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WATER RUNS DOWN A DRAIN
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SOMBRE ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
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This film contains some
strong language and scenes which
some viewers may find disturbing
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THUNDER RUMBLES
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SOMBRE ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
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MARLI RENFRO: I was 21 years old,
I was a pin-up model.
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I was working with a photographer
and he said that Universal - or UI,
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as it was called then - are looking
for somebody to pose in a film.
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So I called and made an appointment.
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I went and spoke with Mr Hitchcock
and basically had to strip down,
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got dressed again and then
was interviewed by Janet Leigh,
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and I had to strip down for her,
too.
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Oh, just in my underpants.
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But anyway... My body was very
similar to hers, so I got hired.
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I had to report for make-up,
I don't know, one or two days later.
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00:03:03,280 --> 00:03:08,570
And there's the red light flashing
and "no admittance" and all of this,
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00:03:08,570 --> 00:03:13,320
and I thought, "Oh, God, here
they're expecting a stripper."
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00:03:14,450 --> 00:03:17,740
I was not quite completely nude.
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I had what we called a crotch patch.
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During filming with the shower going
and everything, it would come loose.
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I told Hitchcock, I said
"Why don't we take this thing off?"
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He said, "No. No."
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The whole time he wore a suit,
black tie, white shirt.
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I was hired for two or three days,
and wound up working for seven.
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00:03:43,150 --> 00:03:45,240
It's extraordinary that it took
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so long to do
that one particular scene,
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because that was about a third
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of what Janet Leigh
had to work for the movie.
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00:03:52,450 --> 00:03:55,860
There were 78 pieces of film
and about 45 seconds.
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Spending seven days on one small
set,
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shooting such a short scene,
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00:04:01,740 --> 00:04:03,320
was pretty much unheard of.
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00:04:03,320 --> 00:04:06,450
Generally these days you're lucky if
you get one day to kill someone.
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00:04:06,450 --> 00:04:07,740
Oh, it has to be an obsession.
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00:04:07,740 --> 00:04:09,990
You're shooting that over the
course of seven days,
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00:04:09,990 --> 00:04:11,740
that is absolutely an obsession.
37
00:04:11,740 --> 00:04:15,280
Hitchcock fought to film this murder
separately from the rest
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00:04:15,280 --> 00:04:17,280
of the movie, which meant in a way
39
00:04:17,280 --> 00:04:19,570
that murder was now
going to be
40
00:04:19,570 --> 00:04:22,860
an acceptable
part of entertainment.
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00:04:22,860 --> 00:04:26,860
There was violence in American
films, but nothing like Psycho.
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Nothing that intimate,
nothing that designed,
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nothing that kind of remorseless.
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00:04:33,030 --> 00:04:35,280
I think he knew what he had on his
hands,
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00:04:35,280 --> 00:04:37,150
and he probably felt like
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the whole film
hinged on that moment.
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00:04:39,820 --> 00:04:41,450
This crucible moment.
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00:04:41,450 --> 00:04:44,110
You should have seen the blood.
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00:04:44,110 --> 00:04:46,820
The whole...
The whole place was...
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00:04:46,820 --> 00:04:49,570
Well, it's too horrible to describe.
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Dreadful.
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00:04:50,740 --> 00:04:53,990
It's...
I think the first modern...
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..expression
of the female body under assault.
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00:04:59,990 --> 00:05:03,360
And in some ways it's its
most pure expression,
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00:05:03,360 --> 00:05:05,450
because it IS devastating.
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00:05:07,280 --> 00:05:11,650
Women had top billing
in the '30s and '20s,
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00:05:11,650 --> 00:05:14,780
and that sort of
evaporated during the '40s.
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00:05:14,780 --> 00:05:17,030
And by the time we got to the end of
the '50s,
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00:05:17,030 --> 00:05:20,450
women were secondary
in movies and Hitch sort of...
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00:05:20,450 --> 00:05:22,990
That's what the movie does,
in a way, say that.
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00:05:22,990 --> 00:05:24,950
It's killing off the woman.
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00:05:24,950 --> 00:05:27,900
And it was really the
first A movie to deal with
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00:05:27,900 --> 00:05:31,530
this kind of horror,
trashy, tabloid stuff.
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00:05:31,530 --> 00:05:34,070
Nobody wanted to make it,
and they went, "Are you nuts?
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00:05:34,070 --> 00:05:36,820
"You just did North by Northwest,
this incredible hit,
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00:05:36,820 --> 00:05:39,570
"and now you want to do this black
and white... "What is this thing?"
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00:05:39,570 --> 00:05:42,860
I have just made a motion picture,
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00:05:42,860 --> 00:05:45,070
North by Northwest.
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00:05:45,070 --> 00:05:49,610
North by Northwest was, like, the
ultimate achievement on every level.
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00:05:49,610 --> 00:05:53,700
It was grand entertainment,
it was classy, it had movie stars.
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00:05:53,700 --> 00:05:55,650
It was beautiful, colourful.
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00:05:55,650 --> 00:05:57,950
So how are you going to follow that
up?
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00:05:57,950 --> 00:05:59,240
With a prank.
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00:05:59,240 --> 00:06:03,860
I once made a movie, rather
tongue-in-cheek, called Psycho.
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00:06:03,860 --> 00:06:07,280
Yes? And it was...
It was a big joke, you know?
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00:06:07,280 --> 00:06:10,700
And I was horrified to find that
some people took it seriously.
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It was intended to cause people
to scream and yell and so forth,
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00:06:15,950 --> 00:06:20,200
but no more than the screaming and
yelling on a switchback railway.
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Those of us who work in the horror
genre rarely wear tuxedos.
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00:06:24,200 --> 00:06:26,860
This is not a movie
that wears a tuxedo, either.
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00:06:26,860 --> 00:06:30,320
This is a movie that's
very much jeans and a T-shirt.
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But it's told by a guy who wears
a tuxedo.
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He wanted to stray beyond his
comfort zone.
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00:06:35,860 --> 00:06:37,780
One of the things
he was up to is,
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00:06:37,780 --> 00:06:39,450
"You don't
know me at all."
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00:06:39,450 --> 00:06:42,570
And that's what
Psycho is really about.
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00:06:42,570 --> 00:06:44,030
What attracted you to this one,
then?
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00:06:46,610 --> 00:06:51,740
I think the murder in the bathtub
coming out of the blue, you know?
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That was about all.
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00:06:55,240 --> 00:06:57,570
Hitchcock was very, very aware of
his competition.
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00:06:58,900 --> 00:07:02,450
He realised that Clouzot
had done the kind of movie
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00:07:02,450 --> 00:07:04,150
that he felt that he should
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00:07:04,150 --> 00:07:06,530
and could be making and, of course,
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00:07:06,530 --> 00:07:11,780
when critics started calling
Clouzot the French Hitchcock, well,
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00:07:12,030 --> 00:07:15,820
you were invading his territory
then, and, believe me,
he took notice.
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00:07:15,820 --> 00:07:18,570
Psycho is really the moment where
the gloves come off.
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00:07:18,570 --> 00:07:22,110
It does feel like Hitch's revenge on
Hollywood, to some extent.
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00:07:23,240 --> 00:07:26,200
On so many levels,
it's his masterpiece.
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00:07:26,200 --> 00:07:29,280
I continue to feel like the movie
is an act of aggression.
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00:07:29,280 --> 00:07:33,150
Yeah. Against his fans, his critics,
actors.
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00:07:33,150 --> 00:07:37,400
Yeah. It just feels angry, like he
was hurt and he had to hurt back.
102
00:07:37,400 --> 00:07:41,240
The sudden violence of
the shower scene in Psycho
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was meaningful to him
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for reasons that dated back,
you know, 20 years
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to the origins of World War II.
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00:07:49,030 --> 00:07:54,530
Hitchcock thought that the UK and
the United States were
insufficiently
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00:07:54,820 --> 00:08:00,280
prepared for the dangers and horrors
of World War II.
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00:08:00,450 --> 00:08:04,530
There were several moments in his
movies that spoke to that.
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00:08:04,530 --> 00:08:07,240
You can hear the bombs falling on
the streets and the homes.
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00:08:07,240 --> 00:08:08,950
Don't tune me out, hang on a while,
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00:08:08,950 --> 00:08:11,030
this is a big story
and you're part of it.
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00:08:11,030 --> 00:08:13,820
It's too late to do anything here
now except stand in the dark
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00:08:13,820 --> 00:08:15,860
and let them come.
What's the matter with us?
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00:08:17,400 --> 00:08:20,200
We not only let the Nazi do our
rowing for us but our thinking.
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00:08:21,650 --> 00:08:23,610
Ye Gods and little fishes!
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00:08:23,610 --> 00:08:25,780
One of them was Shadow of a Doubt.
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00:08:25,780 --> 00:08:28,530
Only about a year and a half after
Pearl Harbor,
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00:08:28,530 --> 00:08:31,360
set in Santa Rosa in California.
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00:08:31,360 --> 00:08:36,570
You can see how in that movie
he's kind of chastising this town
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for being naive.
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You live in a dream,
you're a sleepwalker, blind.
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00:08:42,070 --> 00:08:43,650
How do you know what the world
is like?
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00:08:44,860 --> 00:08:46,780
Do you know the world is a foul sty?
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00:08:48,280 --> 00:08:51,900
Do you know if you rip the fronts of
houses, you'd find swine?
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00:08:51,900 --> 00:08:56,320
He was basically saying,
"America, you were way too naive.
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00:08:56,320 --> 00:09:01,780
"You think you're safe in your
shower at home with
your family and loved ones nearby?
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00:09:02,650 --> 00:09:04,990
"No. You're not.
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00:09:04,990 --> 00:09:06,110
"Sorry."
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00:09:06,110 --> 00:09:07,530
Hitchcock had many obsessions,
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00:09:07,530 --> 00:09:09,610
but one of them that he
talked about with The Birds
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00:09:09,610 --> 00:09:11,150
was the randomness of life.
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00:09:11,150 --> 00:09:13,450
There is no explanation
for the birds attacking.
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To him, that was life.
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00:09:15,990 --> 00:09:17,700
There you are, everything's fine
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00:09:17,700 --> 00:09:20,990
and then someone gets cancer
and they're dead two weeks later.
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00:09:20,990 --> 00:09:23,030
Or your life is good and you get hit
by a bus.
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00:09:23,030 --> 00:09:26,360
Hitchcock was someone who,
for several years now,
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00:09:26,360 --> 00:09:30,950
was showing up on people's
TV sets on Sunday nights.
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00:09:30,950 --> 00:09:34,030
The victim tumbled and fell with a
horrible crash.
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00:09:34,030 --> 00:09:37,400
I think their back broke immediately
it hit the floor.
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00:09:37,400 --> 00:09:41,110
It was... It's difficult to describe
the way that the...
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00:09:41,110 --> 00:09:42,820
He was an icon.
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00:09:42,820 --> 00:09:48,320
He was the sort of avuncular
yet creepy guy who was presenting
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00:09:51,070 --> 00:09:53,150
sex and violence to Americans
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00:09:53,150 --> 00:09:57,150
leavened with black humour,
every Sunday night.
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00:09:57,150 --> 00:10:01,030
And Americans
are comfortable with him by 1960.
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00:10:01,030 --> 00:10:03,820
If someone else had made Psycho,
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00:10:03,820 --> 00:10:06,110
it's quite possible
that the reaction would not
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00:10:06,110 --> 00:10:07,860
have been the same.
150
00:10:07,860 --> 00:10:10,860
Psycho came at a very unique time in
American pop culture.
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00:10:10,860 --> 00:10:15,110
It almost predates the turmoil and
the shock and the trauma
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00:10:15,110 --> 00:10:16,950
that were to come in the 1960s
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00:10:16,950 --> 00:10:20,280
with racial violence,
with political assassinations.
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00:10:21,400 --> 00:10:24,320
I'm not saying that Hitchcock
anticipated it
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00:10:24,320 --> 00:10:26,030
and knew what he was up to,
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00:10:26,030 --> 00:10:31,400
but what he did know
is that he was trapped by his past,
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00:10:31,860 --> 00:10:35,110
that it was not a time any more for
Grace Kelly.
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00:10:35,110 --> 00:10:38,280
It was not a time any more for,
what you do you call it,
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00:10:38,280 --> 00:10:39,780
beautiful Technicolor baubles.
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00:10:41,320 --> 00:10:43,200
When you look at Psycho
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00:10:43,200 --> 00:10:47,320
and you look at those
magnificent, elegant, big,
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00:10:47,320 --> 00:10:50,530
rich, Technicolor films
of the '50s,
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00:10:50,530 --> 00:10:53,400
you know that something changed.
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00:10:54,820 --> 00:10:59,900
I think that Psycho was his response
to movies changing
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00:10:59,900 --> 00:11:04,990
and to upping the ante
and not wanting to be forgotten.
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00:11:04,990 --> 00:11:08,530
1959, that was the year of
Some Like it Hot,
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00:11:08,530 --> 00:11:10,450
Suddenly, Last Summer...
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00:11:11,700 --> 00:11:13,650
..and Anatomy of a Murder.
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00:11:13,650 --> 00:11:17,360
All three of those movies
pushed boundaries.
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00:11:17,360 --> 00:11:21,490
So there was something in the air,
culturally speaking,
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00:11:21,490 --> 00:11:23,990
that Hollywood was already tapping
into.
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00:11:28,820 --> 00:11:31,450
Psycho comes out at this period
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00:11:31,450 --> 00:11:35,900
where we are post-atomic age
but pre-civil rights.
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00:11:35,900 --> 00:11:40,070
You know, if you think about
the horror movie violence,
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00:11:40,070 --> 00:11:41,780
they were science gone wrong,
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00:11:41,780 --> 00:11:44,990
but you didn't really feel like it
was going to happen to you.
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00:11:46,610 --> 00:11:48,820
Psycho you felt could happen to you.
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00:11:48,820 --> 00:11:50,900
This was the first movie
that showed,
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00:11:50,900 --> 00:11:52,570
yeah,
you could be vulnerable,
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00:11:52,570 --> 00:11:57,360
naked, alone in a shower and someone
who is wearing the clothes of their
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00:11:57,360 --> 00:11:59,780
dead mother is going to come in
and just stab you,
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00:11:59,780 --> 00:12:01,740
because that's what they're going to
do.
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00:12:04,450 --> 00:12:08,240
Americans were kind of obsessed with
domesticity.
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00:12:08,240 --> 00:12:11,860
They wanted to tell themselves
that in their private,
185
00:12:11,860 --> 00:12:14,030
personal domestic spaces,
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00:12:14,030 --> 00:12:18,150
at least there they were safe.
187
00:12:18,150 --> 00:12:20,820
The Soviets and whomever else,
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00:12:20,820 --> 00:12:23,450
they couldn't possibly get to you
in your bathroom!
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00:12:25,200 --> 00:12:30,610
A few days after Psycho began
shooting in November of 1959,
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00:12:31,740 --> 00:12:35,240
the Clutter family in Kansas
is murdered.
191
00:12:35,240 --> 00:12:37,570
Those are the In Cold Blood murders.
192
00:12:37,570 --> 00:12:40,740
You're not living next door to the
Norman Rockwell family any more,
193
00:12:40,740 --> 00:12:42,950
you're living next door to the
Manson family.
194
00:12:42,950 --> 00:12:46,240
This is the new modern American
family, which very much inspired
195
00:12:46,240 --> 00:12:48,490
Tobe Hooper's
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
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00:12:48,490 --> 00:12:49,950
SHE SCREAMS
197
00:12:49,950 --> 00:12:51,150
HE HOWLS IN RESPONSE
198
00:12:53,570 --> 00:12:58,200
The first Playboy club opens
in Chicago.
199
00:12:58,200 --> 00:13:02,200
The most famous sitcom stars of the
1950s,
200
00:13:02,200 --> 00:13:07,490
Lucille Ball and Ricky Ricardo,
are divorced.
201
00:13:07,490 --> 00:13:11,610
The birth control pill is approved
by the FDA.
202
00:13:11,610 --> 00:13:14,400
You could look at the shower scene
as this build-up of tension,
203
00:13:14,400 --> 00:13:19,650
all of these things, all of these
American fears of the quiet '50s.
204
00:13:19,780 --> 00:13:22,700
It's all going to explode,
and it comes out in this scene.
205
00:13:34,740 --> 00:13:38,150
Well, I was on the critics list in
New York for review.
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00:13:38,150 --> 00:13:41,950
The press was all invited to the
theatre
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00:13:41,950 --> 00:13:45,650
the day it opened at ten or 10:30
in the morning,
208
00:13:45,650 --> 00:13:47,240
with the first performance.
209
00:13:47,240 --> 00:13:48,780
As you went in,
210
00:13:48,780 --> 00:13:52,650
Hitchcock's voice was blaring on
loudspeakers saying...
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00:13:52,650 --> 00:13:56,150
MIMICS HITCHCOCK: "Nobody would be
allowed in after the picture starts,
212
00:13:56,150 --> 00:13:58,450
"and please don't reveal
the ending."
213
00:13:59,740 --> 00:14:03,530
Before Psycho, movies,
as a form of entertainment,
214
00:14:03,530 --> 00:14:05,200
were relatively disposable.
215
00:14:05,200 --> 00:14:06,780
There was a tremendous...
216
00:14:06,780 --> 00:14:11,030
Compared to today, a tremendous
coming and going in movie theatres.
217
00:14:11,030 --> 00:14:13,780
And Hitchcock brilliantly said
218
00:14:13,780 --> 00:14:16,450
"We don't want anyone coming in
219
00:14:16,450 --> 00:14:18,990
"after the beginning of this film."
220
00:14:18,990 --> 00:14:21,990
It changed the way films are
exhibited.
221
00:14:21,990 --> 00:14:25,360
The reason was because
the leading lady, Janet Leigh,
222
00:14:25,360 --> 00:14:27,820
was killed off
a third of the way through.
223
00:14:27,820 --> 00:14:30,150
And I didn't want people whispering
to each other,
224
00:14:30,150 --> 00:14:32,280
"When is Janet Leigh coming on?"
225
00:14:33,650 --> 00:14:36,780
He wanted to build anticipation.
226
00:14:36,780 --> 00:14:37,780
The bathroom...
227
00:14:39,150 --> 00:14:42,030
Something terrible happens in a
bathroom.
228
00:14:42,030 --> 00:14:43,570
We know this from the trailer.
229
00:14:43,570 --> 00:14:45,240
We don't know it is Janet Leigh,
230
00:14:45,240 --> 00:14:48,990
because it's Vera Miles in
the trailer and not Janet Leigh.
231
00:14:48,990 --> 00:14:51,030
SHE SCREAMS
232
00:14:51,030 --> 00:14:56,280
The minute the curtain
opens and started stabbing,
233
00:14:56,280 --> 00:14:59,860
there was...
There was a sustained shriek...
234
00:15:00,990 --> 00:15:02,360
..from the audience.
235
00:15:02,360 --> 00:15:03,990
AHHHH!
236
00:15:03,990 --> 00:15:05,200
Like that. Constant.
237
00:15:05,200 --> 00:15:08,200
You couldn't hear anything off
the soundtrack.
238
00:15:08,200 --> 00:15:10,280
Through the entire shower scene.
239
00:15:11,700 --> 00:15:13,820
So you had the
screams from Janet Leigh,
240
00:15:13,820 --> 00:15:17,200
the screams from all the women
surrounding you in the theatre,
241
00:15:17,200 --> 00:15:19,280
and the high shrieking strings
from Herrmann.
242
00:15:19,280 --> 00:15:22,280
That must have been total mayhem.
243
00:15:22,280 --> 00:15:25,490
It was actually the first time in
the history of movies
244
00:15:25,490 --> 00:15:27,950
where it wasn't
safe to be in a movie theatre.
245
00:15:29,150 --> 00:15:32,780
And when I walked
out into Times Square at noon...
246
00:15:33,780 --> 00:15:35,030
..I felt I had been raped.
247
00:15:39,820 --> 00:15:41,200
In 1895,
248
00:15:41,200 --> 00:15:46,610
when the Lumiere brothers really
first showed film to an audience,
249
00:15:47,360 --> 00:15:52,280
one of the fragments they showed was
of a train pulling into a station.
250
00:15:53,400 --> 00:15:55,490
And the legend has it
that they thought the train
251
00:15:55,490 --> 00:15:58,030
was going to hit them,
and they were screaming
252
00:15:58,030 --> 00:16:00,490
and it caused a
stampede of people trying to
253
00:16:00,490 --> 00:16:02,860
evacuate this room
that it was screened in.
254
00:16:02,860 --> 00:16:05,450
They didn't understand the concept.
255
00:16:05,450 --> 00:16:09,400
You know, Psycho comes along and
it has a similar kind of impact.
256
00:16:09,400 --> 00:16:11,150
It's the only movie in my childhood
257
00:16:11,150 --> 00:16:13,570
that my mom
wouldn't let me go and see,
258
00:16:13,570 --> 00:16:16,900
which was kind of ridiculous because
I was seeing nothing
259
00:16:16,900 --> 00:16:20,450
but horror films every single
weekend, two of them, in fact.
260
00:16:20,450 --> 00:16:23,820
But Psycho - no, I couldn't go!
261
00:16:23,820 --> 00:16:25,820
As a kid,
I thought the name was Cycle,
262
00:16:25,820 --> 00:16:28,280
like it was about
some killer on a motorcycle.
263
00:16:28,280 --> 00:16:32,400
But I actually got this
Super 8 version and just, like,
264
00:16:32,400 --> 00:16:34,610
constantly ran the movie
over and over again.
265
00:16:36,900 --> 00:16:41,780
When audiences saw this really
likeable character,
266
00:16:41,780 --> 00:16:44,360
someone who was quite relatable
in terms of
267
00:16:44,360 --> 00:16:46,950
"I need more money,
I'm growing older,
268
00:16:46,950 --> 00:16:49,200
"the man that I love won't
marry me,"
269
00:16:49,200 --> 00:16:50,900
they were really hooked.
270
00:16:50,900 --> 00:16:52,360
Oh, Sam, let's get married.
271
00:16:58,070 --> 00:16:59,490
Yeah.
272
00:16:59,490 --> 00:17:02,950
And live with me in a store room
behind a hardware store in Fairvale?
273
00:17:02,950 --> 00:17:04,490
We'll have lots of laughs(!)
274
00:17:04,490 --> 00:17:09,110
Of course she's going to
survive the movie, it's Janet Leigh!
275
00:17:09,110 --> 00:17:14,490
Instead, she takes a shower,
out of nowhere she is murdered by...
276
00:17:15,740 --> 00:17:18,900
..an old lady, who I can't even see?
277
00:17:18,900 --> 00:17:21,400
What the fuck is going on here?!
278
00:17:21,400 --> 00:17:25,650
He has broken the covenant
of film-maker and audience,
279
00:17:25,650 --> 00:17:29,200
and the audience
cannot wait to see more.
280
00:17:29,200 --> 00:17:31,110
He was a respected director...
281
00:17:32,610 --> 00:17:35,780
..and, you know, she was
a bona fide movie star,
282
00:17:35,780 --> 00:17:41,240
and I think you kind of get into the
thrill of that possible shock wave,
283
00:17:41,860 --> 00:17:44,280
which obviously happened.
284
00:17:44,280 --> 00:17:48,610
I think that moment signalled
new American cinema,
285
00:17:48,610 --> 00:17:50,820
maybe world cinema in certain ways.
286
00:17:50,820 --> 00:17:52,650
I don't know that that had ever been
done.
287
00:17:52,650 --> 00:17:54,200
Right.
288
00:17:54,200 --> 00:17:56,900
Maybe there's some obscure
Czechoslovakian film that did it,
289
00:17:56,900 --> 00:17:58,650
there's a guy going, like, "Grr!"
290
00:17:58,650 --> 00:18:01,570
LAUGHTER
"I did it first!" Yeah.
291
00:18:01,570 --> 00:18:05,320
I can think of things that,
culturally, have got us thinking
about that structure.
292
00:18:05,320 --> 00:18:08,150
For instance, the first season
of Game of Thrones,
293
00:18:08,150 --> 00:18:11,320
in which our most
appealing character of Ned Stark,
294
00:18:11,320 --> 00:18:14,280
is just sort of cruelly killed in
front of us.
295
00:18:18,320 --> 00:18:23,200
Culturally, we had to be reminded of
the power of that narrative trope.
296
00:18:23,200 --> 00:18:25,860
The reality is he used the whole
first half of the movie
297
00:18:25,860 --> 00:18:27,740
as a ruse to get you to this house,
298
00:18:27,740 --> 00:18:30,570
and the only way you're
going to get to this house is
299
00:18:30,570 --> 00:18:35,320
if you believe that she's someone
who's stolen $40,000 and that she's
300
00:18:35,320 --> 00:18:37,490
gotten off on the wrong freeway exit
301
00:18:37,490 --> 00:18:40,450
and is on this little tiny road
where nobody goes by.
302
00:18:40,450 --> 00:18:43,900
There's a lot of things he is saying
here about our society
303
00:18:43,900 --> 00:18:46,030
that was changing at that point.
304
00:18:46,030 --> 00:18:49,820
We were trying to get as fast as we
could from Los Angeles to Chicago or
305
00:18:49,820 --> 00:18:53,450
New York, and going in these little
towns was not necessary any more.
306
00:18:53,450 --> 00:18:55,360
And Norman doesn't even seem to
mind.
307
00:18:55,360 --> 00:18:58,740
He's ready to change the bed sheets
every day with nobody there.
308
00:18:58,740 --> 00:19:01,200
One by one,
you drop the formalities.
309
00:19:01,200 --> 00:19:04,820
I shouldn't even bother changing
the sheets, but old habits die hard.
310
00:19:07,200 --> 00:19:10,280
When she's driving off with the
$40,000,
311
00:19:10,280 --> 00:19:13,280
she's on the road
and she's in the West.
312
00:19:14,700 --> 00:19:17,570
There's something fundamentally
American about that,
313
00:19:17,570 --> 00:19:19,900
dating back all the way
to manifest destiny.
314
00:19:19,900 --> 00:19:24,570
"Go West, find your fate,
find your freedom."
315
00:19:24,570 --> 00:19:29,570
Marion tries to do just that, and
that's where she meets her fate.
316
00:19:32,150 --> 00:19:35,490
PSYCHO VIOLIN STRINGS
PLAYED IN SLOWER TEMPO
317
00:19:35,490 --> 00:19:39,570
It's interesting to compare the
novel Psycho with the movie Psycho.
318
00:19:39,570 --> 00:19:42,860
The shower scene is a lot different,
it's really brief in the book.
319
00:19:42,860 --> 00:19:45,400
So on page 28...
320
00:19:45,400 --> 00:19:47,570
..um, here's the shower scene.
321
00:19:47,570 --> 00:19:48,610
SHOWER RUNS
322
00:19:51,860 --> 00:19:55,200
"The roar was deafening, the room
was beginning to steam up.
323
00:19:56,740 --> 00:19:59,070
"That's why she didn't hear the door
open,
324
00:19:59,070 --> 00:20:00,900
"or note the sound of footsteps.
325
00:20:02,400 --> 00:20:07,400
"And at first when the shower
curtains parted,
the steam obscured the face.
326
00:20:07,400 --> 00:20:09,740
"Then she did see it there,
327
00:20:09,740 --> 00:20:15,070
"just a face, peering through the
curtains, hanging in mid air like a
mask.
328
00:20:15,240 --> 00:20:19,860
"A half scarf concealed the hair and
the glassy eyes stared inhumanly.
329
00:20:19,860 --> 00:20:21,820
"But it wasn't a mask,
it couldn't be.
330
00:20:22,950 --> 00:20:26,700
"The skin had been powdered dead
white and two hectic spots of rouge
331
00:20:26,700 --> 00:20:29,070
"centred on the cheekbones.
332
00:20:29,070 --> 00:20:32,780
"It wasn't a mask,
it was the face of a crazy woman.
333
00:20:32,780 --> 00:20:35,650
"Mary started to scream and then
the curtain parted further
334
00:20:35,650 --> 00:20:37,490
"and hand appeared,
holding a butcher knife.
335
00:20:38,820 --> 00:20:41,530
"It was the knife that,
a moment later, cut off her scream.
336
00:20:43,280 --> 00:20:44,280
"And her head."
337
00:20:51,070 --> 00:20:54,950
The fact the Hitchcock brought Saul
Bass in to work on the shower scene
338
00:20:54,950 --> 00:20:58,280
as its own kind of independent thing
339
00:20:58,280 --> 00:21:02,700
says to me that he knew
that he had to do something special
with the shower scene.
340
00:21:04,490 --> 00:21:06,990
"Interior, Mary in shower.
341
00:21:06,990 --> 00:21:09,860
"We see the bathroom door
being pushed slowly open.
342
00:21:11,610 --> 00:21:14,780
"The noise of the
shower drowns any sound.
343
00:21:14,780 --> 00:21:17,570
"The door is then slowly
and carefully closed
344
00:21:17,570 --> 00:21:20,990
"and we see the shadow of a woman
fall across the shower curtain.
345
00:21:22,400 --> 00:21:24,610
"Mary's back is turned to the
curtain.
346
00:21:24,610 --> 00:21:27,610
"The white brightness of the
bathroom is almost blinding.
347
00:21:27,610 --> 00:21:29,820
"Suddenly we see the hand reach up,
348
00:21:29,820 --> 00:21:32,320
"grasp the shower curtain,
rip it aside.
349
00:21:32,320 --> 00:21:35,860
"Cut to Mary, extreme close-up.
350
00:21:35,860 --> 00:21:40,950
"As she turns in response to the
feel and sound of the shower curtain
being torn aside,
351
00:21:40,950 --> 00:21:44,400
"a look of pure
horror erupts in her face.
352
00:21:44,400 --> 00:21:48,740
"A low, terrible groan
begins to rise up out of her throat.
353
00:21:48,740 --> 00:21:50,740
"A hand comes into shot.
354
00:21:50,740 --> 00:21:53,110
"The hand holds
an enormous bread knife.
355
00:21:53,110 --> 00:21:55,530
"The flint of the blade shatters
the screen
356
00:21:55,530 --> 00:21:58,570
"to an almost total silver
blankness.
357
00:21:58,570 --> 00:21:59,860
"The slashing.
358
00:21:59,860 --> 00:22:04,070
"An impression of a knife slashing
as if tearing at the very scream,
359
00:22:04,070 --> 00:22:07,200
"ripping the film. Over it,
the brief gulps of screaming.
360
00:22:08,490 --> 00:22:09,530
"And then silence.
361
00:22:11,280 --> 00:22:14,650
"And then the dreadful thump
as Mary's body falls in the tub.
362
00:22:14,650 --> 00:22:19,530
"Reverse angle, the blank whiteness,
the blur of the shower water.
363
00:22:19,530 --> 00:22:21,780
"The hand pulling the shower curtain
back.
364
00:22:21,780 --> 00:22:25,240
"We catch one flicker
of a glimpse of the murderer.
365
00:22:25,240 --> 00:22:30,650
"A woman, her face contorted with
madness, her head wild with hair,
366
00:22:30,780 --> 00:22:33,280
"as if she were wearing a fright
wig.
367
00:22:33,280 --> 00:22:37,320
"And then we see only the curtain,
closed across the tub,
368
00:22:37,320 --> 00:22:39,950
"and hear the rush of the shower
water.
369
00:22:39,950 --> 00:22:43,780
"Above the shower bar
we see the bathroom door open again,
370
00:22:43,780 --> 00:22:47,450
"and after a moment, we hear the
sound of the front door slamming.
371
00:22:47,450 --> 00:22:49,240
"Cut to the dead body.
372
00:22:50,400 --> 00:22:54,700
"Lying half-in, half-out of the tub,
the head tumbled over,
373
00:22:54,700 --> 00:23:00,110
"touching the floor. The hair wet,
one eye wide open as if popped.
374
00:23:00,490 --> 00:23:04,860
"One arm lying limp and wet
along the tile floor.
375
00:23:04,860 --> 00:23:06,950
"Coming down the side of the tub,
376
00:23:06,950 --> 00:23:09,820
"running thick and dark along
the porcelain,
377
00:23:09,820 --> 00:23:11,860
"we see many small threads of blood.
378
00:23:13,400 --> 00:23:18,200
"Camera moves away from the body,
travels slowly across the bathroom,
379
00:23:18,200 --> 00:23:19,200
"past the toilet...
380
00:23:20,610 --> 00:23:21,950
"..out into the bedroom."
381
00:23:30,400 --> 00:23:33,150
I think that the shower scene
elevated film.
382
00:23:33,150 --> 00:23:36,780
Not the horror genre specifically,
but film-making in general.
383
00:23:36,780 --> 00:23:39,530
Over and over again,
it keeps showing you new things.
384
00:23:39,530 --> 00:23:42,900
I think it's one of those
spectacular pieces of work.
385
00:23:42,900 --> 00:23:46,700
The film is moving inexorably
to that scene.
386
00:23:46,700 --> 00:23:48,860
You don't know it, as a viewer.
387
00:23:50,200 --> 00:23:52,570
Sam, this is the last time.
388
00:23:54,070 --> 00:23:55,150
I pay, too.
389
00:23:57,070 --> 00:24:00,360
They also pay, who meet in hotel
rooms.
390
00:24:00,360 --> 00:24:03,820
There are plenty of motels
in this area, you should have...
391
00:24:03,820 --> 00:24:06,150
I mean, just to be safe.
392
00:24:06,150 --> 00:24:07,860
Mother... My mother...
393
00:24:09,070 --> 00:24:10,150
What is the phrase?
394
00:24:11,820 --> 00:24:14,530
She isn't quite herself today.
395
00:24:14,530 --> 00:24:17,400
Hitchcock was amazing at setting
everything up.
396
00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:22,280
When she's packing to go to see her
boyfriend,
397
00:24:22,280 --> 00:24:24,150
you see the shower head
in the background.
398
00:24:24,150 --> 00:24:27,860
It's very specific, the shower is
right over her shoulder.
399
00:24:27,860 --> 00:24:30,950
When it comes to Norman,
when he talks about the bathroom,
400
00:24:30,950 --> 00:24:34,990
he, like stutters and he can't
really say toilet or bathroom.
401
00:24:34,990 --> 00:24:36,990
And the, er...
402
00:24:38,490 --> 00:24:39,570
..over there.
403
00:24:40,780 --> 00:24:42,320
The bathroom. Yeah.
404
00:24:42,320 --> 00:24:44,360
That's what's great about Hitchcock.
405
00:24:44,360 --> 00:24:47,450
He always really tunes into those
character moments.
406
00:24:47,450 --> 00:24:49,450
That desperate drive at the
beginning.
407
00:24:49,450 --> 00:24:51,110
It's crazy good.
408
00:24:51,110 --> 00:24:53,570
The notion of getting clean,
that's her arc.
409
00:24:53,570 --> 00:24:56,490
She can't see because of the density
of the water,
410
00:24:56,490 --> 00:24:58,450
which is really beautiful
411
00:24:58,450 --> 00:25:01,610
because she's drowning in
her worry and fear.
412
00:25:01,610 --> 00:25:06,030
The slashing of the wipers presages
the slashing of the knife.
413
00:25:06,030 --> 00:25:09,400
It's sort of... It's a very violent
and wet and sloshy,
414
00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:11,610
sharp stabbing motion.
415
00:25:11,610 --> 00:25:13,110
And it's a long build-up,
416
00:25:13,110 --> 00:25:14,950
but we have no idea that the rain
417
00:25:14,950 --> 00:25:17,110
that's going to come down upon
her later
418
00:25:17,110 --> 00:25:18,700
is going to include her own blood.
419
00:25:19,900 --> 00:25:22,820
I certainly get the sensation that
the shower scene was something that
420
00:25:22,820 --> 00:25:25,360
Hitchcock had probably been
working towards all of his life.
421
00:25:32,030 --> 00:25:33,860
Is he cleaning house?
422
00:25:33,860 --> 00:25:36,990
He's washing down the bathroom
walls.
423
00:25:36,990 --> 00:25:38,610
It must've splattered a lot.
424
00:25:41,320 --> 00:25:43,610
Well, why not?
That's what we're all thinking.
425
00:25:43,610 --> 00:25:45,570
He killed her in there,
and he has to clean up
426
00:25:45,570 --> 00:25:47,110
those stains before he leaves.
427
00:25:47,110 --> 00:25:50,110
You really can't talk about
the shower scene without talking
428
00:25:50,110 --> 00:25:51,530
about the rest of the film.
429
00:25:51,530 --> 00:25:55,570
Without the parlour scene,
obviously, the shower scene doesn't
really work nearly as well,
430
00:25:55,570 --> 00:25:57,990
because the parlour scene is
a sort of really sad,
431
00:25:57,990 --> 00:26:02,110
beautiful connection
that comes before this savagery.
432
00:26:02,110 --> 00:26:04,110
Is your time so empty?
433
00:26:04,110 --> 00:26:09,150
No. Well, I run the office.
434
00:26:09,150 --> 00:26:14,360
And, tend the cabins, and grounds,
and do little errands for my mother.
435
00:26:14,610 --> 00:26:17,320
The one she allows
I might be capable of doing.
436
00:26:18,570 --> 00:26:21,400
Do you go out with friends?
437
00:26:23,610 --> 00:26:25,820
Well, a boy's best friend is his
mother.
438
00:26:25,820 --> 00:26:30,450
He has a very loaded preamble to the
shower scene.
439
00:26:30,450 --> 00:26:32,110
Wouldn't it be better if you put
her...
440
00:26:34,450 --> 00:26:35,490
..someplace?
441
00:26:39,570 --> 00:26:41,780
You mean an institution?
442
00:26:41,780 --> 00:26:43,030
A madhouse?
443
00:26:43,030 --> 00:26:45,070
Look how still he is.
444
00:26:45,070 --> 00:26:48,700
Whereas before, he was fidgety
and moving around.
445
00:26:48,700 --> 00:26:51,450
Suddenly, he became very still.
446
00:26:51,450 --> 00:26:54,860
Maybe that's the moment he decided
to kill her. Yeah. Yeah.
447
00:26:54,860 --> 00:26:56,650
Yeah, he's super confident now.
448
00:26:56,650 --> 00:26:58,780
Yeah. Look at him.
He's barely moving his head.
449
00:26:58,780 --> 00:27:00,280
LAUGHTER
450
00:27:00,280 --> 00:27:03,030
Just his eyes. Wow!
451
00:27:03,030 --> 00:27:04,070
He's so angry.
452
00:27:05,650 --> 00:27:07,700
And she just got terrified.
Yeah.
453
00:27:07,700 --> 00:27:11,360
Oh, you're not, you're not
going back to your room already?
454
00:27:11,360 --> 00:27:14,030
Perhaps I'll go back to my room,
now...
455
00:27:14,030 --> 00:27:16,610
..Norman, it's been lovely to chat.
456
00:27:16,610 --> 00:27:18,450
Terribly sorry about your
loneliness.
457
00:27:22,110 --> 00:27:25,400
This is the first moment
that you're with him and not her.
458
00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:27,400
Yeah, she literally walks away from
camera.
459
00:27:27,400 --> 00:27:30,150
Yeah. Right. And then, well with him
now. My job here is done. Yeah.
460
00:27:30,150 --> 00:27:32,860
I'm no longer
the protagonist of this story.
461
00:27:32,860 --> 00:27:35,070
There was a private supper here...
462
00:27:36,650 --> 00:27:38,570
..and, er...
463
00:27:38,570 --> 00:27:40,490
Oh, by the way, this picture...
464
00:27:41,990 --> 00:27:43,820
..has great significance.
465
00:27:46,400 --> 00:27:47,860
Because...
466
00:27:51,700 --> 00:27:53,400
Let's go along to cabin number one.
467
00:27:57,780 --> 00:28:00,400
The painting that Mr Bates removed
468
00:28:00,400 --> 00:28:03,360
to become the Peeping Tom
was actually
469
00:28:03,360 --> 00:28:06,400
a 16th or
early 17th century painting.
470
00:28:08,450 --> 00:28:11,820
Susanna and the Elders is actually
a morality story
471
00:28:11,820 --> 00:28:15,820
about a virtuous woman
who bathed in her garden,
472
00:28:15,820 --> 00:28:19,610
and was spied on by two elder man.
473
00:28:19,610 --> 00:28:22,610
And the theme burgeoned,
474
00:28:22,610 --> 00:28:26,450
possibly as a result of counter
reformatory motives.
475
00:28:26,450 --> 00:28:30,860
It was either that, or it was simply
an excuse for painting female
nudity.
476
00:28:32,990 --> 00:28:36,150
Now, the interesting thing about it,
is it's about adultery.
477
00:28:36,150 --> 00:28:40,950
And it's fascinating because Mary,
who's in the shower,
478
00:28:40,950 --> 00:28:42,900
is kind of cleansing herself
479
00:28:42,900 --> 00:28:45,650
of committing adultery
with a married man.
480
00:28:47,320 --> 00:28:51,320
In art history, there were about
three or four different phases
481
00:28:51,320 --> 00:28:53,900
of how artists depicted
Susanna and the Elders.
482
00:28:55,610 --> 00:28:59,860
Lucas van Leyden shows
the two elders in prominence,
483
00:28:59,860 --> 00:29:05,070
whereas the small Susanna
is bathing in the far distance.
484
00:29:05,200 --> 00:29:08,740
But by the time you get to
Tintoretto, she's full frontal.
485
00:29:10,070 --> 00:29:15,320
Rubens begins to take and probe the
psychological intensity of the
moment.
486
00:29:15,320 --> 00:29:19,490
Rembrandt, using the power of
lightness and darkness,
487
00:29:19,490 --> 00:29:22,700
of highlights, to enhance the drama.
488
00:29:22,700 --> 00:29:27,860
The interesting thing about the
painting is that you've got
full frontal nudity of Susanna,
489
00:29:27,860 --> 00:29:30,950
and yet the two elders
are not simply looking at her,
490
00:29:30,950 --> 00:29:33,740
they're actually groping and
violating her.
491
00:29:33,740 --> 00:29:35,150
It's almost a rape scene...
492
00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:38,780
..that's taking place
before our eyes.
493
00:29:38,780 --> 00:29:41,650
It's an amazing painting
that he picked.
494
00:29:41,650 --> 00:29:44,530
It's not any old Baroque painting.
495
00:29:44,530 --> 00:29:45,530
It's voyeurism.
496
00:29:46,610 --> 00:29:49,610
He removes the voyeuristic painting
497
00:29:49,610 --> 00:29:52,530
to become the voyeur
looking in on the shower.
498
00:29:52,530 --> 00:29:55,740
He could've picked from
50 different examples,
499
00:29:55,740 --> 00:29:59,490
but he chose this one because it had
the most amount of information that
500
00:29:59,490 --> 00:30:01,030
he could use for his film.
501
00:30:03,450 --> 00:30:07,360
I love that there's a hole in the
wall the size of his face.
502
00:30:07,360 --> 00:30:09,950
Which tells you that he's been doing
this more than once
503
00:30:09,950 --> 00:30:12,860
and that he's made it comfortable
for himself.
504
00:30:12,860 --> 00:30:16,900
The notion that he is looking just
as you are, it binds you with him,
505
00:30:16,900 --> 00:30:21,950
and when you eliminate those walls
and you're now watching him,
506
00:30:21,950 --> 00:30:25,150
and you're watching,
and you're watching together,
507
00:30:25,150 --> 00:30:29,990
then you are in a new place
where things can get a lot scarier.
508
00:30:29,990 --> 00:30:35,360
Psycho is delineated from the other
works of his oeuvre by those gazes.
509
00:30:36,650 --> 00:30:39,700
The birds are looking at us,
each individual bird,
510
00:30:39,700 --> 00:30:42,400
dead bird, is looking at us.
511
00:30:42,400 --> 00:30:45,610
Mother is looking at us from eyeless
sockets.
512
00:30:45,610 --> 00:30:47,700
Dead Marion, with her eye open.
513
00:30:48,820 --> 00:30:52,610
The stare includes
and indicts us at the same time.
514
00:30:53,780 --> 00:30:55,150
It's a mirror image.
515
00:30:55,150 --> 00:30:56,780
You know, it goes both ways.
516
00:30:56,780 --> 00:30:58,820
We're looking into the eyes
of death,
517
00:30:58,820 --> 00:31:01,070
and the eyes of death
are looking at us.
518
00:31:01,070 --> 00:31:04,030
And it's inclusive and horrifying.
519
00:31:04,030 --> 00:31:07,400
The laughing and the tears,
520
00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:10,200
and the cruel eyes studying you.
521
00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:11,240
My mother there?
522
00:31:13,450 --> 00:31:14,700
God is studying you,
523
00:31:14,700 --> 00:31:18,860
because there are a number of
God point-of-view shots in Psycho,
524
00:31:18,860 --> 00:31:21,240
just as there are in The Birds.
525
00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:23,740
Hitchcock's God is cruel and
arbitrary,
526
00:31:23,740 --> 00:31:28,610
and like some kind of bird of
prey or raptor which is gazing down
527
00:31:28,610 --> 00:31:31,950
rather coldly and disinterestedly
on its human subjects.
528
00:31:33,860 --> 00:31:35,700
In the shower sequence,
529
00:31:35,700 --> 00:31:40,240
the violence is directed and
that knife is coming towards us.
530
00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:43,860
So we're being
punished for being the voyeurs.
531
00:31:43,860 --> 00:31:47,490
There are consequences to watching
and being watched.
532
00:31:47,490 --> 00:31:50,200
In the character of James Stewart,
533
00:31:50,200 --> 00:31:53,110
if we identify
with him in Rear Window
534
00:31:53,110 --> 00:31:55,490
has a very literal, great fall
535
00:31:55,490 --> 00:31:58,860
at the end of it
where he breaks the other leg.
536
00:31:58,860 --> 00:32:02,490
Meaning another six, eight months of
pain and itchiness
537
00:32:02,490 --> 00:32:05,150
and not being able to screw
Grace Kelly.
538
00:32:05,150 --> 00:32:09,400
All those things are
pertinent to Hitchcock.
539
00:32:09,400 --> 00:32:11,950
I'll bet you nine people out of
ten...
540
00:32:11,950 --> 00:32:13,450
WOMAN TRANSLATES INTO FRENCH
541
00:32:13,450 --> 00:32:18,900
..if they see something across,
like a woman undressing and going
542
00:32:19,820 --> 00:32:25,030
to bed, or even sometimes a man
pottering around his room
543
00:32:25,070 --> 00:32:26,610
doing nothing.
544
00:32:28,700 --> 00:32:31,200
Nine people out of ten
will stay and look.
545
00:32:33,070 --> 00:32:35,200
They won't turn away and say,
546
00:32:35,200 --> 00:32:39,650
it's none of my business
and pull down their own curtain.
547
00:32:39,650 --> 00:32:41,110
They won't do it.
548
00:32:43,740 --> 00:32:47,740
In the beginning of the movie you're
flying into a window with the blinds
549
00:32:47,740 --> 00:32:49,700
closed, so you're starting out as a
voyeur.
550
00:32:51,150 --> 00:32:53,650
And if you think about it, if the
movie's opening
551
00:32:53,650 --> 00:32:58,110
from the point of view of a fly,
it changes the whole context
of what meaning of the movie is.
552
00:32:58,110 --> 00:33:00,400
WOMAN: I'm not even going to swat
that fly.
553
00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:02,450
I hope they are watching.
554
00:33:02,450 --> 00:33:06,240
They'll see, they'll see and
they'll know, and they'll say...
555
00:33:07,400 --> 00:33:11,360
..why, she wouldn't even harm a fly.
556
00:33:11,360 --> 00:33:15,570
I think the voyeurism actually
has a payoff in the shower scene.
557
00:33:15,570 --> 00:33:18,860
It's Hitchcock's way of setting
the bomb under the table,
558
00:33:18,860 --> 00:33:22,570
which is something he liked to do
to create dramatic irony.
559
00:33:22,570 --> 00:33:27,950
Four people are sitting around
the table, talking about baseball,
560
00:33:28,280 --> 00:33:29,700
whatever you like.
561
00:33:30,860 --> 00:33:32,780
Five minutes of it,
562
00:33:32,780 --> 00:33:33,820
very dull.
563
00:33:35,320 --> 00:33:38,950
Suddenly, a bomb goes off.
564
00:33:38,950 --> 00:33:41,650
Blows the people to smithereens.
565
00:33:41,650 --> 00:33:43,780
What do the audience have?
566
00:33:43,780 --> 00:33:47,280
Ten seconds of shock.
567
00:33:47,280 --> 00:33:49,110
Now take the same scene
568
00:33:49,110 --> 00:33:52,700
and tell the audience
there is a bomb under that table
569
00:33:52,700 --> 00:33:54,990
and will go off in five minutes.
570
00:33:56,150 --> 00:33:59,490
Well, the whole emotion of the
audience is totally different,
571
00:33:59,490 --> 00:34:01,780
because you've given them
that information.
572
00:34:03,240 --> 00:34:05,860
You've got the audience working.
573
00:34:07,280 --> 00:34:09,150
Hello? I think at this point
574
00:34:09,150 --> 00:34:11,740
we start to wonder
what's going on in his head
575
00:34:11,740 --> 00:34:15,360
and what's going to happen
because of this look on his face.
576
00:34:15,360 --> 00:34:17,900
That's so interesting as an actor,
what is he playing?
577
00:34:17,900 --> 00:34:21,150
He's playing, "Oh, God,
don't let my mother kill this girl."
578
00:34:21,150 --> 00:34:25,110
Norman Bates is presented
in all these little, you know,
579
00:34:25,110 --> 00:34:27,820
encapsulated moments
throughout the film
580
00:34:27,820 --> 00:34:31,400
and in much the same way that the
murder is presented
581
00:34:31,400 --> 00:34:36,820
in encapsulated moments of images
and compositions, cut together.
582
00:34:37,150 --> 00:34:42,570
So, I think that the movie is,
it's about fragmentation,
583
00:34:42,820 --> 00:34:44,650
it is fragmentation.
584
00:34:48,110 --> 00:34:50,240
Norman goes up to the house.
585
00:34:50,240 --> 00:34:54,610
It's very important that
the audience sees him leave
586
00:34:54,610 --> 00:34:59,280
because he is reacting to a
third character that we think
587
00:34:59,280 --> 00:35:01,280
is in the house, Mother.
588
00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:03,110
But that is really in his mind.
589
00:35:05,280 --> 00:35:08,280
He goes to the stairs and he looks
up, and he looks like he's sad
590
00:35:08,280 --> 00:35:10,900
because he realises that Mom's not
at home upstairs.
591
00:35:10,900 --> 00:35:12,820
Then he goes and
flops into the kitchen,
592
00:35:12,820 --> 00:35:15,030
like a dejected little schoolboy.
593
00:35:15,030 --> 00:35:20,400
So he sits there, like, "Oh, rats,
I can't have dinner with the
lady I want to have dinner with."
594
00:35:21,150 --> 00:35:24,240
I imagine he must've done
that a lot when Mother was alive.
595
00:35:24,240 --> 00:35:28,530
That she must've yelled at him and
he would just go into kitchen
when he couldn't get what he wanted,
596
00:35:28,530 --> 00:35:32,780
when she was berating him
for whatever he wasn't
living up to her standards.
597
00:35:32,780 --> 00:35:35,490
There's a lot one could say about
Hitchcock mothers.
598
00:35:44,650 --> 00:35:47,610
Are you quite sure she didn't come
down here to see you,
599
00:35:47,610 --> 00:35:51,030
to capture the rich Alex Sebastian
for a husband?
600
00:35:51,030 --> 00:35:53,320
Go get shaved before your father
gets home.
601
00:35:53,320 --> 00:35:56,030
You gentlemen aren't really trying
to kill my son, are you?
602
00:35:59,030 --> 00:36:01,990
When you talk about what is sacred
in America,
603
00:36:01,990 --> 00:36:05,280
people talk about mom and apple
pie.
604
00:36:05,280 --> 00:36:10,740
Mom is good, we love Mom,
we are Mom, we are good.
605
00:36:12,030 --> 00:36:17,240
On the other hand, there's something
else going on in 1950s America
606
00:36:17,240 --> 00:36:22,700
in culture and society,
where Mom is also suspect.
607
00:36:25,900 --> 00:36:30,780
There was a serious social panic in
America about juvenile delinquency.
608
00:36:30,780 --> 00:36:36,030
One thing that this social panic
resulted in was this fear that moms
609
00:36:36,240 --> 00:36:39,650
were going to shelter and spoil
children,
610
00:36:39,650 --> 00:36:42,570
possibly America itself,
to death.
611
00:36:44,070 --> 00:36:48,900
All of the sitcoms - Father Knows
Best, Ozzie and Harriet,
612
00:36:48,900 --> 00:36:50,900
where Mother never did anything.
613
00:36:50,900 --> 00:36:56,200
All she did was take care of the
house and the kids.
614
00:36:56,360 --> 00:36:58,860
I'm just practically ready
and David has to get dressed.
615
00:36:58,860 --> 00:37:01,030
Get dressed? You mean dressed up?
616
00:37:01,030 --> 00:37:03,360
Well, yes, you want to look nice
when Nancy gets here.
617
00:37:03,360 --> 00:37:08,700
The director who exposes the horror
of the American family in the '50s
618
00:37:10,320 --> 00:37:13,900
without making a horror movie,
is Douglas Sirk.
619
00:37:13,900 --> 00:37:17,110
You see Kay, I love Ron.
620
00:37:17,110 --> 00:37:19,570
You love him so much you're willing
to ruin all our lives?
621
00:37:19,570 --> 00:37:21,320
You can't really think that.
622
00:37:21,320 --> 00:37:23,490
What else can I think?
623
00:37:23,490 --> 00:37:27,860
In Sirk, it's the whole construction
of the family.
624
00:37:27,860 --> 00:37:29,610
It's not until Psycho, though,
625
00:37:29,610 --> 00:37:34,820
where the mother is literally a
monster when you see her at the end.
626
00:37:35,030 --> 00:37:39,700
I think my mother scared me
when I was three months old.
627
00:37:39,700 --> 00:37:41,360
AUDIENCE LAUGHS
You remember that?
628
00:37:41,360 --> 00:37:43,320
You see, she said boo.
629
00:37:43,320 --> 00:37:48,780
I don't know how many times in
Psycho, do people talk about Mother.
630
00:37:49,030 --> 00:37:50,950
Oh, we can see each other.
631
00:37:50,950 --> 00:37:51,990
We can even have dinner.
632
00:37:53,320 --> 00:37:57,200
But respectably. In my house, with
my mother's picture on the mantel,
633
00:37:57,200 --> 00:38:01,570
and my sister helping me broil a
big steak for three.
634
00:38:01,570 --> 00:38:04,240
And after the steak,
will we send Sister to the movies,
635
00:38:04,240 --> 00:38:05,820
turn Mama's picture to the wall?
636
00:38:05,820 --> 00:38:06,990
Sam!
637
00:38:06,990 --> 00:38:11,780
Patricia Hitchcock talks about,
she offers her a tranquiliser.
638
00:38:11,780 --> 00:38:13,030
Have you got some aspirin?
639
00:38:13,030 --> 00:38:14,990
I've got something, not aspirin,
640
00:38:14,990 --> 00:38:17,700
my mother's doctor gave them to me
the day of my wedding.
641
00:38:17,700 --> 00:38:20,530
Teddy was furious when he found out
I had taken tranquilizers.
642
00:38:22,240 --> 00:38:24,400
Any calls? Teddy called me,
643
00:38:24,400 --> 00:38:27,530
my mother called to see if Teddy
called...
644
00:38:27,530 --> 00:38:30,950
Even in that office, the influence,
645
00:38:30,950 --> 00:38:36,400
the negative influence of mothers,
and here it's on women, not on men.
646
00:38:36,780 --> 00:38:40,030
So, the fact that Norman Bates'
mother,
647
00:38:40,030 --> 00:38:42,780
we realise eventually
it's Norman Bates himself,
648
00:38:42,780 --> 00:38:46,650
might have on an unconscious
level audiences saying, "Aha!
649
00:38:46,650 --> 00:38:49,990
"I knew it! Mom IS going to to kill
us!
650
00:38:49,990 --> 00:38:51,650
"Mom IS going to be
the death of us all!"
651
00:39:09,240 --> 00:39:11,110
SHOWER RUNS
652
00:39:11,110 --> 00:39:13,240
OK. Once more into the bridge.
653
00:39:14,990 --> 00:39:16,400
Back to the primal moment.
654
00:39:19,150 --> 00:39:22,700
Marion is doing her accounting here,
655
00:39:22,700 --> 00:39:24,820
figuring out how much she spent on
the car.
656
00:39:26,570 --> 00:39:28,450
She's making the decision to...
657
00:39:29,900 --> 00:39:30,990
..return the money.
658
00:39:30,990 --> 00:39:32,990
Nice little bit of handy exposition.
659
00:39:34,200 --> 00:39:36,490
I always write down my math.
660
00:39:36,490 --> 00:39:38,650
It's charming, you know.
661
00:39:38,650 --> 00:39:40,320
It's still an old movie,
let's face it.
662
00:39:42,530 --> 00:39:46,200
She throws
the paper in the toilet bowl
663
00:39:46,200 --> 00:39:49,530
and then to cap it off
she flushes it.
664
00:39:51,110 --> 00:39:53,820
Right from the beginning, you know
you're in new territory.
665
00:39:53,820 --> 00:39:56,650
In 1960, nobody had shown a toilet
before.
666
00:39:56,650 --> 00:39:59,990
The flushing toilet is a clear
indication that the scene to come
667
00:39:59,990 --> 00:40:02,530
is going to break one or two taboos.
668
00:40:02,530 --> 00:40:04,320
Details are important, you know.
669
00:40:04,320 --> 00:40:06,150
In the building of suspense,
670
00:40:06,150 --> 00:40:09,070
you know that those details are all
going to add up to something
671
00:40:09,070 --> 00:40:12,070
much more monumental
than the simplicity of these shots.
672
00:40:13,150 --> 00:40:15,110
Hitchcock was a Victorian.
673
00:40:15,110 --> 00:40:20,610
Victorians thought that a bright,
white tiled bathroom was sanitary.
674
00:40:21,360 --> 00:40:22,450
That's the term they used.
675
00:40:23,950 --> 00:40:28,490
His bathroom, in his home,
was bright, white tiles.
676
00:40:28,490 --> 00:40:33,030
He thought that invading
the sanctity of the bathroom
677
00:40:33,030 --> 00:40:36,030
was a cool and subversive thing to
do.
678
00:40:36,030 --> 00:40:40,570
He did it in silent films,
he did in Spellbound.
679
00:40:40,570 --> 00:40:44,610
By showing that brightness
it was a way of saying,
680
00:40:44,610 --> 00:40:47,650
look at how I am defiling
the sanctity of the bathroom
681
00:40:47,650 --> 00:40:49,950
and I am doing it almost
bloodlessly.
682
00:40:49,950 --> 00:40:54,610
Coincidentally, this scene was
extremely influential on a scene
683
00:40:54,610 --> 00:40:59,070
in The Conversation,
which I edited back in 1973.
684
00:40:59,070 --> 00:41:04,110
A murder has been committed and
Gene Hackman comes into the bathroom
685
00:41:04,110 --> 00:41:07,950
of a hotel room
but the room is completely clean.
686
00:41:07,950 --> 00:41:12,570
And he pulls the curtain apart,
just as in Psycho
687
00:41:12,570 --> 00:41:15,820
the mother pulls the curtain apart,
but it's empty.
688
00:41:15,820 --> 00:41:19,320
He goes to the drain of the tub
and runs his fingers
689
00:41:19,320 --> 00:41:23,030
around the drain to see if there was
any telltale signs of blood
690
00:41:23,030 --> 00:41:25,320
and there's nothing.
691
00:41:25,320 --> 00:41:28,320
He goes over to the toilet to jiggle
the handle
692
00:41:28,320 --> 00:41:31,320
and the toilet suddenly backs up.
693
00:41:31,320 --> 00:41:36,070
So it's a kind of an inverse version
of the Psycho scene.
694
00:41:37,200 --> 00:41:40,110
The toilet and the flushing of the
toilet,
695
00:41:40,110 --> 00:41:42,240
the shower curtain,
the drain,
696
00:41:42,240 --> 00:41:47,400
all of these things were definitely
imprinted upon us by Psycho.
697
00:41:47,400 --> 00:41:51,860
Now, one of the most beautiful,
famous leading ladies in 1960
698
00:41:51,860 --> 00:41:55,780
just stripped in front of us
and stepped into a shower.
699
00:41:55,780 --> 00:41:59,150
It's like, holy shit,
where are we going now?
700
00:41:59,150 --> 00:42:01,530
Man, that must've been crazy racy
for 1960.
701
00:42:01,530 --> 00:42:03,150
I don't even understand.
702
00:42:03,150 --> 00:42:05,860
Hitchcock
knew that American men were curious
703
00:42:05,860 --> 00:42:07,610
about Janet Leigh.
704
00:42:07,610 --> 00:42:11,400
And so, the idea of having her in
a shower
705
00:42:11,400 --> 00:42:15,860
in a stance that seems very
suggestive, was a huge deal.
706
00:42:15,860 --> 00:42:19,820
Seeing her full body behind that
curtain,
707
00:42:19,820 --> 00:42:22,530
it's brilliant
because it's translucent.
708
00:42:22,530 --> 00:42:27,070
It's not transparent, it's not
opaque but it's translucent.
709
00:42:27,070 --> 00:42:30,280
Enough to see her and titillate us.
710
00:42:30,280 --> 00:42:33,450
But not enough to really be graphic
yet.
711
00:42:33,450 --> 00:42:38,030
The whole theory is that you have
to discover the sex in a woman
712
00:42:38,030 --> 00:42:40,030
and not have it...
713
00:42:41,700 --> 00:42:44,610
..stuck all over
her like labels, you know.
714
00:42:46,240 --> 00:42:49,400
And there's nothing else
to look for, nothing to discover.
715
00:42:52,070 --> 00:42:55,150
Do we know anybody who turns the
shower on before getting in, I mean,
716
00:42:55,150 --> 00:42:56,650
I don't act that way.
717
00:42:56,650 --> 00:43:00,740
I don't turn a shower on like that.
718
00:43:00,740 --> 00:43:03,070
I run it, and then get in
when I know that it's safe.
719
00:43:04,320 --> 00:43:08,820
And look at that almost
sexual expression on her face.
720
00:43:08,820 --> 00:43:11,900
She is being rained upon
and it's cleansing,
721
00:43:11,900 --> 00:43:13,860
it's warm and she's happy,
722
00:43:13,860 --> 00:43:15,990
and she's, like, made up her mind.
723
00:43:15,990 --> 00:43:19,450
The natural sounds kind
of put you in the perspective of,
724
00:43:19,450 --> 00:43:22,530
we all become Janet Leigh
but not as attractive.
725
00:43:22,530 --> 00:43:24,860
Through other movies
like Rear Window and Birds,
726
00:43:24,860 --> 00:43:27,780
he knows when the lack of music
can be as effective as music.
727
00:43:31,030 --> 00:43:33,030
APPROACHING FOOTSTEPS
728
00:43:40,400 --> 00:43:41,490
FLUTTER OF WINGS
729
00:43:46,110 --> 00:43:49,200
I think there's almost no moment
730
00:43:49,200 --> 00:43:52,900
when we see Marion
with a genuine smile.
731
00:43:52,900 --> 00:43:54,820
There's almost no moment where...
732
00:43:54,820 --> 00:43:57,280
Where she's allowed to feel good
733
00:43:57,280 --> 00:43:59,490
about what her life is like.
734
00:43:59,490 --> 00:44:00,990
She's happy for the first time.
735
00:44:02,320 --> 00:44:04,650
We're going into a scene which,
on the one hand,
736
00:44:04,650 --> 00:44:07,360
is, um, quite liberatory for the
character,
737
00:44:07,360 --> 00:44:10,650
but at the same time it's clearly
really what we're watching
738
00:44:10,650 --> 00:44:12,610
is the liberation of Hitchcock.
739
00:44:12,610 --> 00:44:16,900
Of his own repressed desires finally
being writ large on the screen.
740
00:44:16,900 --> 00:44:21,950
Hitchcock viewed the world as a very
imperfect moral machine.
741
00:44:21,950 --> 00:44:24,280
And he always had this...
742
00:44:25,990 --> 00:44:28,570
..biblical almost
sense of doom and punishment.
743
00:44:28,570 --> 00:44:32,320
WOMAN SCREAMS
You know, that befalls those
744
00:44:32,320 --> 00:44:35,320
that tangle with sin
in a casual way.
745
00:44:35,320 --> 00:44:39,740
Even his most unHitchcockian movie,
which is Mr & Mrs Smith,
746
00:44:39,740 --> 00:44:41,860
which I love, punishes banality.
747
00:44:43,490 --> 00:44:48,030
She makes a moral decision to take
back that money and, you know,
748
00:44:48,030 --> 00:44:50,530
and suffer what ever punishment
will come her way.
749
00:44:50,530 --> 00:44:52,860
I stepped into a private trap back
there.
750
00:44:54,490 --> 00:44:57,070
And I'd like to back
and try to pull myself out of it.
751
00:44:59,780 --> 00:45:01,320
Before it's too late for me, too.
752
00:45:01,320 --> 00:45:02,780
This is very important.
753
00:45:02,780 --> 00:45:04,820
It's very important narratively
754
00:45:04,820 --> 00:45:07,860
because it doesn't come in the
middle of a heist.
755
00:45:07,860 --> 00:45:09,780
Or in the middle of the robbery.
756
00:45:09,780 --> 00:45:13,740
Or as she is escaping with the money
on the road.
757
00:45:13,740 --> 00:45:15,280
And it turns out, bang!
758
00:45:15,280 --> 00:45:18,030
It doesn't make a damn bit of
difference because the universe
759
00:45:18,030 --> 00:45:19,490
doesn't give a shit.
760
00:45:19,490 --> 00:45:20,820
And I think, uh,
761
00:45:20,820 --> 00:45:23,990
that is a true sign of his
Catholicism
762
00:45:23,990 --> 00:45:28,820
and his sense of doom about a sin
that cannot be washed away.
763
00:45:28,820 --> 00:45:30,490
Literally, with water.
764
00:45:30,490 --> 00:45:32,820
You know, it cannot be purged.
765
00:45:32,820 --> 00:45:34,610
Except by blood, and violence.
766
00:45:34,610 --> 00:45:36,650
And paying the price.
767
00:45:36,650 --> 00:45:39,360
She's punished for the worst crime,
768
00:45:39,360 --> 00:45:43,450
which is sexually arousing
Norman Bates.
769
00:45:43,450 --> 00:45:45,950
You know, you get this strain
again and again.
770
00:45:45,950 --> 00:45:50,200
I mean, think of Strangers on a
Train, where Robert Walker, you
know,
771
00:45:50,200 --> 00:45:52,110
strangles this poor girl.
772
00:45:52,110 --> 00:45:54,530
Again, what does
he strangle her for?
773
00:45:54,530 --> 00:45:59,110
Because she's a loose woman who is
in Farley Granger's way.
774
00:45:59,110 --> 00:46:02,240
I mean, that's a foreshadowing of
Psycho.
775
00:46:03,900 --> 00:46:07,530
That's her point of view of the
shower that puts us, the audience,
776
00:46:07,530 --> 00:46:09,570
as if we're in the shower with her.
777
00:46:09,570 --> 00:46:13,200
It makes us feel just a vulnerable
as she is.
778
00:46:13,200 --> 00:46:16,200
It's spraying at us
and it's creating a sonic curtain.
779
00:46:16,200 --> 00:46:17,700
She can't hear him coming.
780
00:46:19,400 --> 00:46:22,110
Gee, I'm sorry, I didn't hear you in
all this rain.
781
00:46:22,110 --> 00:46:26,450
And that's why that shot is bad
news.
782
00:46:26,450 --> 00:46:28,700
You know, the shots change in their
level of symmetry
783
00:46:28,700 --> 00:46:30,780
during the course of the sequence.
784
00:46:30,780 --> 00:46:33,610
That's order at the beginning,
and then, oddly,
785
00:46:33,610 --> 00:46:35,700
it'll be echoed by the eye,
in the drain,
786
00:46:35,700 --> 00:46:38,240
and Norman Bates' people
through his office
787
00:46:38,240 --> 00:46:42,490
and those things start to
rhyme after a while in a great way.
788
00:46:42,490 --> 00:46:46,650
How do you point a camera
at a shower head
without the lens getting sprayed?
789
00:46:46,650 --> 00:46:48,400
Move the camera back enough,
790
00:46:48,400 --> 00:46:51,280
plug some of the holes so that the
spray shoots outward.
791
00:46:51,280 --> 00:46:52,990
Very simple and elegant solution.
792
00:46:54,950 --> 00:46:58,570
There's nothing unusual about the
pacing here.
793
00:46:58,570 --> 00:47:04,030
It's at a rather leisurely
4.5 seconds per cut, on average.
794
00:47:04,490 --> 00:47:07,070
So, it's a calm before the storm,
let's say.
795
00:47:08,320 --> 00:47:11,070
Now here's what I would call a
strange cut.
796
00:47:11,070 --> 00:47:13,150
What I call the wet hair cut.
797
00:47:13,150 --> 00:47:17,820
Which is her washing herself with
her head tilted back,
798
00:47:17,820 --> 00:47:22,700
and then it suddenly cuts to the
same kind of an angle.
799
00:47:22,700 --> 00:47:24,780
Really a jump cut.
800
00:47:24,780 --> 00:47:27,570
Except now her hair is completely
wet.
801
00:47:27,570 --> 00:47:31,400
This would give the lie to somebody
who said
802
00:47:31,400 --> 00:47:35,570
"this scene was shot exactly
as the storyboards were done,"
803
00:47:35,570 --> 00:47:39,820
because you never
would storyboard a moment like that.
804
00:47:39,820 --> 00:47:42,990
You think you're going to be
watching her go through
805
00:47:42,990 --> 00:47:46,570
the whole process in real time
but that cut jumps you ahead.
806
00:47:46,570 --> 00:47:47,610
It feels very...
807
00:47:48,900 --> 00:47:51,240
..bold and confident.
808
00:47:51,240 --> 00:47:53,150
Now we cut to the shower head,
809
00:47:53,150 --> 00:47:55,650
but it's a side angle on the shower
head.
810
00:47:55,650 --> 00:47:57,990
Not this, sort of, subjective point
of view.
811
00:47:59,280 --> 00:48:02,450
When we were looking at her,
she was facing left to right,
812
00:48:02,450 --> 00:48:03,700
away from the shower.
813
00:48:04,950 --> 00:48:06,650
And when we cut back to her,
814
00:48:06,650 --> 00:48:10,070
we come around to the other side of
the stageline.
815
00:48:10,070 --> 00:48:14,360
What's behind her now
is the shower curtain, not the wall.
816
00:48:14,360 --> 00:48:17,030
And now there's another cut.
817
00:48:17,030 --> 00:48:19,820
Again, it's a kind of awkward
jump cut.
818
00:48:19,820 --> 00:48:23,610
Objectively, there
would be no reason to do that.
819
00:48:23,610 --> 00:48:28,240
But it's unsettling
because there's a big empty space,
820
00:48:28,240 --> 00:48:31,280
which is itself unsettling.
821
00:48:31,280 --> 00:48:34,530
What is going to fill that empty
space?
822
00:48:34,530 --> 00:48:38,400
The audience starts to
look over to that negative space.
823
00:48:38,400 --> 00:48:41,150
And feeling like,
"Why am I looking over here?"
824
00:48:41,150 --> 00:48:44,110
The door opens. You see the shadow.
825
00:48:44,110 --> 00:48:45,650
And then Norman's figure.
826
00:48:45,650 --> 00:48:47,530
And that's the mounting terror.
827
00:48:47,530 --> 00:48:50,740
Where you say to yourself,
"Oh, my God! Oh, my God!"
828
00:48:50,740 --> 00:48:54,740
And THAT is the difference
between suspense and surprise.
829
00:48:54,740 --> 00:48:58,450
The idea of menace
in a shadowy figure,
830
00:48:58,450 --> 00:49:01,610
I think, that Hitchcock's fear.
831
00:49:01,610 --> 00:49:06,820
Who is the menacing figure in
Alfred Hitchcock's own life?
832
00:49:06,820 --> 00:49:10,780
By the time he gets to Pyscho,
that person is unleashed.
833
00:49:12,900 --> 00:49:16,030
Here you see Margo Epper,
the stunt woman, coming toward.
834
00:49:17,400 --> 00:49:20,320
How do you NOT reveal who that is?
835
00:49:20,320 --> 00:49:24,360
I've been taking the wrap for that
sequence for 20 years now
836
00:49:24,360 --> 00:49:27,740
but that's
not me behind the curtain.
837
00:49:27,740 --> 00:49:31,530
I was in New York that day
rehearsing a Broadway show.
838
00:49:31,530 --> 00:49:34,950
Every time they kept shooting it,
you kept seeing the stunt woman's
face.
839
00:49:34,950 --> 00:49:38,240
And one of the make-up men decided,
"What if we blackened her face?"
840
00:49:38,240 --> 00:49:40,030
And so they tried that a couple of
times.
841
00:49:40,030 --> 00:49:41,650
And went darker and darker,
and darker.
842
00:49:41,650 --> 00:49:44,490
Until they achieved that effect.
843
00:49:44,490 --> 00:49:47,820
I've I talked with Janet Leigh about
what she thought she saw
844
00:49:47,820 --> 00:49:53,280
coming at her, and she clearly
saw Norman coming at her.
845
00:49:53,400 --> 00:49:54,990
And that's what she played.
846
00:49:54,990 --> 00:49:57,150
So, the reality for her was,
847
00:49:57,150 --> 00:50:01,860
"I'm going to die this way by this
person who tried to befriend me,
848
00:50:01,860 --> 00:50:03,990
"and I tried to be polite to."
849
00:50:03,990 --> 00:50:05,070
You're very kind.
850
00:50:07,110 --> 00:50:09,240
It's all for you.
I'm not hungry, go ahead.
851
00:50:10,700 --> 00:50:15,070
It really does lend an extra air of
horror and pathos to that moment.
852
00:50:16,360 --> 00:50:18,530
And that wallpaper in the
background.
853
00:50:18,530 --> 00:50:21,030
The Shining - so many horror movies
try to have that, like,
854
00:50:21,030 --> 00:50:23,610
perfect Hitchcock Bates' Motel
wallpaper.
855
00:50:23,610 --> 00:50:28,070
This floral pattern,
that juxtapose with this black
silhouette of the knife
856
00:50:28,070 --> 00:50:30,780
and the hair of Mother,
it's really, really terrifying.
857
00:50:30,780 --> 00:50:32,900
The shape always kind of tortured
me,
858
00:50:32,900 --> 00:50:35,650
it was like a weird mushroom shaped
head.
859
00:50:35,650 --> 00:50:38,400
I don't know, kind of lame to me for
some reason.
860
00:50:38,400 --> 00:50:41,740
I'd always wished that
the shot looked a little scarier.
861
00:50:41,740 --> 00:50:45,570
When my grandfather first saw
the first rough cut of Psycho
862
00:50:45,570 --> 00:50:46,860
he didn't like it at all.
863
00:50:46,860 --> 00:50:48,860
He was just going to cut it down
to an hour
864
00:50:48,860 --> 00:50:51,030
and make it part of the TV show.
865
00:50:51,030 --> 00:50:53,200
Bernard Herrmann convinced
him to create the most,
866
00:50:53,200 --> 00:50:57,360
like, famous scared chord music
in horror cinema history.
867
00:50:57,360 --> 00:51:00,200
It's so ingrained in pop
culture to where...
868
00:51:00,200 --> 00:51:03,150
HE MIMICS PSYCHO SHOWER SCENE MUSIC
Yeah, yeah. It is transcendent.
869
00:51:03,150 --> 00:51:05,610
Yeah, yeah. My seven-year-old
daughter knows that,
870
00:51:05,610 --> 00:51:08,650
but she doesn't know where comes
from. But... Yeah.
871
00:51:08,650 --> 00:51:11,400
You know, she's made that joke.
MIMICS PSYCHO SHOWER SCENE MUSIC
872
00:51:11,400 --> 00:51:13,860
Like, I don't know where she got it.
That's incredible.
873
00:51:13,860 --> 00:51:16,280
She has no idea
it's from Psycho. It's evolutionary.
874
00:51:16,280 --> 00:51:18,360
Like, we're just born knowing
the shower scene!
875
00:51:18,360 --> 00:51:19,450
LAUGHTER
876
00:51:21,110 --> 00:51:23,070
I wanted a tattoo,
877
00:51:23,070 --> 00:51:27,280
and I thought it must be that one
cue by Bernard Herrmann.
878
00:51:27,280 --> 00:51:31,700
The most amazing cue ever made
in cinematic history.
879
00:51:31,700 --> 00:51:34,530
It has so little to do with harmony.
880
00:51:34,530 --> 00:51:38,280
It is just sheer terror.
881
00:51:38,280 --> 00:51:41,200
The way that music was used in
movies to scare people
882
00:51:41,200 --> 00:51:43,360
really changed after Psycho.
883
00:51:43,360 --> 00:51:46,320
If you want to make something scary,
you put in those strings.
884
00:51:46,320 --> 00:51:48,030
And you're like "DE-DE-DE-DE!"
885
00:51:48,030 --> 00:51:51,360
If you slow it down you get,
"Da-ran, da-ran."
886
00:51:51,360 --> 00:51:54,400
What I really adore about Herrmann
887
00:51:54,400 --> 00:51:58,610
is the way that he
realised that in the limitation
888
00:51:58,610 --> 00:52:03,900
there is actually a much more
powerful statement to be made.
889
00:52:03,900 --> 00:52:05,900
He did the
Day The Earth Stood Still,
890
00:52:05,900 --> 00:52:09,570
and he wrote it for seven theremins
and only a couple of horns.
891
00:52:09,570 --> 00:52:10,820
EERIE TITLE MUSIC PLAYS
892
00:52:22,450 --> 00:52:24,740
Herrmann wrote Living Doll,
893
00:52:24,740 --> 00:52:28,860
which I think is one
of the best scores that they had
on Twilight Zone.
894
00:52:28,860 --> 00:52:34,110
It's like a bass clarinet or it
might have been a contrabassoon,
895
00:52:34,110 --> 00:52:37,070
a glockenspiel, and a harp.
896
00:52:37,070 --> 00:52:39,110
He was definitely an experimenter.
897
00:52:39,110 --> 00:52:42,450
He's the one who taught me
that you can kind of do anything,
898
00:52:42,450 --> 00:52:44,070
anywhere, if it works.
899
00:52:44,070 --> 00:52:48,150
What I think is also absolutely
genius about the shower scene
900
00:52:48,150 --> 00:52:50,360
is the way Herrmann spotted it.
901
00:52:50,360 --> 00:52:52,360
The spotting is deciding,
902
00:52:52,360 --> 00:52:55,400
when do start a cue,
when do you end a cue.
903
00:52:55,400 --> 00:52:59,070
It starts with the toilet flushing.
904
00:52:59,070 --> 00:53:00,360
She steps into the shower.
905
00:53:00,360 --> 00:53:03,240
There is no music at all,
whatsoever.
906
00:53:03,240 --> 00:53:06,490
This composer does not prepare us
for the onslaught
907
00:53:06,490 --> 00:53:07,990
that is about to happen.
908
00:53:07,990 --> 00:53:10,490
When Janet Leigh walks into the
shower
909
00:53:10,490 --> 00:53:12,700
and she pulls the curtain closed
910
00:53:12,700 --> 00:53:16,240
you can actually hear the sound of
the rings on the bar
911
00:53:16,240 --> 00:53:18,110
and it goes "qu-ii-ii-th".
912
00:53:18,110 --> 00:53:20,030
You see the villain coming through.
913
00:53:20,030 --> 00:53:21,450
No music. No music at all.
914
00:53:21,450 --> 00:53:23,200
The curtain gets swept aside -
915
00:53:23,200 --> 00:53:24,450
we get the first sting.
916
00:53:24,450 --> 00:53:27,990
"Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da!"
917
00:53:27,990 --> 00:53:31,900
This is... This is the rush of
Janet Leigh's heartbeat.
918
00:53:31,900 --> 00:53:35,700
From the moment that we as an
audience completely realise,
919
00:53:35,700 --> 00:53:39,070
"OK, this girl is being brutally
butchered here."
920
00:53:39,070 --> 00:53:42,030
And we see this and the music goes
921
00:53:42,030 --> 00:53:46,320
"Ba-bom, ba-bo-oom ba-bo-oom!"
922
00:53:47,740 --> 00:53:49,610
She falls to the floor.
923
00:53:49,610 --> 00:53:52,820
The heartbeat slows
because she's dying.
924
00:53:52,820 --> 00:53:55,030
And then in her last gasp
925
00:53:55,030 --> 00:53:58,150
that music basically leaves her
926
00:53:58,150 --> 00:54:01,070
and all we have
is the sound of the falling curtain
927
00:54:01,070 --> 00:54:03,280
and her head smacking to the ground.
928
00:54:03,280 --> 00:54:05,530
How genius is that?
929
00:54:05,530 --> 00:54:07,610
That's Herrmann. That's not Hitch.
930
00:54:08,740 --> 00:54:09,900
That's Bernie.
931
00:54:09,900 --> 00:54:12,530
We used the
original score, um...
932
00:54:12,530 --> 00:54:14,360
Bernard Herrmann's
original score
933
00:54:14,360 --> 00:54:16,070
for our temp music, of course...
934
00:54:16,070 --> 00:54:17,530
while we were editing the film.
935
00:54:17,530 --> 00:54:19,280
And then Danny came
and re-recorded it.
936
00:54:19,280 --> 00:54:20,360
And it was so beautiful.
937
00:54:22,450 --> 00:54:24,490
It's a perfect score.
938
00:54:24,490 --> 00:54:29,450
When I was given the job, I mean, it
really was a holy scripture for me.
939
00:54:29,450 --> 00:54:34,110
And there was one beat in a meeting
with some of the producers of like,
940
00:54:34,110 --> 00:54:37,150
"Maybe because it's in colour
we should do it with brass,
941
00:54:37,150 --> 00:54:41,030
"and woodwinds, and percussion
and do it for the full orchestra."
942
00:54:41,030 --> 00:54:42,320
And I was like, "No, no, no, no!
943
00:54:42,320 --> 00:54:43,820
"Please, please.
944
00:54:43,820 --> 00:54:46,200
"I beg you. Don't make me do that."
945
00:54:46,200 --> 00:54:51,360
I had visions of a very grumpy
Bernard Herrmann.
946
00:54:51,360 --> 00:54:52,780
His ghost coming into my room.
947
00:54:52,780 --> 00:54:55,490
I'd wake up in the middle of the
night and he'd be there going
948
00:54:55,490 --> 00:54:57,360
"You little asshole.
What've you done?"
949
00:54:59,740 --> 00:55:05,070
A knife is raised up,
and now the murder scene begins.
950
00:55:05,860 --> 00:55:09,200
And the pace of the cutting,
it's going to shrink dramatically.
951
00:55:09,200 --> 00:55:10,610
And there it is.
952
00:55:10,610 --> 00:55:14,070
Beautiful,
cathartic, unbelievably savage.
953
00:55:15,780 --> 00:55:16,990
Intimate...
954
00:55:16,990 --> 00:55:19,780
And just wrong on so many levels.
955
00:55:19,780 --> 00:55:21,570
That... That looks awful.
956
00:55:21,570 --> 00:55:22,700
That is...
957
00:55:22,700 --> 00:55:24,650
SHE SIGHS SLOWLY
958
00:55:25,860 --> 00:55:27,820
Wow. Wow.
959
00:55:27,820 --> 00:55:29,570
Man, oh, man!
960
00:55:29,570 --> 00:55:32,740
He has a way of reaching out and
grabbing you by the throat
961
00:55:32,740 --> 00:55:36,110
and saying, "Look! Look!
You WILL look at this!"
962
00:55:36,110 --> 00:55:39,650
It was a perfect
stainless steel trap.
963
00:55:39,650 --> 00:55:40,950
You could not run away from it.
964
00:55:40,950 --> 00:55:44,030
It was inflicting damage,
965
00:55:44,030 --> 00:55:48,110
but at the same time, you knew
you were in the hands of a master.
966
00:55:48,110 --> 00:55:50,110
There was nothing to do but submit.
967
00:55:50,110 --> 00:55:53,200
The Psycho shower scene is cut
very much like an action scene.
968
00:55:53,200 --> 00:55:54,570
George Tomasini was a master.
969
00:55:54,570 --> 00:55:58,200
What he did with the shower scene
changed the language of cinema.
970
00:55:58,200 --> 00:56:02,030
The editor suddenly became a much
more important piece of the puzzle.
971
00:56:02,030 --> 00:56:04,110
You had to think about a cut.
972
00:56:04,110 --> 00:56:07,950
Because a cut was going
to take you four minutes to make,
and splice, and check it.
973
00:56:07,950 --> 00:56:11,450
And now you can make a cut every
12 seconds or something.
974
00:56:11,450 --> 00:56:14,240
The planning, the consideration,
the thinking,
975
00:56:14,240 --> 00:56:17,530
that went into designing some
of these films is astonishing.
976
00:56:17,530 --> 00:56:19,700
Motion pictures were 14 years old
977
00:56:19,700 --> 00:56:23,070
before somebody got the idea that
you could make a cut.
978
00:56:23,070 --> 00:56:25,400
Because it's violent
what's happening.
979
00:56:25,400 --> 00:56:28,990
You're looking at a image
of a visual field
980
00:56:28,990 --> 00:56:32,200
that is very detailed and full of
motion
981
00:56:32,200 --> 00:56:37,070
and then instantly it is removed
and replaced with another image.
982
00:56:37,070 --> 00:56:39,700
In a sense,
the audience should, kind of,
983
00:56:39,700 --> 00:56:42,320
crash through the windshield
of this experience.
984
00:56:42,320 --> 00:56:46,150
Hitchcock and Tomasini knew exactly
where the audience was looking.
985
00:56:46,150 --> 00:56:49,360
They ended up working
the disorientation,
986
00:56:49,360 --> 00:56:52,110
drawing you into Marion's sense of
confusion and terror.
987
00:56:53,570 --> 00:56:56,280
Every single cut that Tomasini does
is you...
988
00:56:56,280 --> 00:56:59,400
By the time you've caught up to what
you're looking at in the new shot
989
00:56:59,400 --> 00:57:00,900
he's already cut to another shot.
990
00:57:02,320 --> 00:57:06,030
It's a kaleidoscope of these images
crashing into your cranium.
991
00:57:06,030 --> 00:57:07,780
But it's very planned.
992
00:57:07,780 --> 00:57:09,030
And it feels that way -
993
00:57:09,030 --> 00:57:11,740
it's order and chaos
come crashing up against each other.
994
00:57:11,740 --> 00:57:13,900
It's a magic act.
995
00:57:13,900 --> 00:57:15,650
Truly. Yeah.
996
00:57:15,650 --> 00:57:18,900
Because people walked out of the
cinema feeling like they had seen...
997
00:57:18,900 --> 00:57:21,070
Like, shocked, you know,
beyond belief.
998
00:57:21,070 --> 00:57:23,820
Because there was nothing like that
in cinema prior to that.
999
00:57:23,820 --> 00:57:26,900
And yet they hadn't actually seen
the things that they thought they
saw.
1000
00:57:26,900 --> 00:57:28,860
That's an incredible thing.
1001
00:57:28,860 --> 00:57:29,860
SHOWER RUNS
1002
00:57:33,200 --> 00:57:37,820
The use of the sound effects,
um, are, I think,
1003
00:57:37,820 --> 00:57:40,700
a huge contributor to the violence
of the scene.
1004
00:57:40,700 --> 00:57:42,860
The stabbing sounds in particular.
1005
00:57:42,860 --> 00:57:46,740
How do you come up with the sound of
what happens
1006
00:57:46,740 --> 00:57:49,700
when a butcher knife strikes flesh?
1007
00:57:49,700 --> 00:57:52,360
The sound man came up
with the idea of,
1008
00:57:52,360 --> 00:57:55,400
"What about a knife stabbing
melons?"
1009
00:58:00,360 --> 00:58:02,110
So, knowing Hitchcock,
1010
00:58:02,110 --> 00:58:07,570
you would have to bring
lots of melons and arrange them
on a big table.
1011
00:58:08,030 --> 00:58:10,150
There would be Crenshaw melons,
and, you know,
1012
00:58:10,150 --> 00:58:11,820
any kind of melon that you can
imagine
1013
00:58:11,820 --> 00:58:13,320
of very, very different sizes.
1014
00:58:13,320 --> 00:58:16,030
So, I think they had about
two dozen.
1015
00:58:16,030 --> 00:58:18,110
And some backups.
1016
00:58:19,990 --> 00:58:23,240
So, there's the prop man
stabbing melon.
1017
00:58:23,240 --> 00:58:24,570
Melon, melon, melon.
1018
00:58:24,570 --> 00:58:26,650
Next. Melon, melon, melon.
1019
00:58:26,650 --> 00:58:30,570
And so by the end of it
Hitchcock knew the one that sounded
most like sinew
1020
00:58:30,570 --> 00:58:33,240
and sounded the way he thought it
should sound.
1021
00:58:33,240 --> 00:58:37,530
So, when they were through
demonstrating
all of these different melons
1022
00:58:37,530 --> 00:58:40,780
all he said was...
1023
00:58:40,780 --> 00:58:42,700
"Casaba."
1024
00:58:42,700 --> 00:58:45,110
That's all they needed to know.
1025
00:59:00,740 --> 00:59:04,530
I think the whole key to the sound
of the Casaba melon
1026
00:59:04,530 --> 00:59:07,070
is that the inner gooey part is very
small
1027
00:59:07,070 --> 00:59:11,360
and there's a very thick layer of
fruit that you have to stab through.
1028
00:59:11,360 --> 00:59:12,530
It's very dense.
1029
00:59:12,530 --> 00:59:13,780
Dense. Not hollow.
1030
00:59:13,780 --> 00:59:16,570
Like a lot of the other melons
sounded a little bit hollow.
1031
00:59:16,570 --> 00:59:20,610
And I'm sure with his eyes closed,
Hitchcock was probably hearing that.
1032
00:59:20,610 --> 00:59:24,570
To my ear, Casaba melon sounds more
like dry,
1033
00:59:24,570 --> 00:59:28,110
bony stabbing as opposed to wet,
gooey stabbing.
1034
00:59:28,110 --> 00:59:29,700
The starchiness and the thickness
1035
00:59:29,700 --> 00:59:31,610
probably gives you more of that
viscera.
1036
00:59:31,610 --> 00:59:34,200
The crunchiness, or... Viscera?
Viscera.
1037
00:59:35,400 --> 00:59:38,570
Hitchcock also had them bring a
sirloin.
1038
00:59:38,570 --> 00:59:40,650
A really big...
1039
00:59:40,650 --> 00:59:43,200
..thing of sirloin.
1040
00:59:43,200 --> 00:59:46,650
I don't eat me and so I nearly
nauseous telling you this
1041
00:59:46,650 --> 00:59:50,150
but, in any case, Hitchcock thought
that would be a really great idea.
1042
00:59:50,150 --> 00:59:55,530
And they did in fact stab
a big, big, big slab of steak.
1043
00:59:56,200 --> 00:59:58,530
And so that sound is
interspersed with melon.
1044
01:00:03,070 --> 01:00:05,240
RECORDINGS OF MELON
AND STEAK BEING STABBED
1045
01:00:08,860 --> 01:00:11,950
And the sound man took it home
and had it for dinner that night.
1046
01:00:11,950 --> 01:00:16,860
The stabbing sound in Psycho is not
a Hollywood sound effect.
1047
01:00:16,860 --> 01:00:19,070
It is a natural sound effect.
1048
01:00:19,070 --> 01:00:21,110
Which makes it all the more
horrible.
1049
01:00:21,110 --> 01:00:23,950
Like, you could take the combination
of, like, an arrow...
1050
01:00:23,950 --> 01:00:25,490
A literal arrow or an axe hitting
1051
01:00:25,490 --> 01:00:29,200
and you add to that something like,
pipe-in-the-mud kind of "goosh".
1052
01:00:29,200 --> 01:00:32,320
And you add to that some sort of a,
like, a leather rip
1053
01:00:32,320 --> 01:00:37,740
and you could make the
sound designed stab
that would feel horrible.
1054
01:00:37,900 --> 01:00:39,530
Marion turns.
1055
01:00:39,530 --> 01:00:42,740
We have three close ups getting
increasingly tighter
1056
01:00:42,740 --> 01:00:47,030
to the point that now we're looking
at nothing but her open mouth.
1057
01:00:47,030 --> 01:00:50,860
The three quick cuts which makes me
happy to be an editor.
1058
01:00:50,860 --> 01:00:53,280
I've seen some of Saul Bass's
boards.
1059
01:00:53,280 --> 01:00:55,740
And you'll see cut one,
and cut three.
1060
01:00:55,740 --> 01:00:59,360
But the idea of drawing the three
together really feels like something
1061
01:00:59,360 --> 01:01:01,320
that's kind of a joyful discovery
1062
01:01:01,320 --> 01:01:04,490
in feeling your way through things
in the cutting room.
1063
01:01:04,490 --> 01:01:07,610
Hitchcock does the thing
here that he does and The Birds too,
1064
01:01:07,610 --> 01:01:09,740
to show something that's shocking -
1065
01:01:09,740 --> 01:01:11,780
an on axis cut.
1066
01:01:11,780 --> 01:01:14,200
Boom, boom, boom.
1067
01:01:14,200 --> 01:01:15,820
It's a psychological cut.
1068
01:01:15,820 --> 01:01:18,900
People always think it's something
that Hitchcock came up with,
1069
01:01:18,900 --> 01:01:22,860
but I actually always traced it back
to the original Frankenstein
1070
01:01:22,860 --> 01:01:25,360
directed by James Whale, in 1931.
1071
01:01:25,360 --> 01:01:26,950
In a way it was the same effect
1072
01:01:26,950 --> 01:01:31,200
because they were showing you
something so grotesque, something
that you had never seen before,
1073
01:01:31,200 --> 01:01:35,610
people wanted to go to the movie
just to see how shocking it was.
1074
01:01:35,610 --> 01:01:38,570
There is something called an
American cut when you're editing
1075
01:01:38,570 --> 01:01:41,320
which is just like jump-cutting
into a close-up from a wide shot.
1076
01:01:41,320 --> 01:01:42,820
And I know whenever I do
it in a movie
1077
01:01:42,820 --> 01:01:45,490
when I'm working with Sam Raimi,
he is always, like, tortured.
1078
01:01:45,490 --> 01:01:47,280
He's like, "Why do you do those
stupid cuts!"
1079
01:01:47,280 --> 01:01:48,950
I explain, "It's an American cut."
1080
01:01:48,950 --> 01:01:50,860
And he says,
"That's more like a Canadian cut."
1081
01:01:50,860 --> 01:01:54,610
There is something really visceral
about cutting from a wide shot,
1082
01:01:54,610 --> 01:01:55,860
jumping into a close-up.
1083
01:01:57,200 --> 01:02:01,740
Now we have a lower angle that is
not a subjective angle.
1084
01:02:01,740 --> 01:02:04,240
This is not what Marion sees.
1085
01:02:04,240 --> 01:02:07,900
But it's maximised for threat.
1086
01:02:07,900 --> 01:02:10,150
There's a lot of defensive shots
that make it look like
1087
01:02:10,150 --> 01:02:11,570
she's trying to fight him off.
1088
01:02:11,570 --> 01:02:13,070
That makes you
feel that you're there.
1089
01:02:14,490 --> 01:02:16,860
We've jumped the stageline here,
1090
01:02:16,860 --> 01:02:20,610
which is another disorienting thing
- in violence.
1091
01:02:20,610 --> 01:02:22,820
And in love, interestingly.
1092
01:02:22,820 --> 01:02:24,950
It's actually good to cross
the stageline...
1093
01:02:26,030 --> 01:02:29,070
..because it gives
you that subjective sense
1094
01:02:29,070 --> 01:02:30,990
of a kind of a dizzy, delirium.
1095
01:02:33,490 --> 01:02:35,490
You see Norman's hand with
the knife,
1096
01:02:35,490 --> 01:02:38,450
come laterally across and
break the lines.
1097
01:02:38,450 --> 01:02:42,490
It's so great
because it's violating the purity.
1098
01:02:42,490 --> 01:02:44,990
The water is going in the opposite
direction of the knife,
1099
01:02:44,990 --> 01:02:47,320
so there's all these great angles
that are, again,
1100
01:02:47,320 --> 01:02:49,240
like German expressionist cinema
1101
01:02:49,240 --> 01:02:51,950
that Hitchcock had been exposed to
in the early '20s
1102
01:02:51,950 --> 01:02:53,820
when he first started his career.
1103
01:02:55,150 --> 01:02:57,860
This overhead shot - it's like
the whole shot is out of focus.
1104
01:02:57,860 --> 01:02:59,610
And they used it anyway.
1105
01:02:59,610 --> 01:03:02,450
I can imagine sitting in with studio
executives now
1106
01:03:02,450 --> 01:03:05,320
and I'm saying, "Oh, you've got this
one shot that's so out of focus.
1107
01:03:05,320 --> 01:03:07,860
"We really didn't need to
take that shot out of the edit."
1108
01:03:07,860 --> 01:03:10,650
But thank goodness they left it in
because it's such a great shot.
1109
01:03:10,650 --> 01:03:15,490
The knife is already through the
frame before we, the audience,
1110
01:03:15,490 --> 01:03:18,400
are really able to lock on
to what we are looking at.
1111
01:03:18,400 --> 01:03:20,360
Our face gravitates to Marion,
1112
01:03:20,360 --> 01:03:23,530
and then to the negative space
to see where did the knife go.
1113
01:03:23,530 --> 01:03:26,450
They force the audience to fill in
the blank.
1114
01:03:26,450 --> 01:03:28,610
Her right to right-to-left movement
1115
01:03:28,610 --> 01:03:30,280
carries us right to the cut
1116
01:03:30,280 --> 01:03:33,650
and right where her face is,
there's the knife.
1117
01:03:33,650 --> 01:03:36,240
That knife never makes connection
with her
1118
01:03:36,240 --> 01:03:39,650
but in my mind
I see him stabbing her. It's crazy!
1119
01:03:39,650 --> 01:03:42,700
Hitchcock is going in 360 degrees.
1120
01:03:42,700 --> 01:03:45,530
All of these things that you're not
supposed to do in narrative
1121
01:03:45,530 --> 01:03:48,240
storytelling, he's doing to give you
this feeling
1122
01:03:48,240 --> 01:03:49,990
of complete disorientation.
1123
01:03:51,570 --> 01:03:55,990
Every time we cut back to Norman's
form, we're grounded again.
1124
01:03:55,990 --> 01:03:58,530
Back to Norman,
but now we're slightly tighter.
1125
01:03:58,530 --> 01:04:00,240
Cut to Marion, we are tighter.
1126
01:04:00,240 --> 01:04:01,990
Norman, tighter.
1127
01:04:01,990 --> 01:04:03,700
And then, ending -
1128
01:04:03,700 --> 01:04:07,030
intersecting water,
over and over again - to the shot.
1129
01:04:07,030 --> 01:04:09,780
The one shot that convinces me,
as a viewer,
1130
01:04:09,780 --> 01:04:11,740
that Marion has been stabbed.
1131
01:04:13,650 --> 01:04:15,700
The knife never connects with the
skin?
1132
01:04:15,700 --> 01:04:17,700
But what about this shot here?
1133
01:04:17,700 --> 01:04:20,780
I'm telling you, folks,
THAT is penetration.
1134
01:04:20,780 --> 01:04:26,030
Hitchcock got away with showing my
belly button on film.
1135
01:04:26,030 --> 01:04:29,780
In all the beach towel movies,
you know, with Annette Funicello
1136
01:04:29,780 --> 01:04:32,280
they had bikinis
but they had to have them
1137
01:04:32,280 --> 01:04:34,030
up over their belly button.
1138
01:04:34,030 --> 01:04:36,400
He explained to me that...
1139
01:04:36,400 --> 01:04:41,820
He says, "the Paramount
special-effects department made for
me a torso of rubber.
1140
01:04:42,240 --> 01:04:44,570
"He plunged the knife
and blood would spurt out.
1141
01:04:44,570 --> 01:04:46,780
"Oh, it was wonderful.
I didn't use it at all."
1142
01:04:47,860 --> 01:04:49,650
"You didn't use it at all?"
1143
01:04:49,650 --> 01:04:52,780
"No, no.
The knife never touches the body."
1144
01:04:52,780 --> 01:04:55,150
It goes back to Eisenstein
1145
01:04:55,150 --> 01:04:59,570
and the whole idea of editing,
cutting, montage.
1146
01:04:59,570 --> 01:05:01,860
He didn't want a plastic knife
or anything.
1147
01:05:01,860 --> 01:05:03,200
He used the knife.
1148
01:05:03,200 --> 01:05:05,700
He had marks on there like blood.
1149
01:05:05,700 --> 01:05:10,110
And he pressed it against my stomach
and then pulled it out.
1150
01:05:11,610 --> 01:05:14,150
And then, in the film,
they reversed it
1151
01:05:14,150 --> 01:05:15,610
showing it going in.
1152
01:05:17,950 --> 01:05:19,450
Hitchcock, I think,
1153
01:05:19,450 --> 01:05:21,320
it's safe to say spent
an entire career
1154
01:05:21,320 --> 01:05:23,030
thumbing his nose at the censors.
1155
01:05:25,820 --> 01:05:30,280
The last shot of North by Northwest
is a train entering a tunnel.
1156
01:05:30,280 --> 01:05:34,070
Like, a very unsubtle sexual
metaphor.
1157
01:05:34,070 --> 01:05:37,610
And then we pick that up post coitus
in Psycho.
1158
01:05:37,610 --> 01:05:39,360
Wow. That's interesting.
1159
01:05:40,610 --> 01:05:43,320
LAUGHTER
1160
01:05:43,320 --> 01:05:48,650
You know, the production code
administration
still mattered at that time.
1161
01:05:49,280 --> 01:05:54,650
And then in trying to get the movie
approved by the Legion of Decency,
1162
01:05:55,240 --> 01:05:58,400
if either one of those had been a
problem as far as
1163
01:05:58,400 --> 01:06:01,360
the production and distribution of
Psycho,
1164
01:06:01,360 --> 01:06:04,530
it would not have been
the phenomenon that it was.
1165
01:06:04,530 --> 01:06:07,110
There was a little negotiation going
on.
1166
01:06:07,110 --> 01:06:09,200
He said,
"I'll reshoot the beginning.
1167
01:06:09,200 --> 01:06:11,700
"You can come
and watch me shoot it."
1168
01:06:11,700 --> 01:06:13,780
They never showed up.
1169
01:06:13,780 --> 01:06:16,820
All he did was
tell the whole crew,
1170
01:06:16,820 --> 01:06:18,700
"We're just going to send the scene
back.
1171
01:06:18,700 --> 01:06:21,570
"We're not going to cut one frame
from it."
1172
01:06:21,570 --> 01:06:24,030
And he didn't.
He just kept basically telling them
1173
01:06:24,030 --> 01:06:27,610
"You're prudes. And you're actually
horn-dog prudes,
1174
01:06:27,610 --> 01:06:30,780
"because you're seeing
something that isn't there."
1175
01:06:30,780 --> 01:06:32,950
So, everything stayed in the way he
wanted it.
1176
01:06:32,950 --> 01:06:34,070
And he got away with it!
1177
01:06:34,070 --> 01:06:35,240
SHE CHUCKLES
1178
01:06:35,240 --> 01:06:38,610
You contrast Hitchcock making a
disturbing,
1179
01:06:38,610 --> 01:06:43,030
shocking movie that revolves around
sex and violence and a deeply
1180
01:06:43,030 --> 01:06:45,320
disturbed protagonist, with a movie
1181
01:06:45,320 --> 01:06:47,490
that came out the very same year,
1182
01:06:47,490 --> 01:06:51,740
within a few months of it,
like Michael Powell's Peeping Tom.
1183
01:06:51,740 --> 01:06:54,450
That movie a lot of people see as
having
1184
01:06:54,450 --> 01:06:56,990
ruined Michael Powell's career.
1185
01:06:56,990 --> 01:06:59,570
You know, Val Lewton, who these guys
know I'm obsessed with,
1186
01:06:59,570 --> 01:07:04,030
but, you know, he was the master of
"You saw nothing! Ever!"
1187
01:07:04,030 --> 01:07:06,280
There's no cat in Cat People.
1188
01:07:06,280 --> 01:07:08,150
Right. You know? Right, right.
1189
01:07:08,150 --> 01:07:09,860
There's no cat people in Cat People.
1190
01:07:09,860 --> 01:07:12,150
There's shadows.
There's some shadow.
1191
01:07:12,150 --> 01:07:13,860
Every one of his films was,
1192
01:07:13,860 --> 01:07:17,320
the title promised something
that you never actually saw.
1193
01:07:17,320 --> 01:07:19,780
There's no leopard man
in Leopard Man.
1194
01:07:19,780 --> 01:07:23,280
And the most chilling murder in all
of Val Lewton's canon
1195
01:07:23,280 --> 01:07:26,200
takes place on the other side of a
closed door
1196
01:07:26,200 --> 01:07:30,320
from the perspective of
a mother who's hearing her daughter
get slaughtered.
1197
01:07:30,320 --> 01:07:33,820
And you just see the blood seep
in under the crack in the door.
1198
01:07:33,820 --> 01:07:36,570
You never see it.
You never see it at all.
1199
01:07:36,570 --> 01:07:39,860
And that seems to me like the roots
of the shower scene.
1200
01:07:39,860 --> 01:07:42,360
Totally. I would like to throw one
in there...
1201
01:07:42,360 --> 01:07:47,280
OK. One film into the mix which has
one particular mind-blowing scene,
1202
01:07:47,280 --> 01:07:50,280
which I would call horror,
and that's Irreversible.
1203
01:07:50,280 --> 01:07:52,780
Yeah. And here's the thing about
that rape scene.
1204
01:07:52,780 --> 01:07:55,360
It's like, it's...
What is it, like 15 minutes long?
1205
01:07:55,360 --> 01:07:56,570
I think, 10 minutes.
1206
01:07:56,570 --> 01:08:00,280
And they don't really show anything,
there's no nudity,
1207
01:08:00,280 --> 01:08:05,490
there's no nothing.
It's just one shot that lingers.
1208
01:08:05,530 --> 01:08:07,900
Don't make it...
1209
01:08:07,900 --> 01:08:11,030
The rape scene in Irreversible and
the shower scene in Psycho
1210
01:08:11,030 --> 01:08:12,950
are exact inverses.
1211
01:08:12,950 --> 01:08:18,070
The shower scene is incredibly close
and frenetic. Yeah.
1212
01:08:18,070 --> 01:08:23,360
And the rape scene in Irreversible
is incredibly distant and still.
1213
01:08:23,570 --> 01:08:26,110
The shots of the mother are out of
focus,
1214
01:08:26,110 --> 01:08:28,990
the focus is on the water, not the
mother.
1215
01:08:28,990 --> 01:08:33,200
You could argue that this is
Marion's subjective point of view,
1216
01:08:33,200 --> 01:08:37,450
that she doesn't see who it is
clearly because she's so confused.
1217
01:08:38,860 --> 01:08:40,700
Very quick cutting here.
1218
01:08:40,700 --> 01:08:46,110
On the average one shot
every 3/4 of a second, 18 frames.
1219
01:08:46,360 --> 01:08:51,320
And the audience in 1960 would be
having,
1220
01:08:51,320 --> 01:08:52,990
they would be seeing something
1221
01:08:52,990 --> 01:08:55,700
in a way that they were not used to
seeing it.
1222
01:08:55,700 --> 01:08:59,070
I was always surprised that they got
away with this.
1223
01:08:59,070 --> 01:09:01,860
Just the amount of, like, naked
breast that they were able to show.
1224
01:09:01,860 --> 01:09:03,740
It had to be done
impressionistically.
1225
01:09:05,450 --> 01:09:08,610
So, it was done with little pieces
of film.
1226
01:09:08,610 --> 01:09:14,070
The head, the feet, the hand,
parts of the torso.
1227
01:09:14,780 --> 01:09:17,070
The shot of her feet is the very
first cut of blood
1228
01:09:17,070 --> 01:09:19,650
that we've had in this entire piece.
1229
01:09:19,650 --> 01:09:24,070
The blood starts to spatter
into the water rather than flow.
1230
01:09:24,070 --> 01:09:27,450
You know, you see spots hitting
like a dark rain.
1231
01:09:27,450 --> 01:09:31,450
And then it just is absorbed by the
water and it spreads out in a very
1232
01:09:31,450 --> 01:09:34,490
kind of haunting, a haunting way.
1233
01:09:34,490 --> 01:09:36,320
My mom loves to tell me that,
1234
01:09:36,320 --> 01:09:38,860
"Oh, you know that the blood going
down the drain in Psycho
1235
01:09:38,860 --> 01:09:41,860
"is chocolate..." Chocolate syrup.
Chocolate syrup, right?
1236
01:09:41,860 --> 01:09:45,610
So, is anyone in this room going to
tell us that that's
not actually chocolate syrup?
1237
01:09:45,610 --> 01:09:47,570
They had a can of Hershey's syrup,
1238
01:09:47,570 --> 01:09:50,780
which is watered-down and
that's what they used for blood.
1239
01:09:50,780 --> 01:09:54,150
But they had to dribble it around
me, and on me.
1240
01:09:54,150 --> 01:09:57,280
I deliberately made the film
in black and white
1241
01:09:57,280 --> 01:10:00,860
because I knew that
if it had been in colour,
1242
01:10:00,860 --> 01:10:03,820
the draining away of blood
would've been too repulsive.
1243
01:10:03,820 --> 01:10:04,860
SHOWER RUNS
1244
01:10:07,030 --> 01:10:10,240
The knife comes through and even
though it's just swinging through
1245
01:10:10,240 --> 01:10:11,990
frame, my brain is telling me
1246
01:10:11,990 --> 01:10:15,070
she's just gotten stabbed squarely
in the back.
1247
01:10:15,070 --> 01:10:20,490
And then to the sneaky cut that
Tomasini has put into the film,
1248
01:10:21,610 --> 01:10:24,780
starting here with her hand
out of focus at the front,
1249
01:10:24,780 --> 01:10:28,360
it's going towards the wall,
your eyes are super confused here
1250
01:10:28,360 --> 01:10:32,530
because you're looking at a negative
space and just the wall tile.
1251
01:10:32,530 --> 01:10:37,650
Her hand starts to come in
and instantly there's a jump cut.
1252
01:10:37,900 --> 01:10:42,700
If you watch that at full speed it
just looks like...bam!
1253
01:10:42,700 --> 01:10:46,610
It ends up making it feel like she's
slamming against the wall.
1254
01:10:46,610 --> 01:10:51,450
His exit is also tremendous, that
quick move, without looking back.
1255
01:10:51,450 --> 01:10:54,320
He doesn't even stand there to make
sure she's dead. He leaves.
1256
01:10:54,320 --> 01:10:57,610
It's almost like a time cut,
where he's already out the door.
1257
01:10:57,610 --> 01:11:00,780
And I think part of it is they were
really trying to hide,
1258
01:11:00,780 --> 01:11:03,320
you know, who it was and they were
tired of showing that lame
1259
01:11:03,320 --> 01:11:05,240
shot where his head
looked like a mushroom.
1260
01:11:05,240 --> 01:11:08,570
The shot of the hand, it looks
like a starfish against the wall.
1261
01:11:08,570 --> 01:11:10,200
It's just a hand.
1262
01:11:10,200 --> 01:11:13,030
The least important part of her body
right now after she's been
1263
01:11:13,030 --> 01:11:14,450
hacked to death.
1264
01:11:14,450 --> 01:11:18,950
And you see the life ebbing
out of her body through her hand.
1265
01:11:18,950 --> 01:11:21,900
So the scene becomes all about her
hands, if you watch it.
1266
01:11:21,900 --> 01:11:27,360
Hand. And then hand.
And you watch it go.
1267
01:11:27,610 --> 01:11:30,320
Trying to grab onto something.
Hand going down the wall.
1268
01:11:30,320 --> 01:11:33,450
She turns around, where is her hand?
That's the big question.
1269
01:11:33,450 --> 01:11:36,110
And if you actually watch
the opening scene of Jurassic Park
1270
01:11:36,110 --> 01:11:39,280
it's the same thing. It doesn't
matter, that guy that got eaten
1271
01:11:39,280 --> 01:11:41,950
by the velociraptor,
you barely see his face.
1272
01:11:41,950 --> 01:11:46,240
But what's important is he's
grabbing on to his hand.
1273
01:11:46,240 --> 01:11:47,860
Hand reaches out.
1274
01:11:47,860 --> 01:11:49,650
Hand's touching the thing.
1275
01:11:49,650 --> 01:11:53,240
And I think that's part of the way
that he kind of is able to
1276
01:11:53,240 --> 01:11:58,110
bring the audience into her death,
rather than just watching her die.
1277
01:11:58,110 --> 01:12:02,320
Now she's begging for her life,
trying to hold herself up.
1278
01:12:02,320 --> 01:12:07,030
The way that her hair leaves a trail
behind her, it follows her down.
1279
01:12:07,030 --> 01:12:12,070
I mean, it's an incredibly haunting
image. And it's a wall.
1280
01:12:12,070 --> 01:12:16,240
You know, you had depth before and
she's just flat against nothingness.
1281
01:12:16,240 --> 01:12:17,860
Nobody did this before.
1282
01:12:19,950 --> 01:12:22,860
Deaths were quick in movies
1283
01:12:22,860 --> 01:12:26,650
and although actors loved to make
the most of them...
1284
01:12:26,650 --> 01:12:30,240
This is so obviously
directed in such a way.
1285
01:12:30,240 --> 01:12:33,650
You know, in Torn Curtain is this
endless scene of trying to
1286
01:12:33,650 --> 01:12:36,530
kill someone.
It's not bloody but it's graphic.
1287
01:12:36,530 --> 01:12:41,400
Even Frenzy is fairly graphic
compared to Psycho.
1288
01:12:41,400 --> 01:12:43,820
But Psycho has
the effect of being graphic,
1289
01:12:43,820 --> 01:12:46,200
much like Texas Chainsaw Massacre
later was.
1290
01:12:47,820 --> 01:12:51,820
I love how slow it is, how
much time it takes.
1291
01:12:51,820 --> 01:12:54,570
There's all this negative
space on the left-hand side.
1292
01:12:54,570 --> 01:12:56,700
This is absolutely intentional.
1293
01:12:56,700 --> 01:13:00,280
Hitchcock is mirroring the shot
at the beginning of the sequence
1294
01:13:00,280 --> 01:13:04,070
where Marion is showering in exactly
the right-hand side of the frame.
1295
01:13:04,070 --> 01:13:07,820
It is the book end that makes
the shower scene.
1296
01:13:07,820 --> 01:13:10,780
My favourite cut is the hand
coming around onto the curtain
1297
01:13:10,780 --> 01:13:14,400
and it's all of a sudden
from the staccato rhythms you end up
1298
01:13:14,400 --> 01:13:17,950
with this really fluid shot that
has a sort of almost,
1299
01:13:17,950 --> 01:13:20,400
kind of poetic
and sad quality to it.
1300
01:13:20,400 --> 01:13:22,860
She's dying
and there's a softness to it
1301
01:13:22,860 --> 01:13:26,320
and it makes it just
instantly emotional.
1302
01:13:26,320 --> 01:13:29,110
It's really, really a great cut.
1303
01:13:29,110 --> 01:13:31,650
It's one of the best cuts
I've ever seen.
1304
01:13:31,650 --> 01:13:36,740
You can just barely see the outline
of my breast in that shot.
1305
01:13:36,740 --> 01:13:41,530
That's my hand. And you can tell the
difference on my knuckles, there.
1306
01:13:41,530 --> 01:13:44,650
The ring finger is disfigured a bit.
1307
01:13:44,650 --> 01:13:49,650
The nail is darker than
a regular fingernail.
1308
01:13:49,650 --> 01:13:52,780
When I was three years old
I reached down to
1309
01:13:52,780 --> 01:13:57,570
help my brother on a push lawnmower
and - pssht! - cut it off.
1310
01:14:00,400 --> 01:14:05,030
This is the shot that
Cecil B DeMille actually did first
1311
01:14:05,030 --> 01:14:07,030
in The Ten Commandments
1312
01:14:07,030 --> 01:14:10,030
where Sally Lung
pulls down on the curtain.
1313
01:14:13,650 --> 01:14:16,900
This shot, the down shot,
she just feels so vulnerable,
1314
01:14:16,900 --> 01:14:19,450
like a dying animal.
1315
01:14:19,450 --> 01:14:23,070
Again, such a bold shot
because so much nudity is revealed.
1316
01:14:23,070 --> 01:14:28,240
There is a shot in the shower scene
that was never used,
1317
01:14:28,240 --> 01:14:32,150
it was one of the most heartbreaking
shots I've ever seen.
1318
01:14:32,150 --> 01:14:35,650
Anne Heche, she was definitely
willing to do stuff.
1319
01:14:35,650 --> 01:14:38,490
That one shot at the end where
she's slumped over,
1320
01:14:38,490 --> 01:14:41,950
that was the shot that Hitchcock
could not use.
1321
01:14:41,950 --> 01:14:43,950
But it was storyboarded.
1322
01:14:43,950 --> 01:14:46,450
There was objections to using that
1323
01:14:46,450 --> 01:14:50,740
and perhaps Hitch felt it wasn't
really necessary anyway.
1324
01:14:50,740 --> 01:14:54,490
Then we return to the
motif of the shower head,
1325
01:14:54,490 --> 01:14:58,650
the impassive eye which has just
watched this horrible thing happen.
1326
01:14:58,650 --> 01:15:01,860
This shot of the shower head
at the beginning of the scene was
1327
01:15:01,860 --> 01:15:05,360
one of joy, she was going to get
a new start and now that same
1328
01:15:05,360 --> 01:15:10,820
water is washing away the evidence
of her existence and the murder.
1329
01:15:11,070 --> 01:15:14,400
The water keeps running
and the blood flows
1330
01:15:14,400 --> 01:15:16,490
but the heart is stopping.
1331
01:15:16,490 --> 01:15:21,610
It's just such an amazing image to
see her life flowing down the drain.
1332
01:15:21,610 --> 01:15:23,280
What a metaphor that is.
1333
01:15:25,780 --> 01:15:27,990
And it switches to the eye, right?
1334
01:15:30,700 --> 01:15:32,610
Oh, come on.
1335
01:15:33,700 --> 01:15:36,070
That's so good.
1336
01:15:36,070 --> 01:15:38,820
I wonder how long this shot is,
how long she had to hold.
1337
01:15:38,820 --> 01:15:40,400
To get her eye to stay open?
1338
01:15:40,400 --> 01:15:43,200
Just to make sure her eye didn't
twitch even a tiny bit.
1339
01:15:44,490 --> 01:15:47,110
Oh, my God, that's incredible.
1340
01:15:47,110 --> 01:15:49,450
The pointless
spiralling of the universe
1341
01:15:49,450 --> 01:15:51,820
and the way that everything
is ultimately
1342
01:15:51,820 --> 01:15:56,780
drawn down the plughole towards
oblivion, towards meaningless death.
1343
01:15:56,780 --> 01:15:59,280
I think to some extent we are
looking at Hitchcock's
1344
01:15:59,280 --> 01:16:01,490
fears as well as his obsessions.
1345
01:16:03,490 --> 01:16:06,530
You see it in Barton Fink,
you see it in so many movies
1346
01:16:06,530 --> 01:16:08,820
and you're like,
"Why is he going inside the drain?
1347
01:16:08,820 --> 01:16:10,900
"Are we going to go inside?"
1348
01:16:12,240 --> 01:16:17,200
That is the moment of Psycho where
everything changes.
1349
01:16:17,200 --> 01:16:22,530
This was made by an auteur
film-maker
1350
01:16:22,570 --> 01:16:25,530
and that is a very personal stamp.
1351
01:16:26,990 --> 01:16:29,610
It's a rupture in the movie
1352
01:16:29,610 --> 01:16:33,950
but the movie never achieves this
kind of poetry again and you begin
1353
01:16:33,950 --> 01:16:39,320
to realise that, "Oh, this was what
really mattered most to Hitchcock."
1354
01:16:39,570 --> 01:16:43,530
Tomasini has done a clockwise
turn optically which then,
1355
01:16:43,530 --> 01:16:48,820
right about here, hooks back up
to the 24-frame footage.
1356
01:16:51,070 --> 01:16:54,240
I'm just amazed
they were able to get that clean.
1357
01:16:54,240 --> 01:16:57,240
Usually when you do an optical it's
pretty grainy but it looks
1358
01:16:57,240 --> 01:16:59,200
so smooth and so beautiful.
1359
01:16:59,200 --> 01:17:02,150
It's surprising and seamless where
they go from live action,
1360
01:17:02,150 --> 01:17:05,320
it's like one of the greatest
opticals in the history of movies.
1361
01:17:05,320 --> 01:17:08,740
It's also kind of like what the
title sequence is doing
1362
01:17:08,740 --> 01:17:11,780
in Vertigo, it's a
theme that runs through this film
1363
01:17:11,780 --> 01:17:14,820
and then later on, of course. It's
not style just for style's sake,
1364
01:17:14,820 --> 01:17:16,530
it's got content.
1365
01:17:16,530 --> 01:17:21,950
The cameras were huge
and very difficult to manipulate.
1366
01:17:22,280 --> 01:17:27,360
You can actually see pictures
of Hitchcock behind a Mitchell
1367
01:17:27,360 --> 01:17:30,740
and you get a sense of what it
was like riding on that
1368
01:17:30,740 --> 01:17:34,780
carriage behind that huge
locomotive of a camera.
1369
01:17:34,780 --> 01:17:39,820
Whereas today it's a snap,
you just do it like Gus Van Sant.
1370
01:17:39,820 --> 01:17:42,320
In the remake
he did it all live action.
1371
01:17:48,650 --> 01:17:53,900
The pull-back from her eye was
a whole robotic camera move.
1372
01:17:53,900 --> 01:17:59,070
I seriously followed the original
film shot by shot.
1373
01:17:59,070 --> 01:18:04,530
I was able to cut it exactly
like the original, and we watched it
1374
01:18:05,030 --> 01:18:08,400
and it was weird and it didn't work.
1375
01:18:08,400 --> 01:18:13,450
I said, "Well, Gus, come over, watch
the scene. I have a few reservations
1376
01:18:13,450 --> 01:18:15,570
"of how it's playing right now
1377
01:18:15,570 --> 01:18:18,360
"and it doesn't
feel like the shower scene yet."
1378
01:18:18,360 --> 01:18:23,820
We went in and tried to make it
a little more Gus Van Sant-y.
1379
01:18:24,070 --> 01:18:28,200
To duplicate something as iconic
as the shower scene,
1380
01:18:28,200 --> 01:18:32,450
I really think it wasn't
going to work.
1381
01:18:32,450 --> 01:18:34,360
And it just didn't.
1382
01:18:35,900 --> 01:18:39,700
I always loved the placement of
those drops of water cos
1383
01:18:39,700 --> 01:18:42,450
they're like tears.
1384
01:18:42,450 --> 01:18:45,700
Right at the end it was a little
flicker in her eye,
1385
01:18:45,700 --> 01:18:48,820
a little highlight in her eye.
1386
01:18:48,820 --> 01:18:51,360
And you can see her eye move.
1387
01:18:51,360 --> 01:18:55,070
There's a tight,
slight flick of the eye, there.
1388
01:18:56,860 --> 01:19:02,320
Hitchcock almost fetishistically
lingers in this postmortem moment.
1389
01:19:02,990 --> 01:19:06,990
This is what happens after you die
and no-one turns off the water.
1390
01:19:06,990 --> 01:19:10,820
Hitch had a little
snap of the finger to let Janet know
1391
01:19:10,820 --> 01:19:15,030
when the camera had past
and was going to pan into the room.
1392
01:19:15,030 --> 01:19:17,150
It took a lot of takes.
1393
01:19:17,150 --> 01:19:22,570
I can feel the moleskin pulling
away from my top part and so I could
1394
01:19:24,570 --> 01:19:28,650
feel this, it was just of going...
SHE SQUEAKS
1395
01:19:28,650 --> 01:19:32,400
..and I thought, "You know what?
1396
01:19:32,400 --> 01:19:36,820
"I don't want to do this damn thing
again. I really don't want to."
1397
01:19:36,820 --> 01:19:40,320
And there are all the guys
on the scaffolding and I said,
1398
01:19:40,320 --> 01:19:44,200
"I'm not going to be modest.
Let 'em look."
1399
01:19:45,990 --> 01:19:48,450
Why would you cut to the
shower there?
1400
01:19:48,450 --> 01:19:51,650
I don't think the reason has
anything to do with artistic
1401
01:19:51,650 --> 01:19:55,610
decision. It's the solution to some
problem that he had.
1402
01:19:55,610 --> 01:19:57,570
After my grandfather filmed Psycho
1403
01:19:57,570 --> 01:19:59,700
and it had been shown to all
the executives,
1404
01:19:59,700 --> 01:20:02,110
the last person
he showed it to was my grandmother
1405
01:20:02,110 --> 01:20:04,320
and they were sitting
in the screening screen,
1406
01:20:04,320 --> 01:20:06,860
and he's panning out and she looks
at my grandfather and says,
1407
01:20:06,860 --> 01:20:08,570
"Hitch, you can't release this."
1408
01:20:08,570 --> 01:20:11,740
And he said, "Why not?" She goes,
"Janet Leigh took a breath."
1409
01:20:11,740 --> 01:20:13,280
They couldn't reshoot it.
1410
01:20:13,280 --> 01:20:15,780
Janet was gone,
they didn't have the budget,
1411
01:20:15,780 --> 01:20:20,610
so they simply cut back to the
shower head...spewing water.
1412
01:20:22,950 --> 01:20:27,400
And then that cynical camera move.
1413
01:20:27,400 --> 01:20:30,740
She made her moral decision
and this is what it got her.
1414
01:20:32,280 --> 01:20:35,650
There's an image of the uncaring
universe, if you want one.
1415
01:20:35,650 --> 01:20:38,820
You see the headline there -
"OKAY" - it is not OK.
1416
01:20:38,820 --> 01:20:40,320
Nothing is OK.
1417
01:20:40,320 --> 01:20:44,860
He always comes back to
his MacGuffin which is the $40,000.
1418
01:20:44,860 --> 01:20:50,200
He throws the newspaper into the
quagmire, it goes down with the car.
1419
01:20:50,700 --> 01:20:54,070
And the audience says,
"That's the money
1420
01:20:54,070 --> 01:20:56,990
"that we thought was
important in this story,
1421
01:20:56,990 --> 01:20:58,820
"it's totally unimportant."
1422
01:20:58,820 --> 01:21:01,570
This is the thing in the movie that
always tortured me.
1423
01:21:01,570 --> 01:21:04,860
The greatest scene in movie history
ends on a sour note with
1424
01:21:04,860 --> 01:21:08,610
a bad ADR line. That has been
the doom of so many movies.
1425
01:21:15,400 --> 01:21:16,860
Here comes Norman.
1426
01:21:16,860 --> 01:21:20,200
Just wondering what happened and oh,
my, he can't believe it.
1427
01:21:20,200 --> 01:21:23,240
Another murder at the motel.
How did that happen?
1428
01:21:24,650 --> 01:21:28,570
It's an extraordinary aftermath,
it's a crucial piece
1429
01:21:28,570 --> 01:21:33,530
of the film-making to sort of let
the consequence of it actually land.
1430
01:21:33,530 --> 01:21:36,820
It's not about getting the blood
stains out of the tub
1431
01:21:36,820 --> 01:21:42,280
it's about this incredibly
laborious process
1432
01:21:42,950 --> 01:21:48,400
that this unbearably damaged soul
needs to work through.
1433
01:21:50,740 --> 01:21:55,650
It demands not just that we
watch as we've watched the murder
1434
01:21:55,650 --> 01:22:01,110
of Marion Crane, we're also voyeurs
to the horror of Norman's world.
1435
01:22:02,610 --> 01:22:07,820
For me, the clean up represents
Alfred Hitchcock's sense
1436
01:22:07,950 --> 01:22:13,360
of orderliness, sense of "I wasn't
sexually aroused by this woman,
1437
01:22:13,610 --> 01:22:18,650
"and I'm just going to pretend
that this unhappy episode just
1438
01:22:18,650 --> 01:22:20,610
"didn't even occur."
1439
01:22:20,610 --> 01:22:25,990
I think that cleaning always
represents sexual guilt.
1440
01:22:26,740 --> 01:22:30,740
You care about this guy. And I know
it sounds crazy but you do.
1441
01:22:30,740 --> 01:22:34,150
You want to know what's going to
happen to him, you want to know
1442
01:22:34,150 --> 01:22:38,200
is he going to be free of this or is
it going to consume him?
1443
01:22:38,200 --> 01:22:41,320
The fact that he is able to
get you to care is
1444
01:22:41,320 --> 01:22:43,860
one of the miracles of the movie.
1445
01:22:45,860 --> 01:22:51,240
Psycho obviously has
influence on a whole host of movies.
1446
01:22:51,530 --> 01:22:54,650
Psycho is the mother
of the slasher genre.
1447
01:22:54,650 --> 01:22:58,610
The shower scene is really the first
fully sexualised on-screen
1448
01:22:58,610 --> 01:23:00,200
knife attack.
1449
01:23:00,200 --> 01:23:03,360
You have Mario Bava
in Italy and he's taking
1450
01:23:03,360 --> 01:23:07,150
the visuals of the Psycho scene
and in Italy in the '60s
1451
01:23:07,150 --> 01:23:10,740
they didn't have the same censorship
laws that we had in America.
1452
01:23:10,740 --> 01:23:14,320
Bava takes the Hitchcock style and
really creates
1453
01:23:14,320 --> 01:23:16,860
the Italian giallo film.
1454
01:23:16,860 --> 01:23:20,530
Dario Argento burst onto the scene
with Bird Of The Crystal Plumage,
1455
01:23:20,530 --> 01:23:24,030
determined to present
murder as a form of fine art,
1456
01:23:24,030 --> 01:23:26,110
consistently sexualising
1457
01:23:26,110 --> 01:23:29,530
and fetishises the killings and
tries to present them
1458
01:23:29,530 --> 01:23:32,530
as something beautiful,
cathartic and almost orgasmic,
1459
01:23:32,530 --> 01:23:35,900
which happens again
and again in his work.
1460
01:23:35,900 --> 01:23:37,950
Then, of course,
1461
01:23:37,950 --> 01:23:40,650
the American films started
imitating the Italian films
1462
01:23:40,650 --> 01:23:43,110
and you get the wave of slasher
films in the '80s,
1463
01:23:43,110 --> 01:23:45,490
kicking off with
John Carpenter's Halloween.
1464
01:23:45,490 --> 01:23:49,200
Psycho might have also really
started the rather negative
1465
01:23:49,200 --> 01:23:52,360
trend of victims undressing
before they're butchered, which is
1466
01:23:52,360 --> 01:23:56,240
something that haunted slasher
cinema throughout the '70s.
1467
01:23:56,240 --> 01:24:01,240
Martin Scorsese talks about the
construction of the fight
1468
01:24:01,240 --> 01:24:04,740
in Raging Bull
with Sugar Ray Robinson.
1469
01:24:04,740 --> 01:24:07,490
I literally got a shot-by-shot
breakdown of the shower
1470
01:24:07,490 --> 01:24:11,200
scene in Psycho and laid out my
original storyboards for this one
1471
01:24:11,200 --> 01:24:14,700
sequence, shot-by-shot,
and shot it in that order.
1472
01:24:16,990 --> 01:24:20,820
I don't believe film influences
the culture in this way any more.
1473
01:24:20,820 --> 01:24:25,240
When a moment of violence
is so suggestive, so new,
1474
01:24:25,240 --> 01:24:28,030
so unlike anything we've
seen that it just becomes
1475
01:24:28,030 --> 01:24:30,200
part of the cultural conversation,
1476
01:24:30,200 --> 01:24:32,990
I think that's what happened
with the shower scene.
1477
01:25:33,570 --> 01:25:38,030
I'm on this TV show called
Scream Queens.
1478
01:25:38,030 --> 01:25:41,820
I've been asked to get in the shower
and take pictures before,
1479
01:25:41,820 --> 01:25:47,240
I've been asked to recreate it
and I've said no every time
1480
01:25:47,780 --> 01:25:50,610
because of course this
is my mother's legacy
1481
01:25:50,610 --> 01:25:55,570
and it is not mine to play in,
it's her sandbox.
1482
01:25:55,570 --> 01:25:59,360
But my mother's been gone now
over ten years
1483
01:25:59,360 --> 01:26:04,280
and this is a great show and it was
1484
01:26:04,280 --> 01:26:08,450
a really respectful, funny homage.
1485
01:26:10,400 --> 01:26:14,200
And so the red devil comes along,
he rips open the curtain -
1486
01:26:14,200 --> 01:26:16,780
but I'm not there.
1487
01:26:16,780 --> 01:26:22,240
And that second I come from behind
the bathroom door, attack him,
1488
01:26:22,450 --> 01:26:24,570
and right before,
I do I look at him and go,
1489
01:26:24,570 --> 01:26:27,400
"I saw that movie, like, 50 times."
1490
01:26:36,400 --> 01:26:41,650
I went back to Chicago,
shot the September 1960 cover.
1491
01:26:43,240 --> 01:26:47,530
I worked at the Playboy Club
until probably October that year.
1492
01:26:47,530 --> 01:26:52,990
I was one of the original Bunnies
there. I never mentioned Psycho.
1493
01:26:53,570 --> 01:26:59,030
The shot I didn't like was
when Tony Perkins pulls me
1494
01:27:00,240 --> 01:27:04,150
out of the tub and wraps me
in the shower curtain.
1495
01:27:04,150 --> 01:27:07,900
He picks me up to carry me
out to the trunk, he gets me,
1496
01:27:07,900 --> 01:27:11,990
I don't know, about six, nine
inches off the floor and drops me
1497
01:27:11,990 --> 01:27:15,990
back down because he wasn't in a
position to pick up a dead weight.
1498
01:27:15,990 --> 01:27:18,990
He picks me up,
puts me on his knees and then...
1499
01:27:20,200 --> 01:27:22,320
And that's me.
1500
01:27:22,320 --> 01:27:25,650
And that's out to the car
and that's the end of me.
1501
01:27:48,570 --> 01:27:52,530
CHAIR CREAKS
128314
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