Tag: Alfred Hitchcock

Hitchcock’s Psycho: A Masterpiece

Like I have said in an earlier post, I am a Hitchcock fan. I think he is a genius, but this movie made me think again about the magnitude of his genius. Truly, this man was light years ahead of his time with the way he put together the masterpiece of a psychological thriller, Psycho.

This movie opens with a couple in a hotel. Right off the bat there is a woman on full display in her underclothes. Now, this is not a stretch in movies today with completely scantily-clad women and full-on nudity, but for a film in 1960, I can imagine this might have turned quite a few heads. And this is just the start. Hitchcock pushes boundaries throughout this movie.

Said woman, Marion Crane is a secretary for a real estate company. That afternoon, after a clandestine meeting with her boyfriend, Sam Loomis, and when she returns to the office, a client drops off a large amount of money in cash. Marion seems cool enough about this huge sum of money when her boss tells her to deposit it into the bank right away because he feels nervous about having it around the office. Our lead lady, instead of going to the bank, decides she is going to steal the money to have a future with her indebted boyfriend. So begins a chain of events expertly captured by Hitchcock’s trained eye. The movie is titled Psycho, and this theme of the mind plays in right from the start with Marion role-playing scenarios replete with conversations spoken out by different players. Suspense is threaded into the very fabric of this movie in layers that keep you rooted to your seat (I didn’t move positions even once during the almost 2 hours!). Marion manages a treacherous journey to almost being with her boyfriend. However, a rainy night brings her to the Bates’ Motel. Here she spends a night, and that is where the psychosis kicks in. The owner of the hotel, Mr. Norman Bates, is not all he seems. And Marion might just be in a lot of danger.

Hitchcock marches right into the mind of a deranged killer. Dissociative Identity Disorder (previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder) is the premise of this movie, and while research around this area was being compiled, and various print and media were tackling this subject at the time, Hitchcock (in  my mind) does the best work of portraying and analyzing the condition. Mr. Norman Bates has this condition. How does it play out?

Hitchcock’s angles, as always, are a cinematic technique to be studied, repeated and revered. He has the talent to create fear and anxiety and despair and utter suspense with the way he films his scenes. You get an overview shot of Mr. Norman Bates removing his mother from her room and carrying her downstairs to the cellar. Not too close, but just close enough to get you thinking about what this means and what will happen next. When Lila Crane goes looking for her sister, Marion, in the dark cellar, the shadows and the eye’s view with which she approaches the person she sees leave you immobile with fear. How does a director manage to achieve such a reaction in his viewers? Psychological thrillers these days don’t make you think as much! They don’t respect the intellect of their audience to put things together and create fear where those gaps are being filled. Hitchcock does that! He trusts that his audience is smart. He gives you just enough to create in your own imagination the diabolic scene that is unfolding in front of you, before it does! And then he adds a twist. Just when you thought you knew…

The motif of birds, these ones stuffed, is a recurring one in this movie, and sets the stage for Hitchcock’s later movie, The Birds (1963). Perhaps this was a horror theme he wanted to explore in more detail.

The actors are perfectly suited for their roles. Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates is the lanky and scared son who smiles inappropriately after something morbid is said. Janet Leigh as Marion Crane carries her heart and fear with sass and cleverness. She makes mistakes, but she is aware of them. Vera Miles as Lila Crane is picked for her likeness to Marion as a sister, but with just a bit more grit to make her probe the mystery and uncover the truth.

If you have a 2-hour window and are looking for a REAL psychological thriller, this would be it. Not one of those movies that delights in blood and gore to make you sick to your stomach. Not one of those that constantly has mangled figures hiding in the dark awaiting a “dumb” character’s entrance. No. This one is clever, and gives you as the viewer the satisfaction of putting the events together, before they are fully revealed, with your own cleverness.

So what say you, will you watch Psycho?

 

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Charlie Newton: Hitchcock’s Female pièce de résistance

On a Hitchcock roll here.

His 1943 Shadow of a Doubt was a psychological cocktail that I indulged in this weekend. I have watched  a handful  of movies from the 1940s, and not many of them showcase a particularly strong female. The leading ladies are abuzz with character (quite possibly just hysterics) in most cases, but tend toward the demure and genteel when push comes to shove.

Not so for Teresa Wright’s character of Charlotte “Charlie” Newton. The movie opens with a zoom-in of a window of a room in the neighbourhood of a town. A man is being chased by a pair of men. The scene cuts to a young girl on a bed, philosophizing about life and the sheer lack-lustre-ness of it all. This is  young Charlie who is named after her maternal Uncle, Charles “Charlie” Oakley. Charles Oakley is the man on the run, but from what? He sends a telegram to his sister saying he is coming for a visit. His sister, ever the naive and doting-on-all-she-loves woman, is thrilled to be reconnected with her brother.

Charles arrives and Charlie’s mood is lifted. Only briefly. She soon catches whiff of something sinister cooking within her uncle. As characters thither about in their roles of sister and husband and friend and detective, Charlie is paying the keenest of attention to her uncle and his odd behaviour. There is a murderer of widows on the run in her country. Is he her uncle?

This Film Noir is marked by moments of psychological twisting as Charlie is first painted as a potential love interest of Charles Oakley’s. The subliminal acts of holding her close and slipping a ring (which is a gift) on her finger border on the verge of incest. However, just when you become uncomfortable with the notion of an uncle being interested in his niece and vice-versa, a love interest for Charlie is introduced, and Charlie herself steps up her game.

She goes from doting niece to shrewd sleuth. She battles numerous dangerous situations and comes out alive. She is portrayed as protector of her mother and family, fiercely determined to venture into uncertainty just so she can uncover the truth. She threatens her uncle with death, and is quite adept at handling herself with grace and coy around men interested in her wit and charm and beauty. Charlie Newton is easily one of Hitchcock’s best leading characters. She has spunk, determination, smarts and grace. And all this packed into a classy slim-waisted dress on heels. It is important also to note the symbolism behind Charlie’s name. She is given the nickname of a boy, but she posses all the wherewithal of a respectable woman. She is portrayed as a character with many angles, all quite fascinating. Further, she is named after her uncle, but she is presented as an alternate “good” version of his character. All this, not bad for an early 1940s leading lady. Hitchcock has proven yet again that he was a master at making a movie that comprises varying levels of psychologically-acute layers, while injecting social issues of the times.

Teresa Wright, for her part, juxtaposes quite well her expressions of fear with grit and ability. Her character walks right into traps in the name of respect and obligation, but walks right back out when she is confronted with someone wanting to take advantage of her perceived vulnerability.

This movie utilizes dark and light to balance quite nicely the themes of crime committed by a man whose heart is ashen with his diabolical thoughts, and a young lady on the brink of womanhood who is bursting with life and wisdom and adventure.

Hats off Hitchcock, this one was spectacular.

 

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Hitchcock’s Rope: Philosophical and Gripping

My fascination with Alfred Hitchcock began years ago when I was little and would watch his movies with my parents. I have to admit, at the time, I didn’t grasp a lot of what was being enacted before my eyes, but now in my young adulthood, I am revisiting Hitchcock’s movies, and I have got to say, his genius is still relevant today.

I recently watched the movie, Rope. This 1948 film stars my favourite actor from that generation, James Stewart. Now, if you’re thinking that name rings a bell, you have likely seen him in the holiday classic, It’s a Wonderful Life. James is a superbly talented actor and a timeless one at that, but that is for another day and another blog post.

This movie opens with two of our lead characters, Bernard and Philip, strangling their friend, David, to death. The romantic philosophy of being superior beings collaborating in the masterful art of murder is touted as their raison d’etre, and their reason for committing this heinous act. This philosophy as we learn, has been first espoused by Nietzsche and taught by their college professor, Rupert (James Stewart). The duo then proceed to hold a dinner to “celebrate” this “achievement”. As the guests arrive, we see a very different aftermath play out with the two characters. Bernard is presented as the callous and charismatic psychopath, and Philip is really losing his  marbles with guilt. Enter their college professor, Rupert,  and the evening’s events begin to unravel themselves.

As is his signature trademark, Hitchcock very dexterously incorporates subtle angles in his filming that seek to foreshadow what is to come. The symbolism inherent in the various acts carried out by the characters in this movie, is exceptional. In one scene (AND SPOILER ALERT), Bernard is packaging a collection of First Edition books for the dead man’s father to take home, and he uses the same rope he killed his son with, to tie the books together.

I particularly enjoyed this movie because it got me thinking about society and the hierarchy of beings when it comes  to differentiating between superior and inferior. We see this as a recurring trend today with killings the world over, perpetrated by those holding twisted versions of concepts surrounding race or religion or gender. Friedrich Nietzsche’s Ubermensch or “Superman” philosophy is at the heart of this idea, where he essentially tosses out the concept of Godly values, in favour of an alternative system of values created by those who view themselves as superior to their fellow human beings. Bernard is that character in Rope. With his inflated sense of self, he rests content in the fact that he has carried out the perfect artistic venture to prove his superiority. However, as the movie hurtles towards its inevitable conclusion, all is not what it seems.

 

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