In the first 45 minutes of the film, Hitchcock told us an old-fashioned story: the heroine is eager to get married, but has no money to get married, and it happens that a huge sum of money comes to her "god of wealth". Feeling impulsive, she went to her boyfriend with a huge sum of money. Mary, who is young and beautiful and in a miserable situation, stole money involuntarily for love. Although this is illegal, the audience sympathizes with her motive. Hitchcock has always narrated the story from the perspective of Marion. The audience and her experienced the false alarm caused by the police tracking, and the anger in the owner's imagination made the audience feel her sadness and pain. She didn't steal money because she was greedy for money. She would realize that the money did not bring her decent happiness. As long as the money was returned before work on Monday, she was still a decent person. People have seven emotions and six desires, which one can never fail? At this point, the audience has completely agreed with her.
From the beginning, Norman gave a simple and honest impression. His love for his mother and his sincerity in dealing with others infected her, especially his pitfalls and silly comments that finally strengthened Marion's determination to repent. She registered under a false name, but at this time she revealed her real surname and place name; she settled the accounts and determined to make up for the stolen money with deposits. Then she started to take a bath. The bathroom was brightly lit, with white tiles, and the bathtub was set against the glittering female carcass, as if she could see through her soul. The clear bath water washed away the original sin of the person, purified the soul of the person, and the emotions of the audience. Also sublimated...
Up to this point, the audience has always seen a familiar story. It is not difficult for them to imagine the plot of Marion's timely refund, repeated setbacks, and finally tied up with Sam... However, the audience was completely wrong. A sharp blade pierced into the screen suddenly, and the audience screamed at the sudden killing. The audience has agreed with Marion, assassination of her is equivalent to assassination of the audience, this kind of murder is even more frightening. The sudden death of the identification object also makes the audience fall into the abyss, and the suspended heart is floating and unaccounted for. When they were shocked, they gradually remembered that Norman was worthy of sympathy. Isn't it? He meekly served the mad mother and sacrificed everything personally. Marion's appearance made her mother full of jealousy, for fear of taking her son's heart away. Norman peeped through the small holes of women's changing clothes. This immoral behavior was also forgiven by the audience: it is normal for a young man living a Puritan life to vent his long-repressed sexual desire in this way. The mother kills Marion to keep her son, Norman is forced to cover up the crime for his mother. The audience has already agreed with Norman at this time, wishing him to clean up quickly.
Ironically, the huge sum of money for which Marion died was thrown away by Norman as an old newspaper (money once again became Hitchcock’s "McGuffin"-a small trigger for the plot) , The values of the characters in the film have undergone a sharp change here, and the chain of causality between love and money has suddenly changed into an Oedipus complex. However, the audience unconsciously fell into another trap of Hitchcock, referring to the "psychopathy" in the title as Mrs. Bates. No one has noticed that the director only lets us see her silhouette in front of the window. Her voice, and then there is the image of the crazy woman who glimpsed at the murder in the bathroom. The appearance of the private detective allowed the plot to continue, and his thorough questioning put the audience in a dilemma: Marion must be clear, Norman's secrets were not public, but his violent death made the audience feel frustrated. The audience was even more suspicious when they learned that Mrs. Bates had been dead for 8 years: Was she really dead or was she dead? There must be hidden feelings in this. Therefore, when Laila sneaked into the mansion, the audience worried that she would repeat the mistakes of a private investigator, but also eagerly hoped that she could solve the mystery.
She opened the doors of the mother and son’s bedroom one after another. The former was gorgeously decorated and the clothes were neat and tidy, except that the bedspread was lifted and there were human indentations. The cosmetics on the dressing table also indicated that someone had just used it; the latter looked dark and weird. , The walls are covered with naive paintings, toys are everywhere in the room, the cots are messy, and the ashtray is full of cigarette butts. At this point, the audience's perception of Norman began to change: he did not seem to be as polite and normal as he appeared to be, and he was more like a child with a psychological defect. One scene in the cellar is another climax for the whole film. When Laila finds the old woman with her back to her, the audience doesn't doubt that she is a living person. The only question is who is she? However, as soon as the chair turned around, it was a zombie that caught the eye. At this time, the shock of the audience could be imagined. When Laila turned around, there was another living old woman holding a sharp blade and full of murderous expression behind her. This dead and alive two grinning old woman made the audience both horrified and confused, but the doubt immediately collapsed: the living old woman. The wig fell off, revealing Norman's true face. The reasoning of the psychologists made the audience realize that all the previous paradoxes were straightforward, although somewhat mysterious.
Hitchcock’s mature works have more or less connotations of interest to psychoanalysts (although he may not deliberately follow the theory of psychoanalysis to make films). This film is undoubtedly the most psychoanalytic Hitchcock film. First of all, the title of the film directly called "psychotics". After all the suspense set by the director was broken, the audience discovered that the main purpose of the film was to show the protagonist's dual personality, that is, the split personality. "Norman" (Norman) has the meaning of "inhuman" in English, which implies that he is not a normal person. Norman lost his father in childhood, and his mother became the pillar of his spiritual world, which made him form a strong Oedipus complex. When his mother has a lover, his exclusivity and possessive desire for his mother is suppressed and becomes perverted. Fear of loss of possession leads to murder, murder becomes destructive possession, Oedipus (murder shows love to the extreme) and father killing (mother’s lover is sub-father), which is actually a variant of the Oedipus complex.
In order to satisfy his desires, he made a "specimen" of his mother's body in his obsession. His personality is also split into two, half of which is himself, and half of alienated into his mother. The mother was "resurrected" through him. The "mother"'s morbid possession of the son suppressed his interpersonal communication, especially his interactions with the opposite sex. His obscurity (voyeur Marion's undressed) was a suppressed erotic desire. Catharsis. The murder of Marion satisfies the dual possession of dual personality-the "mother" did not lose her son, and Norman "got" the woman (abnormal gain). The actions of Sam and Laila at the hotel pushed Norman to the extreme, and the fragile balance of dual personality finally collapsed, and the "mother" half completely occupied the advantage... This kind of plot is bizarre and not outrageous (the spectrum of reality), completely It can be plausible.
The film was originally made as a low-cost television film, and was criticized by film critics at the beginning of its release. However, its strong shock was warmly welcomed by the audience, and it soon became Hitchcock's best-selling film. With the passage of time, the theoretical community has been digging up new connotations from it, and has gradually realized that it is not a kitsch, but has great research value.
At first glance, the film is bounded by murder in the bathroom, and it is like two films before and after. The female melodrama centered on Marion was suddenly cut, and the audience's identity was like a kite with a broken line. This is a crude trampling on the traditional narrative method, a "foul ball", and it is unacceptable for the conservative. However, 1960 was a milestone in the development of the world's film art: Antonioni's "Adventures" introduced the "non-plot" of modernist films, while Hitchcock challenged the traditional drama rules from another aspect. A powerful correction was made. He does not deny the plot, on the contrary, he wants to strengthen the plot. In essence, he is still playing with suspense. He offends tradition and teases the audience, intending to strengthen the strength of suspense. The bathroom is murderous so it has such a strong shock, this kind of structural innovation is indispensable.
Hitchcock demonstrated his extraordinary ability to manipulate the audience in this film. First, he uses the psychology of identity to arouse the audience's sense of participation, and cleverly manipulates them. From time to time, he led the audience to participate in Marion’s money-stealing operations, and sometimes worked with the audience to help Norman disappear. Ethical motives started but participated in illegal actions, falling into a moral dilemma without realizing it. Secondly, Hitchcock casts doubts everywhere in the play, creates illusions, and repeatedly leads the audience to misunderstandings. The whole film deceives the audience until the end of the film. However, this misleading of the audience ingeniously constitutes an organic link in the plot chain, which provides a rationale for the further development of the plot. It is natural and does not give people a sense of mystery. . Hitchcock mobilized all means to deceive the audience, and he chose Perkins to play Norman also to deceive. Perkins has an innocent and innocent child face. He has always been known for playing positive roles. The audience can easily identify with him, and he would never expect him to be a psychopath.
Hitchcock always likes to use what he calls a pure film method to "tell" stories, that is, not relying on dialogue, but relying on pictures and sound, scene scheduling, and montage to express stories. There are many such scenes in this film. When the Norman cottage table lamp turned on, Marion and the audience were startled by the raptors in the house. The dim background lighting enhanced the eerie atmosphere; Norman sat under the giant bird specimen, which was a metaphor for him. A bird of prey also symbolizes that he is a victim of a bird of prey, and the meaning is twofold; Norman's hobby of stripping specimens, which in turn provides a footnote for his handling of the corpse of his mother. Marion took a bath, and Hitchcock used high-profile photography to give her the meaning of cleansing; the bathroom was originally the most secret and safe place in the house, and the murder suddenly happened here, which became one of the factors that caused the audience to surprise; The shower curtain is also given meaning here: it can only give people a false sense of security; after Marion was killed, blood dripped into the floor drain in a whirlpool, and the close-up shot of the drain hole symbolized that everything was empty; the lens then turned into Mary. En's wide-open eyes, as if she didn't understand this crazy world, and the audience was stunned by the murder, the wide-open eyes also expressed their suspicion.
Norman's cleaning of the bathroom is also a high-profile photography, which not only purges the hidden meaning of the mother, but also matches the audience's surviving mood; in contrast, the lens immediately turns into a dark swamp, which is reminiscent of the blackness of the film. Theme; Marion’s white car was gradually submerged by the black mud water, symbolizing her grievance; the sinking of the car suddenly stopped, which seemed to indicate Marion’s unwillingness, and at the same time stirred up the audience’s complex mood: at this moment, the audience both felt sorry for Mary. Well, I agree with Norman, who can't bear the sinking of the car, but also hope that it will sink immediately. Hitchcock's emotional hesitation is indeed a magical touch. Norman carried his mother down to the cellar. This was originally a cutscene, but Hitchcock shot down from the top of the stairs, accompanied by the intricate movement of the camera, which made the audience feel a kind of transcendent dizziness, as if they had fallen into the abyss; I just heard that my mother has been dead for many years, and now I see my mother again, it is indeed a little dizzy. At this time, this extremely cinematic shooting method is both narrative and atmospheric, showing Hitchcock's extraordinary artistic skills.
The film is often regarded as an epoch-making masterpiece of Western horror films. The shocking power of horror films mainly comes from the sudden shock technique, which is supplemented by the creation of atmosphere to arouse the audience's sense of horror. Although this film does not deviate from this model, its content and format are very different from those of previous horror films. Traditional horror movies are either supernatural (such as "Vampire", "King Kong", etc.), or pseudo-scientific (such as "Frankenstein", etc.). The threat comes from outside humans, and the horror effect often relies on the monster nature of the modeling. . The film shows the horror of human nature, and the threat comes from the person himself. Split personality can be explained by psychoanalysis theory, theoretically it can exist in reality), the generation of horror depends on the psychological effects caused by the comprehensive use of montage, scene scheduling, rhythm, lighting, sound and other means. Specifically, the film does not exclude traditional horror clips, such as the mysterious and treacherous gothic small buildings in the film; when the mother appeared, the combined method of modeling monsters (zombies) + surprise was used, and the location was also selected in the dark In order to create a claustrophobic atmosphere; private detectives were killed at the top of the stairs (a specious escape route) and so on.
However, the film also has a large number of unconventional innovations. For example, the main feature of the film is that the murder in the bathroom takes place under strong light and is not in the Gothic building. In order to strengthen the surprise, it repeatedly misleads the audience before the murder. The group is set within 45 seconds of the murder. I took 78 close-up shots and close-up shots of 78 knives, human bodies, spray heads, bathtubs. Although there was not a bloody picture of a knife stabbing the human body, the close-up pushed the murder to the front, and the rapid switching was dizzying, and finally formed a kind of movie history. A powerful visual impact that has never been seen before. This set of shots that conquered the audience with the magical use of the Currysov effect, without resorting to the violence of the picture, and completely relying on the psychological effects of montage, later became the classic scenes of Western thrillers and horror films. Some film critics even compared it with "Battleship". The Odessa steps in Potemkin are on par. Hitchcock’s innovations in this film are imitated by a large number of latecomers, so this film is usually regarded as the first modern horror film in the West.
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