Psycho (1960)
Psycho opens with an establishing shot of a city which is then discovered with an exact date and time.
The camera pans across sky scrapers filling the sky, it then settles at random on some windows on a high story hotel building, this random selection of the building and windows creates some normality for the audience, it also introduces them to the idea that it could be any one of their lives at a point of focus. The camera pauses before it begins to enter a window again at random, as though it is hesitant as whether to enter. It goes through the window, taking the audience in and engaging them.
Now that the audience is in the room, they are introduced the femme fatale Marion and her lover Sam. Various shots of Marion's reflection can be seen in different mirrors, this creates voyeuristic shots. It introduces the audience to Marion's cheeky personality. She is wearing a white costume which suggests maybe she is innocent and pure. Her underwear then later changes to black when she is on the bed (a feature of impurity) with the money and her suitcase being packed which is a clue to the theme of the film. The colour change of underwear suggests a change of morality and the idea that she is a good girl gone bad.
Marion's get away with the money consists of an un-glamourous mise-en-scene of wet roads and lights. The lights could represent Marion reflecting back on what she has done.
...Marion's cheeky personality.....hardly cheeky. She is anxious, desperate, clingy, she wants to marry her lover. She wants more that short lunchtime stands and note he is avoiding commitment and keeps going on about paying his wife alimony/maintenance etc.
ReplyDelete.....Her underwear then later changes to black when she is on the bed (a feature of impurity) with the money and her suitcase being packed which is a clue to the theme of the film..... This is confusing Libby. When Marion has stolen the money there are shots of her packing her bag making ready her escape, in these shots she is wearing black underwear. This explicit contrast in costume connotes Marion's fall from grace, her descent into crime. She has lost her moral balance.
Overall a very thin analysis and reflecting a minimal understanding of the way Hitchcock untilises genre in the clips you discuss.