Psycho

"Psycho" (1960)

"Psycho" is a film directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1960, starring Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh and Vera Miles. The film is initially a shock, and was thought to be the scariest film of its time, as something this extreme was never before produced in cinema.

The fact that the leading lady in "Psycho" is murdered, it leaves the audience in shock, thinking that anybody could be killed and anything at all could happen. Hitchcock made sure that to create suspense, the audience must know that a murder can happen at any time at any place in the film. Hitchcock stressed that the apprehension increases there is less and less violence on screen.

It is safe to say that there is continuous, fast pacing action throughout the whole film, we see this through scenes of characters being murdered by the mentally insane villain, for example, the shower scene which is one of the most famous scenes in horror movies. The eerie music builds up and just as the shower curtain is pulled back, the screeching noises match the horror that is being portrayed on screen.
There was a lot of talk about the shower scene, as cinema had never before seen, at this time, a murder like this. Paramount Pictures were afraid that there may be some nudity on the screen, and that the scene was too gruesome to add in. But, Hitchcock stated that the knife being lunged towards the woman only "suggests" what is happening, as we do not actually see the knife stabbing her because there is fast cutting just to show shots of what is going on. Another interesting point is that real blood was not actually used on set to create the illusion of Marion's blood running down the shower drain, but in fact chocolate was used because it was decided that it was the substance that ran better with the water, and it was dark & thick enough to look like real blood in the black and white setting.

There is also a great amount of suspense when the police officer is murdered on the staircase, because it is yet again another shocking scene which the audience didn't expect, yet at the same time they are intrigued by suspense throughout the whole film, which makes them want to continue watching even though they are actually terrified and fear what is going to happen next.
We see techniques used in this film such as dramatic irony which is when the audience know more about what is going on than certain characters in the film. For example, we know more about the psychotic character in "Psycho" than Marion does. We know when he is about to pull back the shower curtain and murder her, because we see his shadowy figure lurking behind the curtain, but she does not realise this until he pulls it back. Another technique that is used is the McGuffin, where another event is brought into the main plot, yet audiences do not care about it. The McGuffin in "Psycho" is Marion stealing the money; we do not care about her taking it, yet it drags the plot forward and allows us to become intrigued with more interesting events such as the murders, and what is the secret behind Norman Bates and his mother?

The storyline in "Psycho" is not great, it isn't the most appealing story to intrigue audiences. However, the greatness is there but only in the true brilliance of construction, and the way it was filmed. There are two major surprises in "Psycho", and that is the shower scene which shocked audiences worldwide, and the revelation of Norman Bates' mother.
When Janet Leigh dies, as well as being in shock the audience are then confused because the point of view is then shifted to Norman Bates'. Hitchcock refused to let anybody into the theatres at the first showings of the film because he didn't want anyone to miss a single part, or walk in after the big surprises had occurred. There was also no advance screenings of "Psycho".

Film Theorists

Film Theorists

There are many theories idealised by different people based on how films are made. The traditional Hollywood narrative structure is made up of three acts; the set up is 25% of the time, the confrontation is 50% and the climax ends with 25% of the film time. It is the most common structure of storytelling in mainstream films, and is based on a three act format that organises the story, as mentioned before.

Roland Barthes: Enigmas

Roland Barthes believed that all texts are complex bundles of meaning. The enigmas codes introduce problems and usually happen at the "distribution" stage. He also said that polysemic texts have lots of different meanings. An example of a film with a lot of enigma and a large sense of mystery is in "The Birds" - because even at the end of the film the audience are still completely unaware as to why the birds attacked the people or what drove them to do it, the film ends strangely with the problem unresolved.







Levi Strauss: Binary Opposites

Strauss said narratives can be organised through binary opposition - two things opposed - often dominant vs subordinate e.g. male, female, hero or villain. An example of a film which can support this theory is "North By North West" because the villain is of much higher authority, and is a much more dominant figure than the hero, who throughout most of the film is trying to find out what has happened to him and why he was kidnapped and being accused of somebody he is not.

Todorov: Narrative Theory

Todorov in 1969 produced a theory which he believed to be able to apply to apply to any film. He believed that all films followed the same narrative pattern. They all went through stages called the equilibrium, disequilibrium, acknowledgment solving and again equilibrium. There are five stages the narrative can progress through: a state of equilibrium, a disruption.  

Vladimir Propp: Character Types

Propp analysed traditional folk stories, and claimed that in films there are eight key character roles:
- The Hero          
- The Villain
- The Helper
- The Doner (Provided)
- The Father
- The Dispatcher
- The Princess
- The False Hero
- The False Villain
He also made it clear that a single character has the ability to play more than one role. The majority of characters in all sorts of genres of film have one of these eight roles. The hero is usually the main character in which the audience wish to see succeed, and the villain is the person who is often portrayed to look like they will be victorious, however, they are usually not.

Rope

"Rope" 1948

"Rope" is a thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring James Stewart, John Dall and Farley Granger.
The opening scene of this film shows two men which have both killed a man. We know nothing about this man, but the opening leaves the audience wondering what will happen next. Through this we learn that the whole film centres around these two characters who are presumably gay (although it is never confirmed in the film, because back then the topic of homosexuality wasn't talked about in day to day conversation) trying to cover up the death of the man they have murdered, trying to not get caught. The meguffin in this film is the party that the two men arrange; audiences aren't interested in this party, all they're interested in is if the men will get away with their crime.

Hitchcock explains that suspense is "essentially an emotional process" and can only work by giving the audience the information. However, he also says that if you tell the audience everything and give away the entire plot with no surprises or twists, it's wasteful because there is no emotion to it. Stating that mystery and suspense are "miles apart" also makes it sound like he pays very close attention to the difference between the two in order to make audiences portray certain scenes in movies correctly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xs111uH9ss

"Rope" is also adapted from Patrick Hamilton's 1929 play which was said to be based on the case of Leopald and Loeb, when they killed a teenage boy back in 1924.
The master of the murder in the film, which is Brandon, says that "Good and evil, right and wrong were invented for the ordinary average man, the inferior man, because he needs them."

There is a scene in "Rope" in which the lady walks over to the chest where the body is. There is suspense here because it leaves the audience wondering if she is going to find the body, and when she is close to the chest, the audience feel the sense of fright because they know what is coming when the two men are discovered. However, when she turns away and doesn't look after all, they feel a sense of relief.
There is also a lot of dramatic irony in this film. This is when the audience know more about what is going on than some of the individual characters do in the film. For example, we know about the murder of this person, however, some characters do not, such as the people who attend the party. The party in itself is not what the audience are interested in, because it is just what is covering up the murder. We are most interested in whether or not the two are going to get away with this murder, or are they in fact going to get discovered before the movie ends?

Hitchcock wanted to film a "continuous play", and "Rope" pretends to be a one shot film, which came in 10 minute reels in 10 minute sequences. This seemed to work well as the aspect that this was originally a play was still there, for most of the film it is filmed in the same place with different characters coming in and out of the scene at different times.

North by Northwest [AS Media Studies]

North by Northwest

The Trailer

This trailer includes information about how the movie begins and ends. There is also a lot of critic quotes in it, which can encourage audiences to watch the film. It can appeal to audiences because all the audiences knows to begin with is that North by Northwest is a thriller. However, by watching the trailer you can experience hearing the theme music to the film which creates the suspense that you can feel whilst watching the movie. The trailer also shows scenes such as when the crop duster crashed into the truck, and when Roger Thornhill got framed for a murder. But, cleverly, the trailer does not tell audiences how or why these scenes occurred, because that is what the trailer is for, to make audiences intrigued to know what will happen and to make them want to watch the motion picture.

What makes this a Thriller?

This movie contains a lot of suspense and a lot of times when the audience may predict that something is going to happen, but instead there are twists. For example, Eve Kendall, the main female character is first of all made to seem like a genuine character when she helps Thornhill escape from being captured by the police. However, we soon learn that she is working with the villains, or so it seems, so the audience is fooled. This is called a red herring. Later on, whilst the audience suspect she is a wrongdoer, we soon discover that she is a good character after all, and eventually is saved by the main character right at the end. The various twists and parts that shock the audience such as when the crop duster is sent to kill Thornhill, and when it crashes, almost killing him, the audience could find this thrilling since the main character was so close to death several times in the film as well as almost falling off a cliff at the very end.

"Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action."

This quote describes the majority of the scenes in North by Northwest.