film a mysterious feeling.
The lighting helped change the mood and atmosphere of the film.
Also, the music played a big part in the film; it added tension, suspense and a chilling feeling to it. The string instruments in the sharp music indicated caution between scenes and whether something was going to happen.
Hitchcock used film noir. This was much more effective than if he had used colour film in Psycho. It makes the film look more sinister and mysterious as well as authentic.
The techniques used by Hitchcock were well placed and presented, that is what makes it the classic film that it has been so famous for all these years.
