Norman Bates: I think I must have one of those faces you can’t help believing.
Psycho (1968)
Table of Contents
Why Psycho?
It has been a while since I have reviewed a movie for this blog. Movies are one of those media formats that I have a hard time sitting down and watching, however much I want to do so. There is also the problem of choice paralysis, I don’t know where to start. When people ask me what kind of movies I like I can point to a few favourites but I don’t have a particular (sub)-genre I am into, I just haven’t watched enough movies to have a defined taste.
After a recent phone conversation I ended up browsing Letterboxd and came upon a popular list of movies, more specifically fcbarcelona’s Movies everyone should watch at least once during their lifetime which is a list of 800 movies. I thought to myself that this is a perfect solution to my choice paralysis problem. I’ll just start at the top of the list and keep watching.
And that is what brings us to Psycho. It happens to be the first movie on the list so it is the first I watched. I am dubbing this new endeavour CineCat because it is more fun when it is a Project with a Name – the goal of this project is to watch the movies on this list and review them here. I don’t know how long I’ll keep going but now that I have this list, I can keep it pushing without losing ground to choice paralysis.
This is my first time watching Psycho and I believe it is also my first time watching a movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock. I am less certain on that latter bit as I may have watched one his movies in the past and not remembered it.
Let’s get into it.
The Movie
Psycho is an American thriller/horror film produced & directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The movie which came out in 1960 is based on a novel of the same name by Robert Bloch which came out in 1959.
Music
Psycho‘s opening credits immediately grabbed my attention. The main title song of the score plays in its entirety during a visually glitchy opening credits scene. The song itself is all strings, the composer Bernard Herrmann using the lower music budget as an opportunity to write for a string orchestra rather than a full symphonic ensemble.
I love string instruments; I cannot get enough of violin, viola, cello, and contra bass concertos. I listen to a large amount of classical music while I read books and a non-trivial amount of it is string concertos (alongside piano concertos). For example, Schubert’s The Last Four Quartets as performed by Quartetto Italiano is a personal favourite.
One of the aspects of string instruments that I love is that they can be used to make music that is filled with drama, tension and that is what Psycho‘s score does. After the opening credits, the movie strategically uses slight variations of parts of the score during various key scenes of the movie to increase the amount of tension and that always kept me interested and on a knife’s edge. This musical accompaniment is used sparingly and deftly avoids the problem that some movies have of overusing “dramatic” music to apply a certain emotional overtone to a scene.
Acting Performances
The standout performance to me by far was Anthony Perkins’ performance as Norman Bates. Especially the way he emotes in scenes, it is great. As for the the other performances in the movie, I thought they were fine but nothing remarkable. This section of the review is mostly an excuse for me to share another shot of Anthony Perkins making a very good face.
Cinematography
The most memorable aspect of the cinematography in Psycho was the use of the above pictured overhead camera angle. The shot was used twice in the movie, both times to great effect. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie use a overhead angle the way this movie did.
Concluding Thoughts
I had a good time watching Psycho, I enjoyed the thriller aspects of the movie and the score did a great job of heightening the tension at the right moments. I didn’t quite figure out the twist until the last quarter of the movie when it started to become quite obvious. The movie did a great job of using various cinematographic tricks to hide the twist from the viewer.
Overall, a great start to this Project Cinecat, I am looking forward to watching more movies and reviewing them. Since I am relatively inexperienced reviewing movies, constructive feedback is welcome. I am still figuring out the format and style of these movie reviews and one of the side-goals of this project is to also improve my critical understanding of movies.
That’s all from me, see y’all in the next one.
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