Psycho (1960)

USA
directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
written by: Joseph Stefano + Robert Bloch (kniha)
starring: Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam, Janet Leigh
comment: 12th November, 2014

I remember it like it was yesterday: My parents explaining to me, a ten-year-old girl, who Norman Bates is so I could understand a humorous remark in the legendary (in my family anyway) Red Dwarf series. By doing so they unleashed a classic spoiler my way and also caused me to always associate Norman Bates and Psycho with comedy rather than horror.  And to their defence, I believe that Hitch has also done everything in his power to force viewers to make this switch. The older I get (and I'm not getting cynical, if anything, I cry more during films now), the more I see Psycho as a cunning black comedy. And it's not only because of the scene with the boss on the crosswalk. A lot of the dialogue suggests it too. But it also doesn't mean that I would laugh and say "it's old and it's silly", because I see carefully crafted mischievousness.

An example of absolute mischievous beauty is Hitch putting Perkins as Norman next to the boyfriend played by Gavin. Gavin is a rock, a dummy, a blank figurine belonging to the old world (of cinema) because of the way he speaks and acts. Perkins is always moving and layering all kinds of emotions in his actions, he's uneasy and insecure and yet even during the most intense moments he keeps on casually munching on some candy. How much more evidence a viewer needs to determine that what he's doing is the future of cinema. (And of course I'm saying it after that future already had happened - and I'm not a native English speaker so those tenses  are definitely wrong but you get the gist. The actor died when I was a year and half old and I'm also sad to say that during the years after that I managed to see not only Psycho but also it's B-movie and maybe C-movie sequels which he also directed himself, oh God, why.)

Bernard Herrmann's music is so iconic that I always get the feeling that I remember it from one of my past lives, but what I really admire is the camera movements. And I am also in awe of Hitch continuously diverting the attention and constantly changing who the protagonist is.

When I saw the film for the first time, I fell in love with Perkins. Now is that special place in my heart occupied by the higway patrol officer who knocks on Marion's car window and then menacingly shadows her.

-"A man should have a hobby." ♥