Psycho
With Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin.
US, 1960, 35mm, black & white, 109 min.
Phoenix, $40,000, car lot, traffic cop, Bates Motel, taxidermy, keyhole, shower, knife: every cinephile has committed these details to memory, with the composite whole long since contaminating the broader cultural imagination. Filmed in thirty days using Hitchcock’s television crew (along with indelible contributions from composer Bernard Herrmann and title designer Saul Bass), the densely pathological film, arguably Hitchcock’s most complete manipulation of point-of-view, has provided endless fodder for film theorists. With its profit-sharing contracts, incendiary content and shocking narrative reversals, Psycho slammed the door on Hollywood’s classical studio era. The shower scene gave rise to entire film genres, but Hitchcock’s original remains the gold standard for film’s visceral effect. Of the film’s many interpretations, perhaps none remains as unsettling as the director’s own: “To me it’s a fun picture.”
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
Vertigo
To Catch a Thief
The Trouble with Harry
The Paradine Case
Stage Fright
Rebecca
Notorious
Rear Window
Dial M for Murder
Lifeboat
Saboteur
Murder!
Family Plot
Under Capricorn
The Man Who Knew Too Much
Spellbound
Strangers on a Train
Torn Curtain
Suspicion
Shadow of a Doubt
