A media analysis of the film 'Psycho' by Alfred Hitchcock. Looking specifically at voyeurism, third person narrative and the roles of both male and female characters.
From the moment when Marian pulls up in her car outside the motel, there is
a tense atmosphere which is created by the bad weather and the fact that she
arrived in the dark. Using this setting makes us (the audience) feel slightly
anxious even from the beginning, and also by using the second person
camera angles we are made to feel like voyeurs watching Marian and her
actions. When we are wanted to focus on a specific person or object, the
camera changes to create a point of view shot where we are seeing things
through Marians eyes and so we know exactly what she is looking at.
In order to set a scene the camera tends to pan around quite slowly so that
we can take in where a certain character is at any time. Once she gets out of
her car and has tried knocking at the office door with no success, the camera
changes to her point of view looking up at the main house. The whole house
is portrayed in darkness with a light in one window, this makes the viewer
see the house as quite sinister.
Once our focus is on the house a shadow of a man is shown walking across
the window, at the time we do not know who this is but later on in this part
of the film we discover that he is in fact Norman, the owner of the motel.
We soon learn that Norman has a possessive Mother, who does not like any
other women coming near him. The fact that we only see his shadow when
Marian arrives, represents the idea that he is not entirely himself and that his
Mother over-shadows him.
After Marian sees that there is someone in the house she gets back...
More Film Review and Analysis
essays:
How has the director made the opening sequence of "What Lies Beneath" effective?
... the audience. The combination of the camera technique displayed with the good actors means the director successfully creates an atmosphere full ... up normal life. To explain, detail is scarce--no real personality or emotion (with the exception of fear) of main characters ...
The Shawhsank Redemption
... The personalities of the characters create an almost unreal setting where you see things you may not expect to see. A community of people is what the movie is about. A community which goes through good times and bad ones ...
"A Raisin in the Sun"
... how they felt. The camera angles were very nice too. You could always see the face of ... Walter lost the many and many more. The only actual thing that I did not really like was the fact that ... emotional area to show Mama's anger and sadness. Another bad choice by the director was to exclude the part where ...
Analyze how Dir. Scott Hicks used the elements of film (angle, light, sound, time, color) to elicit a specific emotional response from his audience; use vocab and specific examples from the film
... A second technique he employed was combining arbitrary shots of the bathroom and multiple camera angles and continually crosscutting them. By doing this, he was able to give the audience a ...
Film Critique: "Early Summer" - Ozu's Personalized Techniques Directed by Yasujiro Ozu
... the camera and talk, as if the person they are talking directly to is in front of the camera. There are no alternating camera angles or ... by. He forces the character in the middle of the audience's view, in a strict, rehearsed and repetitive manner, in ...
Did watching the movie 'Alexander the Great' 2004 teach you anything you didn't know before? If so, what? Make a personal comment on the film.
... what textbooks cannot - images and sound. A movie can use camera angles, lighting, costumes etc. to set the mood and influence viewers ...
Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho and his interaction with the audience.
... upper-camera angles and the convenient placing of a mirror to convey the sense of a lingering conscious mind that makes privacy impossible." (Filmguide 43) The split personality theme ... those that her crime and disappearance has affected while the audience is compelled to recognize as to why it can so ...
Show how the ways the author constructed one of the core texts helped you to understand the main ideas of the Blade Runner.
... Angeles it evokes a sense of paranoia and being watched. Camera angles and the lighting used by Scott also add to the ...