First scene
The first scene I have been asked to analyse is when Marion has just changed her car, acting shifty. Her anxiety act leads the Patrolman, the mechanic and the sales-man to suspect her of something. We know this because of the thoughts running through her head, as she drives off. These aren’t the only voices in her head; she can also hear the voices of her work colleague Caraline, boss Lawery and Mr Cassidy. As she hears the voices she’s got a guilty expression on her face and her thoughts indicate she’s paranoid. But when she thinks of Mr Cassidy and what he’ll say, ‘well, I ain’t about to kiss off forty thousand dollars! I’ll get it back, and any of it’s missing I’ll replace it with her fine’ soft flesh…’ her mood changes and she smirks.
The mise en scene for this scene is focused on Marion’s face, probably because the whole scene’s to do with Marion’s thoughts and this way it will show the viewers’ how she feels as they run through her head, as she drives on the long busy road. We know the road is busy and long because time to time the scene cuts to show the road. The scenes background has been back projected and as her thoughts get deeper, not only does the background get darker; the pace of the music speeds up. The background music is suspenseful and the main focus is the sound of a violin, indicating screaming, as the leif mortif in psycho tells you some is going to be killed. There has been a mixture of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds during this scene. The main, and probably only, non- diegetic sound are the thoughts going through Marion’s head and the diegetic sounds are the sounds of cars passing and the rain, getting heavier and heavier.
This scene is a close/ medium shot all the way through and sometimes a long shot, only when it shows the view of the road. The camera movement and angle is still as it is focused on Marion’s face, and again probably because she’s thinking. The way the scene has been edited is to show time, dissolves- indicating long period of time has past, and cuts- indicating shorter period of time passing. All the shots of the road are shown through Marion’s point of view. This interests me because when it shows a long shot of the road it physically tells us it’s a long journey and metaphorically that there’s a long journey ahead for Marion as she’s got lots to do with the money and how is she going to stay calm. Also when it starts to rain and we see the road through Marion’s eyes it’s all blurry and she can’t see where she’s going. This gives the viewers’ the impression that Marion’s vision is blurred, not only of the road but metaphorically the world too!
Second scene
The next scene I have been asked to analyse is the last scene when Norman is in the cell all snuggled up in a blanket while the voice of his dead mother is going through his head. Apparently towards the beginning of this scene it has been established that half of Norman’s mind is controlled by his mother and half controlled by him. And now it has been fully taken over by mother.
The mise en scene for this scene is again focused on Norman in a cell. As we know that mother side has taken over in Norman’s mind, Norman has now gotten into character and even looks like an defenceless old lady, acting completely harmless only answering to the voice in his head by just simply nodding. Throughout the whole scene Norman experiments various facial expressions. Many of these expressions make the viewers’ believe that Norman is completely innocent as Norman is blaming Norman, ‘They’ll put him away now as I should have years ago. He was bad always bad …’ ((he nods to that thought), and he has a tearful, childlike look to his face. Towards the end of his thoughts Norman refers to himself as she, ‘… why, she wouldn’t even harm a fly!’ raising his eyes at the thought looking slightly cross-eyed and smirking indicates to us that he has fully transformed into a psycho old lady. The sound in this scene is non-diegetic as the only sound in this scene is the voice inside Norman’s head.
As the camera moves down the hall and into Norman’s cell we feel as if we’re there ourselves. When we enter the cell it’s at a long shot, but as Norman’s thoughts start, it slowly starts to zoom in from a long shot to a close/ medium shot. The camera then zooms into a close up and the thoughts in his head start getting clearer. The camera then zooms into a extreme close up and with his last thought Norman’s smile begins to morph into his mother’s dead grin, as it then dissolves to the final shot of Marion’s car being hauled from the quicksand. It then blinds to finish this links to the beginning/ opening scene. The blinding effect to finish also reminds us of the blinds at Bates Motel, and of the movement of the knife in the two murders. The editing in this scene has been done efficiently as the zooming in effect makes us feel as if we were going into Norman’s mind.
Similarities in the two characters
Norman and Marion are a lot alike, as in character- wise and look-wise. Lighting and make-up plays a major part as it emphases them to look more alike. Both normal yet disturbed, double lives. Both of them have dark eyes and eyebrows, bird like nose. Marion having a bird like nose draws her more to Norman as Norman loves to stuff birds indicating she’ll become trapped like one of Norman’s birds. Trapped, another similarity, they’re both trapped physically and metaphorically, they also have trapped voices in their heads. Both characters’ reveal their thoughts, which show that they are leaving light into darkness. They are guilty and do show it yet they still have a feel of satisfaction with what they have done, I think this because both characters’ leave us with a smirk on their face when their thoughts come to an end. The director must have chosen the names of the two characters with much care because Norman, Marion nearly an anagram. Norman plays the psycho killer and his mind is fragmental- not normal-yet Norman’s name sounds a lot like normal.
Farhana Begum (Lima) 10y
Media Assignment – Media Language
Psycho
