Psycho

In the opening of the film the captions are overlaid over the camera shots to provide information for the viewer; the first caption the audience see says ‘Phoenix, Arizona’ providing the setting, the second caption ‘Friday December the Eleventh’ and the third and final caption ‘Two forty-three P.M’ establishes equilibrium. The film uses a caption to establish the setting by stating the place, date and time. We are shown the city in the afternoon in daylight showing a typical American city, depicting nothing out of the ordinary.

 

 The audience are shown a long shot as the camera pans over the rooftops of the city towards an apartment block and then focuses on a single window finally taking the audience into the apartment. The audience is then introduced to the characters Marion and Sam in what is meant to be an intimate moment forcing the audience to identify with the characters themselves. Alfred Hitchcock allows the audience to identify with Marion and her situation as soon as the film opens because after this their focus is completely on Marion up until her violent death. In this scene a picture is painted of Marion and Sam’s romantic yet complicated relationship; they are in love and wish to start a life together but don’t want to tell anyone yet and are restricted due to Sam’s tricky marital situation with his wife as he doesn’t have enough money to pay his debts. This allows the audience to create an emotional connection with the characters and immediately hope that they end up together.

 

 At this early stage in the film Hitchcock has provided the audience with a red herring (‘MacGuffin’ in Hitchcock films) as they are shown the story of Marion and Sam they are in a false sense of thought that they’ll be following their story and developing relationship. After the apartment the audience are taken to the setting of Marion’s place of work; shots of Marion chatting with her colleague in a friendly way helps the audience identify further with Marion’s character as the typical everyday working American girl. In this scene the audience are introduced to the character of Cassidy, he is portrayed as a sleazy and demanding older man who thinks he should be able to get his way all the time. Here mise-en-scene is used; the prop being the large envelope of Cassidy’s containing $40,000, Marion is told to take the money to the bank by her boss but seizing the opportunity and through desperation Marion steals the money to help Sam pay his wife and pay for their wedding and new life together. However, even though Marion steals the money rather than disliking Marion the audience continue to root for her because of Hitchcock’s portrayal of her character as the audience know she is respectable and stealing the money through desperation and love as well as the identification they’ve developed with the character.

 

As Marion begins her journey out of Phoenix the audience in order for the audience to continue to associate with Marion’s character Hitchcock uses restricted narration to keep the audiences sole focus on Marion. A key feature that helps the audience connect to the character of Marion is Janet Leigh’s prominent eyes; they provide an insight into the characters feelings especially in the close up shots, audience members can’t help but empathise with her as she is overcome with a flood of various emotions. As well as the tight close up shots of Marion’s face the audience can hear the voiceover of other people’s voices; at this point it’s clear Marion is worried and fearing violent repercussion’s, the thoughts suggest to the audience (along with Marion’s facial expressions) that she’s paranoid. Hitchcock continues to use restricted narration as Marion is spotted and followed by an intimidating policeman who becomes suspicious of Marion. The audience continue to see each character through Marion’s perspective, I think due to the personal identification the audience build with Marion they begin to feel how she feels; when Marion is questioned by the policeman she continuously insists she is innocence but it’s clear she is beginning to succumb to the pressure and stress, possibly suggesting that she’s beginning to think she’s made the wrong choice.

 

After pulling up to Bates Motel we are introduced to Norman Bates, a character who is portrayed as a weak, vulnerable character as well as Norman the audience are made aware of Norman’s mother from a long shot of her figure in the window of the house. It’s at the Bates Motel Marion decides she is going to return to Phoenix with the $40,000, proving to the audience that she was always the good character they believed her to be as she knows she is in the wrong and she has a sense of moral.

 

The restricted narration that Hitchcock has kept the whole way through the film at this point moves away from Marion in a plot twist as Marion is brutally murdered. Before this Marion and Norman have a heated discussion, I think at one point during this confrontation (when Marion asks brings up Norman’s mother) without realising it she puts herself in danger as at this point Norman’s double personality of his mother takes over. The iconic shower scene in which Marion is murdered has become one of the most famous scenes in cinematic history, in the scene we see Marion looking relaxed only to have her life taken away by what we see as a silhouette leaving the audience wondering ‘Who was that?’ providing an enigma code, a sense of mystery bringing another element to the film. Marion’s dead corpse on the bathroom floor is an image that will stay with most audience members, Hitchcock brings us back to Marion’s face and the audience are once again struck by Marion’s eyes.

 

After Marion’s murder the audience are forced to establish with the character of Norman Bates, after building identification with Marion the audience now have to identify with Norman as he disposes of her body; the audience member will disagree with the goings on in the film but have no choice as they are following the plot.

 

The musical score in Psycho is very important because it is used to build tension; Hitchcock used a string orchestra- Hitchcock thought that the single tone would reflect the use of black and white cinematography of the film. The music in the film is fast paced and creates tension, especially with the fast pace.