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CGAA UNIT 4 STORY-TELLING PROJECT ESSAY

Analyse Critically The Shower Scene of Alfred Hitchcocks Psycho (1960) in terms of the relationship between story and structure.
By Emma Foster

Contents Introduction3 Main Body.4 Conclusion8 Bibliography9 List of Illustrations..9

Introduction
This assignment will analyse critically the shower scene of Alfred Hitchcocks Psycho (1960) in terms of the relationship between story and structure. It focuses on the films editorial and camera styling as well as the impact of the music score and cinematic techniques such as the subjective camera. Sources that will lead the investigation include Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts (2000) by Susan Hayward which will aid to define key techniques of cinema and Sergei Eisensteins Film Form: Essays in Film Theory (1949) to help in deducing Hitchcocks editorial style. The assignment will begin by summarising the shower sequence of Psycho then defining and interpreting key terminology including editing and camera work before moving on to examine how certain aspects of the film such as subjective camera impact on the relationship between story and structure. To conclude, the assignment will strive to show the integral relationship between the story, and structure of the shower scene, through its technical construction.

Main Body
Psychos famous shower scene follows character Marion Crane as she decides to return to Phoenix as her guilt in stealing $40,000 has become too much. In preparation for the trip she takes a shower, only to be interrupted by a mysterious figure supposedly the motel owners mother who slashes her to death leaving her son Norman Bates to dispose of the body. It is eventually revealed that the murderer was in fact Bates himself who has embodied his mother due to psychological issues.

Editing1 traditionally plays a major role in the work of film, the compiling of multiple shots into a sequence that follows a specific ideology2 of the filmmakers impacts on the perception of the film itself, and the decision of which type of editing to structure the shots with is just as important as the story plot, montage editing 3being just one of many editing techniques. In her book Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts, Professor Susan Hayward assesses Lev Kuleshovs 4notion of montage, she deduces that Kuleshovs fundamental theory that collision or conflict must be inherent to all visual signs in film. Juxtaposing shots makes them collide or conflict and it is from the collision that meaning is produced. (Hayward, 2000: 96) Hayward appears to be expressing that the use of montage editings contrasting shots in film is a key component in connoting5 the story, possibly suggesting that without the use of these contrasting shots, this particular meaning would not be conceived instead taking the viewer on a different insight into the story. This view is suggested through Hitchcocks shower scene in Psycho where Hitchcock cuts together an amalgam of shots in such a way that the slashing of character Marion Crane is never seen; instead we are confronted with only shots showing the movement of the slashing contrasted with the gaze6 of Cranes body in the rest of the shots. The collision of
Figure 1- One of the contrasting shots that causes
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integrated suggestion of the cutting of Crane The assembly of shots to produce a film. 2 A set of beliefs from a person or group. 3 A sequence of film which presents part of the story in a compressed way. 4 Filmmaker and theorist who developed theories on editing especially that of montage. 5 The suggestion of an idea. 6 Feminine object of desire.

these editing cuts perform to provide a more integrated suggestion of Bates mothers cutting of Crane as the montage edits simulate the force of her act and so creates a more psychological alarm towards the scenes actions, rather than if Hitchcock was to use corresponding shots of Crane being physically cut and the appearance of masses of blood to linearly unfold events. The result of these corresponding shots would be the acceptance of Crane being slashed to death and the horror of the gore on screen. Instead Hitchcock juxtaposes7 the shots resulting in them colliding and creating more meaning as we can sense the emotion and control of mother. Emotion of the slashing movements is more important to achieve the engagement of the audience than the appearance of gore as it creates a deeper understanding of the characters which is perhaps why Soviet montage 8is also apparent in the shower scene.

Soviet montage greatly relies on editing in an approach to create cinema that can be deeply understood. There are many montage methods created via Soviet montage and it is possibly Sergei Eisenstein, film director and theorist, whose interpretation of these methods is most understood and known today. In one of his essays from his book Film Form: Essays in Film Theory, Eisenstein applies his principles on one of these methods, metric montage. He suggests that the fundamental criterion for this construction is the absolute lengths of the pieces. The pieces are joined together according to their lengths, in a formula-scheme corresponding to a measure of music. Realization is in the repetition of these "measures."...Its clarity can bring into unison the "pulsing" of the film and the "pulsing" of the audience. Without such a unison there can be no contact between the two. (Eisenstein: 1949) It appears that Eisenstein is stating that for the pieces on screen to be assembled through metric montage they must follow a rhythm of time that constitutes to the acts they are trying to express therefore, creating a realistic interpretation of these acts even if the shots are not linearly linked. This realism then allows the viewer to empathise and engage with the film productively. It is noticeable that Psychos shower scene exemplifies the metric montage method in that the mixture of shots puzzled together follow the rhythm of the deed of stabbing someone. With each jolt of the knife a cut to another view of the scene
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Placing two or more things together in contrast. Juxtaposition of shots to create meaning that could not have been interpreted from the shots alone.

ensues and so even though the only blood seen is the blood that drips into the water we can productively participate with the film and the belief that Crane is full of cuts and releasing blood because the editings rhythm has allowed us to view it realistically. We become one with the film because we can interpret the scene fully even if all the detail and gore is not on display. It is important that an audience can interpret the film as if it was real because it evokes more emotion from them and prevents them questioning the cutting of the sequence, something Hitchcock also does through the classic Hollywood invisible editing.

Hollywoods invisible style of editing is key in producing film which can otherwise be forgotten that it is film instead of real life action. It is also known as continuity editing. David Bordwell, Janet Staiger and Kristin Thompson, film theorists and historians, define continuity editing in their book The classical Hollywood cinema: film style & mode of production to 1960 testifying that Classical continuity editing reinforces spatial orientation. Continuity of graphic qualities can invite us to look through the plate-glass window of the screen. From shot to shot, tonality, movement, and the center of compositional interest shift enough to be distinguishable but not enough to be disturbing. (Bordwell, Staiger & Thompson, 1988: 56) This viewpoint seems to demonstrate that continuity editing allows for a film to effectively replicate real life scenarios, in such a way that the editing becomes part of the action on screen rather than making the action feel faked and wrong. Therefore, this allows viewers to react through the audience response theory9. Hitchcock exhibits this idea of invisible editing by replicating the views of, someone stabbing and someone being stabbed. He cuts between the victim seeing the hand with the knife, the killer choosing their stabbing spot and the victims face and reaction. The editing has become invisible because we have associated it with what we know of the real world which is the identification element of audience response theory. We can now participate with the scene rather than
Figure 2- The act of stabbing, associated with what we know of the real world.
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How the audience reacts to the text, made up of 5 key elements of response- Participation, anticipation, identification, aspiration and gratification.

being subjected to Bertolt Brechts10 alienation effect11. The use of this editing allows the audience to accept this scene as something that could have happened in real life, to them instead of adding a third person with a different camera shot, which takes us out of the action and out of empathising unlike subjective camera work12.

The use of subjective camera work in cinema aids to allow the audience identification with the characters but it can also place them in uncomfortable isolation from the character. Nicholas T. Proferes, a cinematographer and writer, outlines the use of subjective camera in Film Directing Fundamentals: See Your Film Before Shooting. Sometimes a subjective voice is desired.allowing the audience to participate more fully in the interior life or perceptions of a character. The subjective camera allows us to see what our subject is actually experiencing not to be confused with simply using a point of view shot whichis no shift in voices. (Proferes, 2008: 37) On investigation Proferes regards film as engaging an audience successfully through the appearance of something, such as the camera view from a characters perspective, to give them a voice to relate to. He also suggests that this type of camera work can aid to move the story focus from one character to another, something Hitchcock does effectively in the shower sequence. Hitchcock films the murder of Crane through the so called eyes of Bates mother and in doing so he gives her a voice. An audience can interpret that she feels threatened by Crane by the fact she feels the need to carry out the murder, but there is also the type of subjective shots Hitchcock uses. Bates mother seems to target any recognisably female part of Crane such as her abdomen or her breasts, in doing so without knowing it, Bates mother has allowed a voyeuristic 13viewing into her subconsciousness. The fact that her son is under
Figure 3- The all-important scene that initiates the change of protagonist.
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German poet, playwright and theatre director later became a media theorist. The prevention of an audience relating with an aspect of the film, meaning that they analyse it judgementally. 12 Allows the inclusion of an audience into a film through the relation to the character through which the camera looks through the eyes of. 13 Unknown and obsessive look into the acts of someone else.

her control means the appearance of another woman becomes a threat. This puts the viewer in uncomfortable isolation from Bates mother because we cannot empathise with the act she just committed due to our protagonist being Crane. In the way of shifting voices this is the imperative scene where the shift starts, from the beginning we have followed the voice of Crane but the interruption in the shower scene of subjective shots from anothers view takes away her voice. Hitchcock goes on to transfer it to Bates himself which he has already foreshadowed via his peeping Tom activities prior to the murder. We are now in the interior life of Bates watching him clean up his mothers mess and empathetically hoping our new protagonist doesnt get caught. The change in voice allows the story to move on which is important because we are still following the $40,000 just like Hitchcock wanted.

Conclusion
In closing, Psychos shower scene is integral to the story of Psycho in that it is the point of the film where the narrative changes. Hitchcock vitally starts removing the presence of his McGuffin14 through the change of focal protagonist and voice the subjective camera work creates, the protagonist and voice of Crane acted as a prologue to the introduction of the real protagonist Bates so the $40,000 and Crane herself acted as the McGuffin. The McGuffin allowed Hitchcock to keep the audience at his fingertips until the primal moment of the shower scene where important events begin to take place and unfold such as the montage allowing an emotional understanding and insight into Bates mother while, the metric montage meant that the viewer did not question any realism of events on screen allowing Hitchcock a further hold on our perception of the storyline. There was also the invisible editing which put us in the killers shoes therefore, creating more empathy with Bates character due to the killer being of relation to him. Every technique Hitchcock uses throughout the shower scene has an important impact on its structure and so consequently a major impact on the storyline. For instance, if there was no subjective camera the change of protagonist would be harder to follow perhaps even making it that we dont view Bates in

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The central focus for the beginning act which ends up being a red-herring to the correct focus.

that way and for that reason there is a tight bond between the structure of this scene and the story.

Bibliography
Psycho (1960) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. U.S.A. Paramount Pictures. (Accessed 29/02/12) Bordwell, D, Staiger, J and Thompson, K. (1988) The classical Hollywood cinema: film style & mode of production to 1960. U.K: Routledge. (Accessed 29/11/11) Eisenstein, S. (1949) Film Form: Essays in Film Theory. U.S.A: Harcourt, Brace. (Accessed 29/02/12) Hayward, S. (2000) Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts. U.S.A: Routledge. (Accessed 29/02/12) Kolker,R, P. (2004) Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho: a casebook. U.K: Oxford University Press. (Accessed 29/02/12) Proferes, N, T. (2008) Film Directing Fundamentals: See Your Film Before Shooting. U.S.A: Focal Press. (Accessed 29/02/12) Lehman, A. (2008). The Use of Objective/Subjective Shots in Alfred Hitchcock Films http://www.scribd.com/doc/22675821/The-Use-of-Objective-Subjective-Shots-in-AlfredHitchcock-Films (Accessed 29/02/12)

List of Illustrations
Figure 1. (1960) on Hitchcock.dreamhosters.com http://hitchcock.dreamhosters.com/hitch/misc/PsychoHD1/marionknife.jpg From: Psycho (1960). Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. U.S.A. Paramount Pictures. (Accessed 29/02/12) Figure 2. (1960) on kaosradioaustin.org https://kaosradioaustin.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=3

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485&g2_serialNumber=1 From: Psycho (1960). Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. U.S.A. Paramount Pictures. (Accessed 29/02/12) Figure 3. (1960) on yahooimages.com http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/4e_Uc2i8H5m8h.mNoz0OKw-/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://l.yimg.com/os/251/2012/02/17/psychojpg_193406.jpg From: Psycho (1960). Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. U.S.A. Paramount Pictures. (Accessed 29/02/12)