Source: IMDb (Internet Movie Database)
PSYCHO (1960)
The Director Alfred Hitchcock chose to make Psycho in black and white (low budget) although colour was available, because he wanted to prove a good film could be made without the use of colour compared to other movie rivals, and filming in black and white allows shots like the house of the character Norman Bates to look darker and mysterious at the right time of day, especially when giving the semiotic contrast of the house and the innocent looking motel.
Hitchcock is known for his story twists such as planting the roots of a typical story of 2 lovers wanting to get married but can't for financial reasons, so the woman, Lila Crane steals 40, 000 Dollars from her Employer who she's meant to bank, but instead goes on the run to meet up with her lover with a lengthy journey in front of her from Phoenix, Arizona to California, but on the way she stops at a motel which delves into another story in itself.
Before Lila gets to the motel, Hitchcock does well in keeping the audience fixated on the film for 30-45 odd minutes by adding in that on her way to California, she is being followed by a policeman who she suspects knows about the 4,000 dollars she stolen. The musical soundtrack in these scenes of the movie keeps the audience on their tones and gets us recognizing the significance of the policeman following Lila means she's in trouble.
I'm happy to now know where the famous thriller soundtrack is from; in the shower scene where Lila is stabbed to death by an unknown killer; to start of with the killer's unknown...
Watching the scene a second time, there's a quick shot where the Killer exits the bathroom where you notice the clothing the killer is wearing is very feminine and must be connected to Norman's Mother who's voice is heard by Lila from the Motel as both Norman and his mother argue.
In the Opening Titles task my peers and I will be doing after the Preliminary Exercise or even the Preliminary task itself, we might consider shooting a part of a scene where you notice something you didn't see before the 1st time round in a matter of seconds/ frames e.g. the killer who runs out of shot in a few frames which shows the killer to have blatant female clothing; a dress.
The pace of the story flows well with each victim of the killer, as every time a victim dies you are coming up with solutions to who the killer is and makes you want to finally find out by the end.
In terms of the plot twist ending, Hitchcock does well in revealing the killer to be not Norman's loud, angry (seemingly psychotic by characters like Lila from her voice) mother, but Norman himself; dressing up as his mother hence having a very deep psychological split personality that houses his mother after living on his own after killing his mother and her partner who he thought had stolen his mother away from him. The split personality reminds me a lot of the character Gollum from The Hobbit & Lord Of The Rings who develops a way of talking to himself as there's no one else to talk to, hence why Norman Bates carries on his mother's voice, actions and thoughts through loneliness and a dark, unfortunate history, and every time he meets someone like Lila (a woman), the jealousy of his 'mother' side of his mind dominates him and turns into a murderer.
I like the way in which the film ended with a freaky Norman staring into the audience as if breaking the fourth wall (breaking the barrier between film and reality) with the mother's voice being played on audio to give the idea that it's Norman's/ his mothers thoughts running through his head.
For our filming tasks, we could incorporate the idea of getting something in the film that sticks with the viewer long after the film has finished such as Norman's evil grin at the end, or even a piece of dialogue; probably with some philosophical meaning to make the viewer think about what they've just seen/ heard.
To conclude, I enjoyed the pacing of the film, and found the ending to the film satisfying in finding out everything about the mysterious disappearances/ murders, and I like it how the victims are all connected to each other and not like the Birds (the next film) which a film seems to be invaded by another over halfway through. For what its worth, a classical psychological thriller, I would give it a 4/5, and also because I'm happy this film was captured in black and white for the dark, distressing, villainy feel of the Bates House and films' general atmosphere.
THE BIRDS (1963)
With this film, I find watching the build up to the birds attacking quite dull as it lasts for almost an hour as if its own separate typical romantic film odd build up in terms of a bird clawing Melanie Daniels, and a dead bird on a doorstep, but it wasn't that special and it felt tiresome until the birds begun attacking. Regardless of the length of the film's start, the characters are interesting in how Melanie is brought into Mitch's family and how the mother and Mitch's sister are taking a liking to each other which grows on and on especially when the birds start attacking and right at the end, they have become a family trapped in their house dedicated to survival.
In this film, it defers from Psycho as it uses no music in scenes of suspense and threat, such as the scene where crows begin to gather outside the school of the girl Cathy Brenner who's much older brother Mitch is falling in love with Melanie. In this scene, the kids are signing in class and with each verse, more crows join the pack in silence growing on the suspension. The lack of sound makes the birds look very deadly and dark.
I find it annoying when certain films end without any proper conclusion such as this film although I do feel satisfied in character development terms e.g. knowing that Melanie and Mitch's mother are becoming close (family-like) after having a conversation earlier in the film about how's the mother is unsure whether she wants to like her given her husband died and she doesn't want Mitch to leave her all alone. I guess the uncertain ending is a cliffhanger that will never be resolved, but allows the audience imagine what might happen, and I guess this also allows explanations of the film (to friends/ family, or others who haven't seen it) to be spoiler free in a sense, as spoiling a film is usually informing on how the plot is resolved, and it isn't resolved in this film, hence why I would call it spoiler free.
In our filming tasks, we could use the idea of frustrating the audience with an unfinished/ unresolved ending at the right play in terms of tension/ build up to give a good after effect from the film in which you want to know more and find yourself imagining a lot of what could of happened after instead.
The opening titles of this film, just like Psycho, present themselves at the start of the film in Hitchcock style as if this is an ordinary romance film of some sort, which we are thinking of incorporating, but one thing we are thinking of using is black and white for the text e.g. when the white film titles appear, the screen is darkened or black to give a retro, eerie thriller feeling; even to represent the contrasting of good and evil in the characters.
Overall, this film I find is bit awkward how it seems that the Birds have simply invaded a dull romantic story
that has no relevance to the coming of the birds; which you would expect a story like this to be about a scientist of someone in relation to some sort of scientific experiment which sends killer birds on the loose, so i would give it 2.5/ 5.
