The film PSYCHO (Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) - Essay Example

Film Study Research Paper The film PSYCHO (Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) The film PSYCHO is an American horror film acted in 1960. The director of the film was Alfred Hitchcock and the characters include Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin and Janet Leigh. Joseph Stephano screen-played the movie based on the 1959 novel Psycho, which Robert Bloch wrote. Robert Bloch was inspired by the crimes of Wisconsin murderer and Ed Gein, a grave robber. Wisconsin and Ed Gein lived about forty miles from Robert Bloch. The content of the movie Phoenix secretary Marion Crane steals forty thousand dollars from her the clients of her employer and flees afterwards. She does this with an aim of saving her divorced boyfriend Sam Loomis from financial constrain. On her way to Sam’s home in California, she parks her car along the road to sleep off her tiredness. In her sleep, she is woken up by a highway patrol officer. The officer begins to follow her due to suspicion about Marion’s agitated state. Marion then trades her car at a dealership for another car and the highway patrol officer notes that she has a different car. A heavy rainstorm suddenly appears as Marion goes back to the road and hence she is forced to spend the night at a motel known as The Bates Motel. The film PEEPING TOM (Directed by Michael Powell) The film PEEPING TOM is a British thriller film acted in 1960. The film is directed by Michael Powell and the characters include Carl Boehm, Anna Massey, Moira Shearer and Pamela Green. The movie was written by Leo Marks. Leo Marks was a world-war 2 cryptographer and polymath (Powell). The content of the movie Mark Lewis comes across a prostitute and starts to film her with a camera he has hidden into his coat. Mark follows the prostitute to her residence and kills her. Later Mark goes back to his house and gladly watches the film of how he murdered the woman. Meanwhile, Mark is also a member of a film crew. Deep inside he has thought of how he would make it to a filmmaker. He is a part-time photographer of women who are into soft porn as pin-up pictures. Mark is an anti-social person (Powell). He lives in his dead father’s house. Mark is fascinated by his neighbors downstairs. Most of all he is fascinated by Helen. Helen is a young woman who has been sweetly natured and she pity’s Marks. Out of this pity, she befriends Marks. The police officers follow Mark closely to a building where he does his photography. This time he is to take photos of pin-up model Milly and he kills her then returns home. Helen runs Mark’s films out of curiosity and Mark catches her in the process. She is dead frightened and Mark tells her that he does that to capture the fear of his victims. The police arrive and corner him. Realizing this, he kills himself the way he killed his victims on the camera. This last scene provides the final part of his documentary. Aspects of the two movies 1. Historical background of the movies The film PSYCHO is an American horror film acted in 1960. The film is directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Joseph Stephano screen-played the movie based on the 1959 novel Psycho which Robert Bloch wrote (Hitchcock). Robert Bloch was inspired by the crimes of Wisconsin murderer and Ed Gein, a grave robber. Wisconsin and Ed Gein lived about forty miles from Robert Bloch. The film PEEPING TOM is a British thriller film acted in 1960. The film is directed by Michael Powell. The movie was written by Leo Marks. Leo Marks was a world-war 2 cryptographer and polymath. 2. Comparison of the directors Both directors have a passion for writing films which entrails psychological thrillers and suspense. However, we see that Hitchcock’s Psycho film elevated his career as he was nominated for numerous awards for directing it. Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom was a subject of critics, which at one point maimed his career as a director. 3. The principles of film form PSYCHO is a horror-slashed film. It brings about a negative emotional kind of reaction especially in the shower scene. It is also a slasher film as it involves a psychopathic killer, Bates. We see bates killing his victims in a violent manner using a knife. However, PEEPING TOM is a psychological thriller. We see it related to the mind. Mark kills people because his mind directs him to see terror in his victims as his father used to do to him. It is also a thriller as we see people dying in mysterious ways and it is not predicted by the characters, which of them was responsible for the murders. 4. The shooting of the film PSYCHO The film PSYCHO was shot at Revue Studios. The better part of the film was shot with 55 mm lenses on 35 mm cameras. In analytical term, the film was shot using long shot. A long shot, as usual, ensures complete view of the objects in the film. For instance, all the characters are fully visible. This is different from the medium shot, whereby the objects are shown halfway. The camera, during the shooting, showed side-to-side movement from a given stationary position, giving clearer view of the image. There is also up and down movement of the camera. This type of movement ensures full overview of the object, for instance, from toes to head of a character. In order to ensure that the objects could be fully viewed, the cinematographer also applied the high power angle camera. This angle normally shoots at the subject and is meant to increase the vulnerability, decreased size, and powerlessness of the object. This is another reason why most of the characters, in the film appeared in full images with no obstructions. The sound track, in the movie, is that of low tone to enable listening and comprehension of the occurrences in the film. Besides, the film has occasional narrator who acts as a director of events taking place in the film. The film also employed expressive lines that enabled easy understanding of the intended emotions in the film. Expressive lines facilitate the analysis and comprehension of the film’s thematic contents. The color, in the film was partly archaic grey and brown. Archaic grey color is responsible for telling the time setting of the film. Probably, the film was shot several decades ago when color filming had not yet spread or discovered. The lighting is unequally distributed with certain parts dim and others bright. Some parts of the movie background are brighter than others. This technique used by the cinematographer is meant to ensure that contrast between different characters and backgrounds in the movie are depicted. The attire also serves the role of depicting the time setting of the movie. Most of the actors have used modern dressing styles symbolizing that the movie was shot after the revolutions and renaissance. The dressings in the movie depicts an error of post renaissance and industrial revolution in the developing world. The clothes are bright colored, some grey in color showing that the film was shot during the early ages when color filming had not yet been discovered. The lighting is a dull one with different intensities. Some parts are brighter than the rest. Bright lighting usually underscores certain themes in the film. For instance, theme of human suffering and death is stressed on in the film using bright lighting. PEEPING TOM Most of the parts of this film has employed the use of medium shot. Medium distance shot makes the images, such as characters, appear halfway. Most characters in this movie are not fully shown like in the Psycho. This type of shots, in film analysis, have serves the purpose of demeaning characters. They are also useful in giving viewers more details concerning the movie. This is because when a character is not shown in full; the part shown automatically becomes larger or magnified compared to the images in the long distance view. This ensures the exposure of fine details to the viewers enabling better comprehension of the film, as a whole. There is also background music with low tempo. The music gives the film its rhythmical sounds. The sound is necessary for making the movie less boring to the viewers. It also makes it appear live to the viewers. Just like in the Psycho, the movie also has expressive lines in the images ensuring the creation of the emotions hence facilitation of the themes in the film. Grey archaic color is also present in the film to tell more concerning the time setting. One of the main characters, in the film is Marion Crane, a Phoenix secretary, who is looking for a way on how to find money to help Sam Loomis, her divorced boyfriend. She decides to steal money worth $40,000 from a client of her employer. This act gives Marion two main traits, loving and dishonest. The two traits are contrasting in nature. However, the environments where they are displayed are different. She steals money because of her love and mercy for the former boyfriend. Stealing is dishonesty itself. Therefore, it is prudent to conclude from her action that she is both dishonest and loving. In conclusion, the directors of the two movies employed different filming styles to come up with convincingly live films for viewers. The films are interesting, thus, giving the editors and performers professional tags in their careers. Work Cited Psycho. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. New York, NY: Plume Publishers. 1960. Film. Peeping Tom. Directed by Michael Powell (British). London: Spectrecome Films. 1960. Film. (Powell) UCLA Library. Film and Television 188A: From Vitaphone to MTV: History and Analysis of Short Musical Film and Video (Spring 2011). January 2011. Web. April 2012. Ishizuka, Karen & Zimmermann, Patricia. Mining the Home Movie: Excavations in Histories and Memories. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 2008. Print. King, Christopher. Semiotics and the Analysis of Film. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2000. Print. Jewitt, Carey & Van, Theo. Handbook of visual analysis. New York, NY: SAGE Publishers, 2007. Print. Read More