Hitchcock's "Scary": The famous "Bathroom Murder" clip, why is it so classic
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There are many classics by suspense master Hitchcock, among which "The Terror" has been rated as "the classic among the classics" by many fans. The classic "Murder in the Bathroom" segment in "The Cry" has been called "textbook"-level works by many professional filmmakers. Hitchcock, striving for perfection, used 78 cameras and 52 edits to contribute a classic 3 minutes to film history.
Since then, this clip has been adapted and used for reference by countless film and television works, and filmmakers have paid tribute to Hitchcock in different ways. The documentary "78/52" invited a number of professional filmmakers to analyze in detail the excitement and excellence of this classic segment.
"Bathroom Play": A lens related to women, reflecting Hitchcock's artistic rigor and realistic reflection
Hitchcock was concerned that some scenes were bloody and unacceptable to the audience, so he made "The Cry" as a black and white movie. The black and white effect, combined with the combination of rainy nights, wilderness hotels and other scenes, highlights the suspenseful color of the film and further enhances the tension. Although the audience can't see the bright red blood in the "bathroom" segment, with the cooperation of the sound effects and editing, the audience's nerves have always been tight following Hitchcock's lens. Who is the murderer? Who is it? This question runs through to the end of the film.
The stand-in actress in the bathroom segment of "The Cry" recalled that when filming this scene, Hitchcock wore a suit, a black tie, and a white shirt. The stand-in actress once joked that the props that cover the body always slip off. It is recommended to throw it away. Hitchcock solemnly refused and said "no". Hitchcock's rigorous attitude towards the lens and his pursuit of art can be seen.
Many filmmakers interviewed in the documentary lamented that nowadays a "murder" scene in the film can be filmed in one day, but Hitchcock took 7 days. This was unprecedented at the time, and it was really admirable. .
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At that time, there were many murder scenes in American movies that were incomparable with "Terror". Hitchcock used close-up shooting techniques, and the urgency was very exciting. This short clip mobilized the mood of the whole film.
"Scary" was filmed in the late 1950s. Hitchcock first showed off against women under the lens. The sensation of the movie and the visual impact on the audience can also be imagined. In the United States at the beginning of the 20th century, female celebrities had a great appeal in the box office. In the 40th century, their influence weakened. By the time of the filming of "The Cry", many female celebrities could not appear in the first-line blockbuster movies. In the horror suspense film, Hitchcock used the story of the victimization of women to express the irony of this phenomenon from another aspect. Women's status both inside and outside the film are suffering "harm", which requires reflection and is worthy of reflection.
Danger in the "Bathroom": Criticism and Satire of "Innocent" Americans
British director Hitchcock worked hard in Hollywood for many years. He disliked the naive attitude of American society towards reality. Hitchcock satirized this in many works. "Jing Shou Hua Hua" was filmed one and a half years after the Pearl Harbor incident, and the line mentioned "Did you see the world clearly, it is a dirty pigsty". This story satirizes the innate innocence and optimism of the residents of small American towns.
"The Cry" was filmed in November 1959. Soon after the filming started, a home murder occurred in Kansas, USA. Americans have natural "confidence" in their homes and feel that there is no danger in staying at home, and such real incidents just wake people up and let them recognize reality.
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The irony of the bathroom scene in "The Cry" is straightforward, and the "toilet" is unexpectedly featured. Before that, no one had connected with the important movie plot through the lens of the toilet, which also broke people's inherent concept. All this seems to Hitchcock questioning people, "Do you think it’s safe to be in the bathroom? It’s naive."
Just as Hitchcock discussed the confrontation and randomness between man and nature in "The Flock of Birds", the thought he has always wanted to convey contains such a kind of "uncertainty". Life is like this, you can't predict which of tomorrow or the accident will come first. Therefore, in the bathroom, when you fade away from the burden and exhaustion, and want to relieve your mood, maybe a pair of dangerous hands are waiting for an opportunity behind the shower curtain.
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"Scary" appeared in a special period of American popular culture. In the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, the problems of racial violence and political murder continued, and the real dilemma was at hand. Hitchcock has disdain to film "fancy" works, "Silly White Sweet" Hollywood love stories are not enough to adapt to the era at that time, the bright and colorful American movies have been eclipsed in front of the black and white "Scary".
Even today, innocent and optimistic thinking still exists in American society, and racial problems and contradictions are still severe. As early as the last century, Hitchcock, as a filmmaker, had already criticized this through his "exaggeration" approach. "The Terror" still has its unique meaning.
"The Cry" premiere: changed the way the movie is presented, the effect of the suspense movie has reached the "expected expectation"
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Before "The Cry", people could go in and out at will when the movie premiered, and when people walked into Hitchcock's "Cry" premiere as usual, Hitchcock's voice came from the theater broadcast. , He asked everyone not to leave the scene in the middle of the movie, and to keep the plot of the movie confidential.
He later explained this because the role played by actress Janet Leigh would be murdered in the middle. He didn't want people to whisper to ask where the heroine had gone because they missed important links. In the trailer, Hitchcock reminded everyone that the lieutenant in the bathroom would be staged "the highlight", but the audience almost never expected that the heroine would die here. In order to create the atmosphere that a suspense movie should have, Hitchcock has unprecedentedly asked the audience watching the premiere to "not leave."
It is precisely because of this requirement that the viewing effect in the theater has reached expectations. The shower curtain was lifted, and people screamed; the heroine was stabbed with a knife, and people were astonished. The documentary "78/52" recalled that people's exclamation of "Ah" continued until the end of this segment, and the sound of the movie could not be heard at all.
Filmmakers commented that "that scene marked the ushering in a new era of film in the United States and the world." The role played by the popular star in Hitchcock's movie was actually killed. Hitchcock broke the tacit agreement between the audience and the filmmaker. The mental shock caused by the psychological gap was extremely sensational at that time.
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The screams of the heroine being stabbed and the exclamations of the audience are matched with the unique sound effects of the thriller in the movie. The effect of the suspense movie has reached what it should have been. Just imagine, if people are walking back and forth in the movie, the watching process is intermittent, and the plot of the movie is half-understood. It may not have much impact on the general love story film, but for the suspense film with compact plot and interlocking, it is undoubtedly "fatal". of.
A good suspense movie depends on the audience's reaction at a critical moment. Hitchcock not only changes the way the movie is presented, but also reminds people that movies are not so dispensable, thereby enhancing the artistic status of the movie. It seems that he is telling the audience that if you watch it carefully, the impact and shock of the movie will be huge, especially Hitchcock's suspense movie.
The stunning elements of the "bathroom show": water, paintings, motherhood, schizophrenia
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The classic scenes of "The Cry" not only have the characteristics of Hitchcock, but also achieve an unprecedented artistic effect with the cooperation of the shots, music, editing, and actors.
The heroine Marianne steals 40,000 dollars and drove to the west on a rainy night. The wiper swayed on the window of the car, blurring the heroine's vision. The road ahead was wet and blurred, and she was about to go to the transfer station of "Destiny". The West, in the hearts of Americans at the time, was a place of freedom, but it became a place where the heroine of the movie lost her life and was reluctant to return.
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The bedding of water is very long, from birth to death. Because of the rainy night, the heroine had to find shelter, died in the rain in the hotel, and then was put into the car and pushed into the lake. Rain, rain, blood, and lake water slowly spread in the movie, and then formed a complete passage. The heroine cheated on her husband and stole $40,000 from her boss. She was tortured with conscience in her heart. She finally decided to return to the city to admit her mistake, but was killed. When she left, no one knew that she had thought of turning around. The water in the bathroom did not wash away the guilt, but mixed with her blood.
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The hero Bates took down the painting on the wall and peeped through the hole in the room. This voyeuristic scene has contained mystery from the beginning of "that painting". That painting was from the end of the 16th century to the beginning of the 17th century, and it was titled "Susanna and the Old Man". The story is about a woman taking a shower in her garden, and two elderly men peeping at her. Behind this painting is the theme of morality and ethics, which is related to the heroine's derailment, the schizophrenia of the hero, and the protagonist's voyeurism.
Therefore, Hitchcock chose this painting after careful consideration and deep consideration, forming an intertextuality with the story and a connection with the characters. The metaphor brought by a painting is like an easter egg buried in a movie. When people understand the meaning of it, they deepen the impression of the movie and the scene.
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The protagonist Bates has an attachment to his mother, and the other person with schizophrenia is his own mother, so when he conducts "voyeuristic" behavior, the two people are also struggling with conflict. One is Bates's admiration for Marian, and the other is his mother's hostility to Marian. The mother’s clues are mentioned many times in the film. When Marianne was dating and talking with her boyfriend, communicating with her colleagues about headaches, and briefly chatting with Bates, detectives, boyfriends, and sisters came to the hotel to look for Marianne’s old man from a distance. When a woman is in the figure, "mother" has always appeared in many plots of the movie.
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Therefore, when the mystery of Bates dressed as a mother and committed hurtful behavior is revealed, "Mother" is no stranger to the audience, as if the audience has been waiting for this answer. A "finally I guessed it" surprise became a particularly amazing part of the movie-watching experience.
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Throughout the clip, the heroine's death process is slow and rhythmic. One of the heroine's hands slowly slips off the bathroom tile wall, and then faces the camera, stretches towards the shower curtain, tears off the curtain, the copper ring falls off, and her life ends. In previous movies, most of the directors chose to quickly explain the process of death and cooperate with the exaggerated expressions of the actors. It can be seen how different the perception of "Scary" was brought to people at that time.
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In short, for such a scene, Hitchcock broke through the traditions of many films at the time. Water was a clue, painted as an easter egg, mother was a dark line, and schizophrenia was a mystery. These elements, combined with special sound effects and picture editing, finally The "Bathroom Murder" scene ends in a close-up of the heroine's bright but horrified eyes.
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Whether it is the artistic effect achieved, the historical significance of the film, or the shooting technique, the scene has become a classic among the classics. Later, this play was adapted, remade, borrowed, and paid tribute to countless film and television dramas. Whether it is realistic themes or cartoons, the bathroom murder scene of Hitchcock's "Terror" has become a precious treasure in the hearts of filmmakers and audiences. .
Three Enlightenments on the Fragment of "Murder in the Bathroom"
- 1. Spiritual shock is far better than visual shock
"78/52"
The "Bathroom Murder" segment of "The Cry" has been so classic after decades. In addition to Hitchcock's repeated pioneering in technology and performance, more importantly, this segment and the entire film have brought people The spirit is shocking. Nowadays, film technology is becoming more and more advanced. From film to digital, from martial arts to special effects, there are almost no fragments that humans can't shoot. When technology is no longer an obstacle, we need more innovative works in consciousness and thinking.
During the same period of Hitchcock and later, there were still many suspenseful films in the history of film, and the expression of many fragments was much more advanced than Hitchcock's back then. We are now watching "Scary". The wig that the murderer wore when he turned and left was so obvious. If he was shooting now, he would definitely be completely realistic.
However, how many fragments can reach the mental shock brought by the "Scary" fragment. "Scary" not only embodies "fright" in the plot, but also embodies "fright" in the core sense. At the end of the film, no full moral judgment is given, after all, the murderer's mental state is in a morbid state. Bates is innocent and pitiful when he belongs to his personality attributes. Even for a moment, the audience responded with sympathy to him.
Such movies were filmed in the 1960s. Hitchcock has already begun to satirize the innocence of Americans, explore the complexity of human nature, and demonstrate the dialectics of emotions. Therefore, such fragments are still such classics from that moment to today.
With his experience from the silent film era, Hitchcock used black-and-white films to beat color films of the year. On the one hand, he was proficient in his skills, and on the other hand, it showed that the effect of spiritual shock was strong. Many suspense movies tend to use bloody shots to show tension, but Hitchcock used emotional shock to carve a deep imprint of "Terror" in people's hearts.
- 2. The balance between violence and aesthetics
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It is true that special themes such as suspense movies cannot be separated from certain special shots, which play an important role in running through the plot, showing the theme, and rendering the emotions. It is inevitable that these shots will have some "violent" elements. Film art is inseparable from the coordinated use of visual and auditory language, but it does not mean that extreme effects can stand out.
In many horror-themed movies, too much effort is used in the performance of certain shots, which is actually unnecessary. Although the pictures in Hitchcock's films are amazing, they are not uncomfortable. After all, as a work of art, even if it is a lens that expresses violence, it still has to take into account the aesthetic effect. The violent images have to produce beauty, and that kind of effect will enable people to gain insight into the essence of the film through the phenomenon.
Not long ago, the widely discussed movie "Hunger Platform" was used to compare with Feng Junhao's "Snow Country Train". However, as far as the screen performance is concerned, the shots of "Hunger Platform" are too direct and rough, while in "Snow Country Train", there are not too many bloody images, but the audience's thinking about "level" is more profound. Some viewers reported that they felt "stomach upset" after watching "Hunger Platform". This effect is mostly related to the excessive force of the lens.
The filmmakers hope that the core spirit of the story is ultimately what resonates with the audience, rather than the momentary surprise in the face of the camera. The "Bathroom Murder" segment of "Scary" shows a kind of "violent aesthetics" with life tension.
- 3. Innovative breakthroughs are based on reflections on reality
Hitchcock’s "The Cry" undoubtedly contains many breakthroughs. The murder scene in the bathroom, the death process of the female victim, the close-up of the toilet, the "confidentiality" requirement at the premiere, etc., this series is not exactly a movie. The director's maverick, in addition to artistic persistence, is more of an act put into practice after reflection on reality. These behaviors are the result of a combination of rationality and sensibility.
Courage is not only reflected in the presentation of the movie's story, but also in the criticism and exposure of American social phenomena. British directors did not "flatter" through their works when shooting films in Hollywood, but instead brought people more thinking. This is the responsibility of the filmmaker, and it is the courage of the filmmaker. Under the background of the time, it is even more difficult.
This is why Hitchcock has been in an important position in film history after decades. Excellent filmmakers must shoulder social responsibility and responsibility. The naive attitude of the Americans satirized in "The Cry" still seems to be applicable to us now.
Concluding remarks
Hitchcock has filmed 53 movies in his lifetime and has produced countless dramas. On the 120th anniversary of Hitchcock’s birthday, the Beijing Film Festival screened five of his classic films, and the tickets sold out instantly. He was shortlisted for the best director Oscar five times in his life, but he never got the chance to win the prize, but so what. Hitchcock is still the king of suspense movies in the hearts of countless fans with his classic works, and "The Terror" is also a "good heart" for most fans.
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