PSYCHO

ALFRED HITCHCOCK
▸ Started film career as title card designer in 1920s

▸ Blackmail (1929) known as the one of the first British Talkies

▸ First American film - “Rebecca"

▸ Master of Suspense

▸ More than 50 films

▸ Films for his independent company Transatlantic Pictures; Warner Bros and
Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios

▸ TV anthology - “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour”

▸ Favourite of New Wave Critics, making him a key figure in the Auteur theory
FILMOGRAPHY
CHARACTERISTICS OF HITCHCOCK FILMS
▸ Plots around misunderstandings, false accusation, conflicting emotions, mistaken
identity, murder, mystery, ordinary people in extraordinary situations

▸ Twisted ending and subjective narration/restricted narrative

▸ Untrustworthy characters

▸ Blonde female characters

▸ Use of shadows, contrasting lighting, darkness

▸ Staircase as a motif of impending danger

▸ McGuffin device - “why” in the plot

▸ Strong visuals

▸ Point of View shots

▸ Prominence of soundtrack

▸ In depth characterisation

▸ Setting, prop and location assume greater meaning

▸ Master manipulator - purposeful direction of shot

THE FILM
▸ Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

▸ Screenplay by Joseph Stefano based on real life accounts and

Robert Bloch’s novel

▸ “A new altogether different screen excitement”

▸ Camera work by John L Russell

▸ Crew from Hitchcock Presents

▸ Inspired sequels and many screen representation in later films

THEMES
▸ Multiple personalities

▸ Mistaken identities

▸ Guilt

▸ Loneliness

▸ Voyeurism

▸ Obsession

▸ Freudian concepts - Defence mechanisms, parts of mind, Oedipal

complex
NARRATIVE
▸ Linear structure with cause and effect

▸ Use of Hitckcock’s “McGuffin”

▸ Subjective/restricted narration

▸ Shifts in point of view

▸ Who is the hero?

▸ Who is “Psycho”?
MISE-EN-SCENE
▸ Bates Motel

▸ Bates mansion - Gothic style house shown ominously looming high in the
backdrop of the Bates motel

▸ Story is set in an urban space and shifts to the suburbs

▸ Urban space - Buildings, an objective presentation of city life

▸ Bates’ home in suburbs - low key lighting, a reflection of Norman’s mysterious and
lonely existence

▸ Freudian analysis of the three storied house

▸ Props - Money, stuffed birds, the knife, mirrors

▸ Costume and make up - Bates and his mother

CINEMATOGRAPHY
▸ Opening scene - Camera techniques gives the audience a
voyeuristic peek into private lives

▸ Subjective camera

▸ Point of view shots - Marion and Bates

▸ Shower scene - 78 camera set ups to shoot different angles, 52 cuts

▸ Lighting and shadows - reminiscent of Expressionist style

▸ Extreme Close up and Close up shots giving a peek into the

personalities and dilemmas of the characters
SOUND
▸ Music score by Bernard Hermann

▸ Music created on strings - The screeching ominous sounds

during the shower scene

▸ Perfect blending of diegetic and non diegetic sounds

▸ Sound effects - creates suspense, heightens dramatic

dramatic intensity, acts as cue to the audience

▸ Instruments - Violin
EDITING
▸ Discontinuity editing techniques used

▸ Graphic match -Water swirling into the drain dissolves to

Marion’s eyes

▸ Overtonal Montage - Shower scene

▸ Jump cut, break in 180 degree