Preview

Psycho (Movie) Shower Scene Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
334 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Psycho (Movie) Shower Scene Essay
The 1960 psychological thriller, Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, challenge of social, film conventions and audience expectations at the time. The scene reveals an underlying uneasiness in the character of Norman Bates.
The extract, the parlour scene, shows how Hitchcock uses cinematography and mise-en-scene to reveal the many layers of meaning to the audience. The film technique contribute to the themes, issues of duality of human nature, family. The context of the parlour scene is when Marion has arrived at the Bate's motel and Norman Bates has invited her for dinner.

One aspect of the mise-en-scene is the lighting in the parlour scene, which contributes to different layers of meaning to the audience. Marion, for instance, sits near and slightly behind the lamp. Her face is well lit and she, like a lamp, appears to radiate a glowing warmth. She is not hidden by shadows which display her dark side. This is in contrast with Norman Bates who has been positioned slightly to one side. The effect is light and shadow to emphasis his duality of personality . The low lit lighting to an unnatural starkness that indicates something hidden. Marion is very exposed in comparison. Sharp, angular shadows on the wall and ceiling above Norman. The contrast in lighting emphasises the duality of Norman's human nature. The camera angle reveals to the audience the troubled mind of Norman as he does with the lighting. Hitchcock places the camera near eye-level so the audience sees Marion showing a sense of normalcy in her presence. This is juxtaposed with the camera angle of Norman Bates. Norman's angle suggests that his world is skewed, off balance and out of Kilter. The camera angles show the camera looking up at Norman Bates showing him more powerful and the camera looks down at Marion to show her vulnerable. Marion is surrounded by scenic details that make her a sympathetic character; not without her flaw. The walls behind her are soft and brightly

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In the Parlor scene from Hitchcock’s Psycho, where Marion and Norman are talking during her first and last night at the hotel, the mise-en-scene expresses the true nature and, to a certain extent, the intentions of both characters. The illumination in this scene adds to the movies suspense and significance, the props foreshadow what’s to come, as well as what is said by Norman. This scene is where the viewers are introduced to Norman Bates and his strange life, and allowing them realize that there’s something not right about him.…

    • 555 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    CMNS 304 Notes

    • 5782 Words
    • 19 Pages

    Hitchcock is leaving you with your own imagination. When the camera track’s back, you imagine what is going on behind the windows…

    • 5782 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Alfred Hitchcock was an amazing director and his films have lived on and are still thriving today due to the techniques he used in his films and the way he created them. He was known for taking the least probable scenarios and turning them into a masterpiece just by playing with light and form or angles. Some of these films are Psycho, Perfect Crime, The Man Who Knew Too Much and Rear Window. At first it was quite difficult to pinpoint a particular film to choose as he used brilliant techniques in all of them. However, I have chosen to talk about Rear Window. This is because the fact that the whole film occurs in the same setting and still holds our interest is very hard to do but he was able to by using diverse camera angles and playing with lighting.…

    • 1579 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Another key element of this scene is the framing. The edges of the frame show Jeff and Lisa, but they also incorporate the opposing side of the apartment complex in the middle of the frame. Even though the conversation between Jeff and Lisa is the main point of the scene, Miss Torso can be seen in her apartment in the middle of the frame. The ninety degree angle made by the beam in the window and the vector between Jeff and Lisa make Miss Torso the focal point because she is placed into the angle. Hitchcock frames the scene this way to put the viewer directly in the movie to let the viewer notice Miss Torso.…

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Who Is Ben-Hur?

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Psycho helps usher in the New American Cinema era. Using Psycho as a model, discuss the major changes to film music in the 1960s. (10 pts)…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Renowned as ‘the master of suspense’ Hitchcock achieves tension and suspense by taking innocent, ordinary characters and placing them in a situation beyond their control where a vulnerable victim is murdered. The combination of thriller with crime is illustrated through the use of several cinematic devices such as sound and lighting. Throughout the final scenes where Jefferies is confronted by Thorwald, the re-curing flash of the camera light bulb which dissolves into complete darkness heightens suspense and the anticipated thrill within Hitchcock’s respective audience, reflecting his subtle subversion of the genre to suit his purpose. The juxtaposition of silence and urgent whispering with the digetic booming sounds of Thorwald’s menacing footsteps forebodes the characterisation employed by Hitchcock to enable the establishment of a villain detective reflecting how the text engages with crime and its associated social and moral…

    • 1460 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Rear Window

    • 1610 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The classic Hitchcock film, “Rear Window”, is an intelligent and engaging analysis of human perception, voyeurism and what it means to see, to be perceptive. Set in 1950’s New York, a boisterous free-lance photographer finds himself confined to a wheelchair in his tiny apartment recuperating from a broken leg. With only the occasional distraction of a visiting nurse and his frustrated love interest - a beautiful fashion consultant - his attention is naturally drawn to the courtyard outside his "Rear Window" and the occupants of the apartment buildings which surround it. Soon he is absorbed by the private dramas of his neighbour’s lives which play themselves out before his very eyes. There is "Miss Lonely-hearts," so desperately awaiting her imaginary lover that she sits him a plate at the dinner table and enacts their ensuing chat. There is the frustrated composer banging on his piano, the sunbathing sculptress, the shapely dancer, the newlyweds who are concealed from their neighbours by a window shade and an awkward middle-aged couple with an annoying barking dog who sleep on the fire escape to avoid the sweltering heat of their apartment. And then there is the mysterious salesman, whose nagging, invalid wife 's sudden absence from the scene ominously coincides with his middle-of-the-night ventures into the dark, sleeping city with his sample case. Where did she go? What 's the salesman shipping away in the boot of his car? What 's he been doing with the knives and the saw that he cleans at the kitchen sink?…

    • 1610 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Figure 2 is a frame from Oldboy that evokes the clear message of ‘insanity’, shown by the expression on the characters face along with the deranged almost primitive hair. Additionally, the lighting that is used allows the scene to have a more dramatic uneasiness about it yet draws the audience in, because of the offset of the lamp and the shadows that are cast along the back wall as the light source is within the frame; this creates an increase in depth. Here Chan-Wook uses a backlight to make the wall appear and add additional texture to the scene to contrast against the subject so that his shadows won’t get lost in the darkness. The additional soft key light that is not included in the frame is used to light the subject’s face and particularly his crazed expression. Chan-Wook has mixed colour temperatures to show the confusion within the frame because the key light is not the same type of light as the backlight.…

    • 2415 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Halloween Movie Analysis

    • 1241 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Its director managed to apply the low budget and brilliant cast and create one of the best works of American cinematography. The most essential thing in this film is not its terrifying effect but the thought which it provokes. It does not resemble thousands of other horror movies because of its ability to render the particular idea to the viewer. Despite the fact that John Carpenter portrays the deeds of the psycho, they still have the hidden truth. With the help of this movie, the director has manifested his viewpoint on life, its laws, and possible aftermath. This movie was his inner response towards the sexual revolution and debauchery, which dominated over human moral dignity and ethics in the 1980s. The director showed that human actions have consequences and that people have to take this fact into account. People’s life is in their hands, and each individual is responsible for the aftermath of his or her…

    • 1241 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mise en Scene in Nosferatu

    • 1129 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Mis en scene is a pivotal element throughout the film, especially for expressionist director Murnau, whose natural take on frightening the audience with the use of lighting, camera angles and framing supersedes that of directors who emphasize the huge props or costumes. The director’s excessive use of shadows is a tool used in order to make the events happening throughout the film become more realistic, as well as typifies the evil located in the character of Nosferatu. Cast shadows can be seen throughout the film and all is due to the lighting Murnau chose to give. For example, in among the last scenes of the movie, we see Ellen lying in bed with Nosferatu’s shadow casting above her. This take on camera angle and lighting is especially important as it sums up one of the main motifs, lust. Ellen does not struggle under the dominance of the Count, nor does she fear for her life, rather on the contrary she is offering herself to him and she likes it. This erotic interpretation can be splintered down to the way the director played with the setting. Ellen's body is clearly brighter than her surroundings, which also reinforces the eroticism of her movements. Also, Nosferatu's shadow is bigger than it is in any other scene, which allows the audience to feel that at that moment evil is the strongest, and the most powerful.…

    • 1129 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The classical visual style of mise-en-scene such as the setting and the clothes are use to conceal the artificial and make the audiences more easy to understand the story (4). For example, in the film, the setting is used to show the living environment of Harold and the audience assume that he is wealthy. The costume plays important roles in the film because it shows Harold transformation of personality over time. At first, he appears on screen…

    • 191 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The cameras is angled in a lower position which gives Norman the appearance of tall and dangergous. Soon Norman introduces his strange interest in stuff birds. Spoto compared Norman stuff birds to his victimes. Norman strange behavior continues when he claims, “A boy’s best friend is his mother.” (Psycho) However, this remark brought a sense of uncertainty because Norman in the beginning of the scene spoke ill of his mother. The stuff birds made Marion and the audience feel unsettling.The birds followed Marion around which compares to the her being hunted by Norman. Marion had no chance, at the end she just became one of Normans stuff bird to show off in his collection room. The audience became horrified when discovered that Mother had fallen victim to Norman Horrific actions when discovering Mothers dead body in the…

    • 941 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    there is a scene with the hotel’s disturbing proprietor Norman Bates that challenges gender roles and shows the weak positions of power that Hitchcock gives each character in the film. Marion begins the scene by listening in as Norman fights with his mother. She peers out her window at the menacing house and hears the loud voices coming from it. Afterwards Norman brings some food down to Marion. They settle in his parlor, surrounded by a collection of stuffed birds. Norman alludes to the connection between his birds and his mother, establishing a fetish of control, stemming from his general lack of control in life. The editing of the scene shows a divide between the characters. Only once during the conversation are both characters in the same…

    • 333 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Horror Conventions Essay

    • 674 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The typical conventions of horror specifically using high key lighting on the main characters face, shows the forthcoming evil. This use of mise-en-scene gives the impression of the main character being tainted by the abhorrence that is occurring due to the “Woman…

    • 674 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Psycho was a great film that truly was the setup up for future horror films. It is the masterpieces of Hitchcock that really set the standard of movies we see today, he is the master of them and people use his example. Psycho being this horror movie that has a huge unexpected twist in the plot really makes you feel for the characters and engages you in to the film, you almost feel like you are with Marion in the bath tub while she is murdered, you can feel your heart pound from the screeching sound of the music. Everything that was put in this movie was put there for a reason and it all pulls you right in with…

    • 349 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays