Irony is the plot; there would be no film, no brilliance in it if Hitchcock had left out the ironic phrases and situations.
Hitchcock’s careful planning, filming techniques and excellent dialogue brings the audience each in turn to sympathise first with Marion, Norman and then finally ‘mother’.
Norman talks about his mother with affection and passion, which makes her seem vulnerable. We begin to ponder whether whom we saw in the shower scene was indeed mother or an entirely different person. The introduction to Lila brings back memories of Marion, or heroin returns in the shape and form of Lila. The viewer immediately has an interest in this character as she reminds us of the late Marion. Lila and Marion’s boyfriend both begin to unravel the story until in the end we get a terrifying climax to the movie and options of a sequel to be made.
Alfred Hitchcock out did himself with this film, which only took three weeks to film. The most notorious and difficult scene had to be the shower scene; although it only lasted for about forty seconds, the memorable scene took seven days to film. Hitchcock based ‘Psycho’ on a book written by Robert Bloch, which was itself based upon a true story. When Hitchcock’s newest creation was offered to paramount it was refused. Hitchcock took it upon himself to pay $9000 for the rights, he also paid for the making of the film and dropped his directors fee to help cover costs.
Hitchcock used very advanced camera angles to get the full effect of the film across to the audience. The quick fire camera angles makes the audience think what they saw and not actually what they did see. The point of view shots were also very effective and were used as a surrogate for our own eye, this places the audience literally inside the film. In the parlour scene when Norman Bates spies on Marion through a peep hole, we are forced to follow his gaze, Norman becomes aroused by her and his feelings are pushed upon us; we feel the corruptedness of Marion, we feel her vulnerability and her power as a sex icon.
In the opening sequence the title ‘Psycho’ appears on the screen, the words are broken up by random lines; the title represents the split storyline of the thriller film, the breaks in the title could also stand for Normans split personality, his schizophrenia. The broken word adds suspension to the film, we realise that the dialogue may be shattered or broken up, and that it may not ever happen again that a film like ‘Psycho’ would ever be produced again, thus making ‘Psycho’ the father of all horror films which it is regularly described as.
In the opening shots when we are first introduced to our ‘leading lady’ Marion, the audience meet her as a young city accountant visiting her boyfriend, Sam. She is immediately in her underwear, which is white, straight away giving us the sense of her vulnerability. This grabs the viewer’s attention; we are met with a sexy woman in their underwear, it gives her a powerful aura and we relate to her as our heroine. We offer her sympathy as we need to hold a bond with Marion as it seems that she will be the one to save the entire film. When she is suddenly lost from the film due to her unfortunate death, grief and an emptiness is felt and the viewer is then chosen to participate in finding a new hero or heroin, and find comfort in Lila: Marion’s sister.
The film is backed with an orchestra directed by Bernard Hermann, to achieve the right effect of intensity, violence and originality, Bernard got together a massive orchestra composed of entirely strings. The music tells us a lot about a scene such as when something bad was going to happen, or just helped to bring across a thrilling atmosphere. In ‘Psycho’ the murder scenes would not have been as effective without the brilliant strikes on the string instruments that cast fear into any listener. Hermann’s music encouraged suspense in the film by the high-pitched sounds and eary tune all the way through the film. The music is very repetative and dramatic, a different pitch and tune was played at certain moments, but was always repetitive which added more tension. At any point in the film you could tell what kind of mood it was; by the way the music was being played , such as, in the shower scene when Marion is brutally murdered the thrilling musical notes and high pitched shrieking strings add tension, you can tell that something bad is happening . Also the instruments can represent a movement or a thought or even a person, like the slashing knife in the two horrific murders.
Hitchcock’s clever use of camera angles was an extremely huge part of ‘Psycho’. He tried to use the camera to add tension and make sure what was supposed to be shown was and what wasn’t, wasn’t. Hitchcock used lots of low angle shots, on Norman especially, he used these to cast shadows over certain characters or objects to achieve a certain atmosphere. Low angle shots were used a lot in the parlour scene to make Norman seem sinister especially when he was talking about his mother, the shot created a feeling of tension and also power. The camera angle can be used two ways, the low angle shot can be used to make a character look powerful or can be used to get a look of vulnerability.
A high angle shot was used in the film whenever ‘mother’ appeared, it was used to hide ‘mothers’ face so it didn’t give the story away. This is a very effective shot and helped to keep the film moving without ruining the ending. This shot can also be used to make a character seem vulnerable. An extreme close-up shot on Marion’s eye after her death gives the audience a sense of unease, a close-up of this kind is very unnatural to us and distorts the image in our minds, it gives a very dramatic feeling, we know something bad had just happening but with a shot like this it is impossible to tell what kind of situation is awaiting the viewer around this object.
In the famous shower scene, camera angles were very important, not only because of censorship but also to make sure the scene had the right effect. The forty-second scene took a week to film and Hitchcock used 78 different camera angles. The walls of the set were all detachable so Hitchcock could film from possible angle.
The point of view shot during the notorious shower scene manipulates the spectator’s perspective through editing. A point of view shot in the parlour scene gives the audience an insight into Norman, his desire for Marion enrages his overbearing mother and she is compelled to seek out and destroy the object of Norman’s affection.
The black and white filming adds to the mood of ‘Psycho’, it emphasizes every shadow casting a morbid feeling to the film by making an object, a room, or a person seem powerful or vulnerable.
Overall ‘Psycho’ is an outstanding film for its time. The effectiveness of it was almost overbearing, every character had a connection with its spectator. Alfred Hitchcock is a genius in his own rights, he’s twisted imagination and ability to manipulate a persons mind has made him almost certainly the greatest filmmaker of his time.
