"I once made a movie that was quite playful - Psycho, and I was horrified when I found out that some people were taking it seriously." - Hitchcock in 1960.
Brain Gate can even imagine how this man in a suit, with a seemingly innocent expression, said this sentence in front of the audience who admired him.
Over the past 57 years, his "Psycho" has not only been continuously used as a model for teaching, but some people have even made a movie about its interpretation.
"79/52: Hitchcock's Bathing Scene"
Once Hitchcock used 78 sets of shots, 52 edits, and 7 days to create the first classic horror film in film history; now someone uses 90 minutes, 22 producers or film critics, and 102 movies to interpret the three-minute bath in them. play.
In three minutes, I will interpret the background of the era of the birth of "Psycho", the character environment created by the characters, the character planning, the storyboard, the original work, sound effects, soundtracks, editing... One by one.
After watching it, it is really hearty, this is a professional and awesome interpretation of the film review.
Let's first review the content of the movie "Psycho".
Mary (Janet Leigh), an accountant working in Phoenix, has to date her boyfriend who won't divorce at noon because of her boyfriend's financial problems. On this day, the boss asked Mary to deposit 40,000 US dollars in the bank, and Mary made up her mind and fled with the money.
The unplanned and inexperienced Marie went so far as to escape, even being targeted by the police, and living in the motel of her boss, Norman (Anthony Perkins), tormented. Just when the audience was worried about the suspense of whether Mary would be caught, the most classic "bathroom murder" in "Psycho" happened...
Director Peter Bogdanovic, who has directed masterpieces such as "The Last Movie" and "Paper Moon", recalled a movie-watching experience he had in June 1959:
"For the first time ever, you're in a movie theater and you feel uneasy. When I walked out of the movie theater at noon and came to Times Square, it felt like I was being raped."
01
In the summer of 1960, the world suddenly changed
Psycho was born in 1960.
That year, the first Playboy Club opened in Chicago.
That year, the most famous sitcom stars of the 1950s, Lucille Ball and Ricky Riccardo, divorced.
That year, the Food and Drug Administration approved the birth control pill.
That year, the Clutter family of Kansas was murdered, just days after Psycho began filming.
。。。。。。
In a sense, Psycho was a watershed moment.
Until then, Americans at the time had pinned all their hopes on the security that family would bring them, believing that as long as it was in a private space, it was an area of absolute safety. No Soviets or anyone else could break in.
Before that, people's understanding of terrorist violence only rested on the terrifying results brought about by the failure of scientific experiments, but people did not think that the real horror would happen to them at all.
But after that, Hitchcock told us in a Psycho that you could be in the shower, alone, facing death without warning…
"Do you think it's safe to bathe at home? Is it safe to have family and loved ones around?"
Hitchcock is quietly using films such as "The Cape", "The Lonely Boat" and "The Voice of the Heart" to imply to you how ignorant and naive the American city is.
He breaks the rules one by one, all hinting at his absolute challenge and revenge on Hollywood.
People are addicted to the classic set of narrative relationships in Hollywood.
"That's Janet Leigh, the absolute heroine, how could she be killed?" But she was killed.
"She had no grievances with him, so why was she killed in the bathroom?" But she was killed.
The audience didn't even see the process of killing, but they made up all the plots of being killed.
Hitchcock's subversive practices are telling you:
- Don't be naive anymore.
- Times will change from now on.
In the 1930s and 1920s, women were the protagonists. By 1940, this gradually became not the case. At the end of 1950, women became the secondary characters of the film. It can be said that this film reflects this. - "The Last Movie" director Bidberg Danovich.
The fact that Hitchcock filmed the murder alone meant that, to some extent, murder became a recognized content of entertainment. - Brett Easton Ellis, author of The American Psycho.
I think that was the first presentation of the assaulted female body in contemporary film history, and in some ways the purest presentation. ——"Deadly Invitation", "Jennifer's Body" director Karen Kusama.
02
The most tense is not those disgusting ways to die, but the atmosphere brewing before the person dies
We rarely do horror movies in suits, it's more like a man in a shirt and jeans made by a man in a suit. - "Psycho 4" director Mick Garris.
"The sound of running water was deafening and the room started to be enveloped in steam. So she didn't hear the door opening, and she didn't notice footsteps. At first when the shower curtain was pulled, the steam covered the face. Then, she saw, just a face. , looking in through the shower curtain. It looks like a mask, suspended in mid-air. The scarf covers her hair halfway, and the dull eyes stare at her. But it's not a mask, it's impossible. The skin is white with makeup. Cheeks There were two blobs of red rouge on the bone. It wasn't a mask, it was the face of a mad woman. Mary began to scream, and the shower curtain was drawn further. A hand suddenly appeared, holding a handful of butchery Knife. Moments later, it was the knife that cut off her scream and her head."
The original book is such a short paragraph, but Hitchcock took seven days, 72 sets of shots, and 52 edits to complete the shooting.
Surprisingly, in this scene, the heroine is neither Janet Leigh nor Anthony Perkins. But two stand-ins.
What's more surprising is that when Hitchcock first saw the rough cut version, he was very dissatisfied, and even wanted to cut it directly into an hour-long TV show.
Among them is a wide-angle lens, the lens is even virtual, but it is regarded as a classic of film history by many film critics.
When the film opened, Hitchcock made an unprecedented rule: "No one is allowed to enter the theater after the film begins, and please don't reveal the plot."
why?
Because the heroine Janet Leigh is killed about a third of the way through the film. Hitchcock didn't want people to keep whispering when Janet Leigh would show up.
In a sense, he broke the tacit understanding between the audience and the filmmaker. Viewers can't wait to see more...
Before 1960, no one took a close-up of a toilet. Hitchcock took a full five seconds to give a close-up of the toilet.
From that moment on, toilets, toilet drains, shower curtains, and drains have become the most important elements of horror movies.
Start switching shots every four and a half seconds, take it easy. But the weird thing is that Hitchcock uses a series of asymmetrical shots to quickly plug Mary's environment.
The first second was when Mary put her head under the shower, and the next second shot back showed Mary with wet hair.
Such jumping clips instantly create a sense of blockage for the audience.
Then, the camera starts to give the shower again, and then Mary, who takes up half of the shot.
When the camera turns to Mary again, the background turns from a white wall to a shower curtain, and Mary becomes Mary who only occupies a quarter of the shot.
The sudden wrong direction of the camera made the audience in front of the screen feel an unprecedented "sense of siege". Just like Mary at this time...
A large number of blanks make the audience involuntarily focus their attention. Who will fill that blank?
Oh, it's Norman.
Norman's figure appears behind the shower curtain, Mary turns her head, and the murder begins. Norman's hand with the knife came through the back, over the square, and the shower water ran against the direction of the knife...
Hitchcock was creating a sense of "disorientation". When the audience's eyes finally caught up with his shot, he had already cut to the next shot.
Audiences will be horrified that they have witnessed such a shocking event, when in fact they have seen nothing.
But that's the difference between suspense and fright.
Someone took seven days to shoot a three-minute play; someone took 90 minutes to interpret a three-minute play.
This is the best tribute and confession to a classic movie.
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