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Film Analysis - Psycho

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             Hitchcock and Russell (cinematographer) used two cameras at once to get the most out of performance during the shooting of Psycho. This helped save time. .
             Hitchcock's works have some similarities. The opening shot of the film is a hovering crane shot which is hovering over the city of Phoenix in Arizona. There are four shots in all with three dissolves between them. The writer feels that the editing between them wasn't very smooth enough and it was a bit distracting in some sort. Even though it was a bit distracting, it built a lot of curiosity to the audience since it leads into the a partly drawn curtain and then into the hotel room. The music used was mysterious and very chilling; it fit perfectly with the images shown. It felt very dark, discordant and gave a feeling that time is running out and a feeling of being chased. It was a very unpredictable soundtrack, telling the audience that the film is going to be full of ups and downs. "As for Bernard Herrmann's 'background music - would Psycho be itself without it?." (Durgnat, 2002).
             In this scene we get the glimpse of the main character. We don't know if its the girl or the guy. But then we see a blonde, and that is the trademark of Hitchcock. Marion is wearing a white bra in this scene and is cuddling with her secret lover. Hitchcock created a huge contrast later in the film when Marion is wearing a black bra which is signifying her dark side, the part when she steals the money from her boss. .
             The writer feels that Psycho played a huge role in revolutionising cinema in terms of technicality and in terms of content. Hitchcock knows exactly how to handle the passage of time efficiently. We observe in one of the scenes, when Marion Crane leaves the room, we see that its still the same exact day. When she goes to work and comes back home with the money that she was supposed to put in the bank, all of these actions happen in one afternoon and we see that the time frame does not change at all.


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