psycho1960-filmstudy(英文影评)

h

Ying Ye

Film Study

April 1

st

, 2013

Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock had ever got movies or drama training; he went

to the London County Council School of Engineering and Navigation in

Poplar, London. When he was nineteen years old and finished the school,

he worked to

a cable company called Henley’s as a draftsman and

advertising designer; at the same time, he also studied at the

university of London for art courses. Because he studied the art courses,

it laid the important foundation for his achievement in the future.

After the television and advertising developed, he began to come into

contact with the film.

When Hitchcock was 20 years old, he stepped into the film as a

main title designer and editing worker. When he was 22 years old, he

began to take charg

e of a writer and art director in “Woman to Woman”

and other five films. Also, when he was 39 years old, he left London and

came to the Hollywood. After one year, he became a director in

“ Rebecca” and won the Oscar for

a best cinematography award and best

film award. He rose from a title designer to a film director took him

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for five years.

Later, because he directed the film “Psycho” and

other five films, he was nominat

h

ed for the Oscar for a best director award in these films. In

1979’s, he won the Life

time Achievement Award from American Film

Institute.

Hitchcock made other films that were “Frenzy”, “Psycho”,

“North by Northwest”, “Vertigo”, “The Trouble with Harry” and etc.

During the sixty years of his film career, he had captured more than

fifty of films, so he became a famous movie master of art in history.

According to online so

urces “Hitchcock’s Cinematic Style”,

Hitchcock believes the screenplay takes precedence over the direction

because it tells him what to do as a director. Also, according to

Gottlieb: “Half the work of direction should be accomplished in the

script.” Hitchcock s

howed what people are doing, thinking, and saying.

In addition, he also used each shot to create a state of mind and

emotion to audience; and he used the pictorial presentation to make a

strong impact to the audience. Hitchcock was known for his style that

included moving camera, dramatic lighting, dramatic music, a dark sense

of humor, lots of suspense, POV shots, cameos and mise en scene

(Everything in the frame is there by design and for a purpose.)

In Psycho, Hitchcock created an outstanding and distinct

cinematography. In the color, the color of Psycho are black and white

color images, and the black represses the death or evil; the white

represses purity and goodness.

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Also, the black and white image also tells us that people had two

different personality with evil and goodness. For example,

Marion’s

suitcase and her clothes are gray, and he changes her white bar, dress,

and handbag to black one that showed up her evil side and decides to

steal the $$40,000. Another example, the white letter with money and

black or gray bedclothes show that she hesitate to steal the money.

Using the camera distance, Hitchcock used camera moving to create

a tense atmosphere. On the beginning of the film, camera started extreme

long shots on phoenix’s cityscape, long shots on buildings, medium

shots on a building’s window, a close

-up through the window to a room

and two people who are in the room. This opening is telling that we are

voyeurs, and we all have a bark or evil side. Beside, when Marion died,

Hitchcock gave she an extreme close-up on one of her big frightened eye;

this extreme close-up created a scared and tense atmosphere. Also, there

are a scene that show Marion her irresolute emotion for stealing money.

Hitchcock changed the camera distance from medium shots on her to close-

up shots on the white letter with money for four times. As well,

according to the textbook “Film”

, the camera movement is used to

prevent the audience from learning information when a camera move to

overhead immediately before Norman Carries his mother down the stairs

(Phillips, P.98).

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This camera movement creates a suspense to the audiences because

it create a blurry impression on his mother. The audiences want to see

his mother closely and pay attention on the film.

Hitchcock used camera angles to create a splendid scenes in Psycho.

He uses the point of view shot and camera angles to create images that

the audience is the actor in the film who is doing action; the way of

the using camera involves the audience in the film. One example is

“ the shower scene” that is the most classic sense in Psycho.

Hitchcock used the point of view shot on Marion’s legs and hands to

create a scene that you are the actor in Psycho in that situation. Also,

he used a high angle of the shot on Marion when she was killed by Norman;

he used a low angle of the shot on Norman to make him powerful, strong,

and big. The high angle of the shot shows that Marion is helpless, weak,

and small, and she is unable to fight with Norman.

There are some lighting that frequently show in Psycho; they are

the backing lighting, the frontal lighting, the side lighting, and the

bottom light. For example , the backing lighting shows on Marion

’

s

sister; the backing lighting makes the audiences cannot interpret her

mood. In the

“

shower scene

”

, when Norman held a knife over his hand,

the light also used the backing lighting to create a shadow to hide the