Psycho is 50 years old

[Mashinka]

I loved this appreciation of Hitchcock's Psycho:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8593508.stm

It really was a milestone of a film and I can remember how shaken my older brother and his wife were after seeing it, my brother was literally trembling so the comments about it being quite unlike anything that had gone before are quite true. As I was too young to see it at the time of its release, it was some years before I got to see Psycho for myself and the film world had moved on in great strides by then, but I was still shocked by what I saw.

[cubanmiamiboy]

Oh...that shower scene!

[papeetepatrick]

but I was still shocked by what I saw.

Yes, because that shower scene is great art, an amazing collaboration between Hitchcock and his perfectly chosen actress. I have never gotten completely over having seen it in the 3rd grade without any preparation for what I was going to see; and even then I could tell how uncanny it was. In fact, I think all of the early material with Janet Leigh was brilliant--she's got an unusual talent that is always much in evidence in Orson Welles's 'Touch of Evil' as well. The whole film of 'Psycho' does suffer after that scene though, it's like an hour and a half of denouement, adequate but not really interesting stuff with Perkins and Vera Miles. And that it scared Janet Leigh herself was interesting. He's managed to give the impression of a very elaborate snuff film.

[dirac]

The shower scene in Psycho is so famous that even people who’ve never seen the movie in its entirety have it, or the thought of it, embedded somewhere in their brains. I don’t find Hitchcock his more crudely sadistic mode very appealing or interesting, but there is no doubt of the lasting influence of this movie and Hitchcock’s daring in killing off his heroine so early in the picture, a choice that is shocking for the viewer in more ways than one.

I do admire the scenes in which Leigh drives away from Phoenix, loot still in hand but determined to make a change. Even if you’re among the few who doesn’t know that Leigh is about to get killed off Hitchcock’s foreshadowing effects – the driving rain, the sound of the windshield wipers – let you know that all’s not well.

The whole film of 'Psycho' does suffer after that scene though, it's like an hour and a half of denouement, adequate but not really interesting stuff with Perkins and Vera Miles.

I agree.

[Quiggin]

Also the first part of the film up to the shower scene -- really another little movie -- is filmed in such a tight naturalistic style. Some of the shots reminded me of Bergman. It might also have been influenced by the shooting style and schedules of Hitchcock's concurrent televisions series, and done on a similarly tight budget. Yes, it was radical to have killed off the best character early on, but then Hitchcock didn't know what to do with it, as if he had shocked even himself.

The shower scene without the soundtrack works differently, and the effect may depend more on the music than the brilliant montage. Don DeLillo's new book "Point Omega" opens with a long meditation on that scene.

[dirac]

Hi, Quiggin, good to hear from you. I think you're right about the music.

[canbelto]

My favorite scene in Psycho is actually the creepy heart-to-heart Norman has with Janet Leigh before the shower scene.

[papeetepatrick]

the driving rain, the sound of the windshield wipers –

Oh yes, and her face is perfect in its reactions to this huge downpour, which just now occurs to me really does have much of the same extreme sensation that the shower scene does. Janet Leigh is a seriously underrated actress. People know she's good, but they don't seem to know just how good.

Also the first part of the film up to the shower scene -- really another little movie

What a nice way to put it--and it makes the 'other movie' have a little more value when you see them as 'two separate movie'.

-- as if he had shocked even himself.

I doubt it, given Hitchcock, but it's possible. Oh good, I learn all my inportant info on Ballet Talk, and can't wait to get the new DeLillo.