Rewatched Psycho a few times recently. This movie is really worth watching. As a master of suspense and a master of lens language, Hitchcock's visual language is his forte. He is very good at shooting scenes that have no dialogue but create a thrilling atmosphere. Many scenes are very carefully designed and edited.
For example, one of the most famous montages in the film is the murder of Marion in the bathroom. In just forty-five seconds, 44 shots, because the length of the shot is only one second, gives the audience a powerful visual stimulation with high-speed and extremely impactful pictures. While the knife was not filmed on Marion, a quick edit and close-ups were inserted to give the audience the feeling that Marion was being stabbed. Marion is standing in a narrow bathtub, creating an indescribable sense of crisis for the audience from the space, because she is naked and has no room for resistance.
Detective Abegister, investigating Marion's disappearance, arrives at the Bates Hotel. He was calm and composed, and with his exquisite words and conversation skills, he caught the loopholes in Norman Bates's words. Norman's psychological defense line gradually collapsed and he began to speak incoherently. Norman's explanation, however, is very strange, claiming that "Marion may have tricked me, but not my mother". His words were inconsistent because he had first refused Abegaster's request to speak to his mother, saying that she would not see any outsiders. Perhaps this can be seen as a hint of Norman's schizophrenia, who is one with the 'mother'.
While Norman was not at the front desk, Abegister decided to quietly go to the old house to visit Norman's mother and ask. When he walked upstairs, the director changed the camera position and let the camera look down on the detective who was going upstairs from the top. The space is left for 'Ms. Bates', who dashes into the frame from the right side of the frame and kills the detective with a knife.
Abegister's eyes widened in terror, blood dripping from his forehead, and he threw his arms backwards and fell down the stairs. The background sound of 'Ms. Bates' rushing out of the room in this scene is the same set as when Marion was killed in the bathroom.
Hitchcock once told Truffaut how he filmed the scene where the detective was killed: a plastic tube filled with hemoglobin was placed on the actor's forehead, and when the knife came over, the rope tied to the end of the plastic tube was pulled. In this way, the effect of blood splattered on the detective's face was shot. As for Abergest's fall back down the stairs, he used a stunt. A set of empty shots taken down the stairs with a dolly in advance, projected on a transparent set, and the actor in Abegist sat in a chair, someone was in charge of rocking his chair, the actor All you need to do is to open your arms and make a fluttering back posture and movement.
There is no dialogue in both killing scenes, as Hitchcock is unprepared for the sudden murder in order to show that the character is in a state of low alertness. Accompanied by the creepy and sharp sound effects, the expressions on the characters' faces are distorted by fear, and it is also the character's confusion of innocent victims at the last moment of his life, showing the audience this murder full of suspense and mystery.
Concerned and alarmed by the detective's disappearance, Sam offers to visit the local deputy sheriff for information about the mysterious Bates Hotel. Norman dismissed the sheriff and lied that the detective had left.
Realizing the crisis, Norman decides to hide his "mother" who is the murderer. The camera motionlessly captures Norman as he ascends the stairs, wriggling his waist and hips like a woman. The implication here is that Norman's mother personality has begun to occupy his body.
The plot of the film has progressed to a new level of suspense. The audience learned the truth about Norman's mother's death for ten years from the sheriff's mouth, and they began to more or less have some vague outlines of the real murderer in their hearts - the murderer may be Norman himself. But Hitchcock, the master of suspense, once again showed his camera magic skills. Hitchcock quietly pushed the camera to the top of the stairs, the door slowly opened, and Norman went downstairs with his mother who was motionless like a doll. The plane at this time was the same as when Abegister went upstairs earlier. This allows the audience to see Norman and the mother herself leaving the country at the same time. At the same time, the dialogue between the mother and son is also very exciting and full of foreshadowing, attracting most of the audience's attention. When I first watched the movie, my attention was completely taken away by my mother's words. The old woman's aged voice was full of contempt and distrust of her son, "In the dark and damp fruit cellar? No! You hid me there before. You can never hide me again!"
In the end, Norman was arrested. Finally, a psychologist made the truth public and analyzed Norman Bates's illness in detail. Personally, I think the arrangement of this scene will not be superfluous, but it is a manifestation of the rigorous characteristics of Hitchcock's filming. There is a lot of suspense in the front of the film. If the psychologist explaining the illness is not inserted, the doubts in the audience's heart will only increase, and it will appear to be a ghost. Hitchcock will always reveal the truth at the last minute, and this is also reflected at the end of Vertigo: Scotty grabs Judy frantically, pulls her up the tower, and exposes Judy in the form of a questioning How to join forces with Gavin to deceive himself.
Norman wears a blanket and performs mental activities in his mother's personality. This is arguably the most shocking shot of the entire film, as Norman's chilling smile overlaps with his mother's skull. I think this can be seen as a demonstration of Norman disease. He has completely become a mother.
If we analyze the confession of the mother's personality again, we can have more guesses about the relationship between mother and child. Ms. Norman was not a qualified mother during her lifetime.
"But I'm not going to make them think that I killed people." This is the mother's desire to disguise a crime; "They'll abandon him, as I should have done many years ago." The idea of abandonment also implies that Norman lacked love since he was a child.
"I can't even move a finger. I'll just sit here quietly in case they suspect me." The mother's personality wanted to shift the blame entirely to her son Norman. This sentence seems rather sad, because the 'mother' is essentially one with Norman himself, and the two personalities are acting and fighting.
"They'll know, and they'll ask, 'Why, she wouldn't even want to hurt a fly.'" This is the hypocrisy of the mother's personality.
When Norman is awake, he thinks that the murderer is his mother, when in reality he just masquerades as his mother to commit all the crimes; his schizophrenia grows to the point where his mother's personality eventually dominates. It seems that the mother shirks the responsibility, but in fact it is Norman himself escaping the sin. To a certain extent, he is also shiing the responsibility to his mother.
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