Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Today's pic once again circles back to Hitchcock. We hit up Rope a little while back and now we're going with one of his most famous movies. It's become kind of cool to shit on Psycho in cinephile circles and I just don't get it. Yes, Hitch shot it more like an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents than the Technicolor glory of something like North By Northwest, but it's unquestionably gorgeous still in its 1.85 black and white frame and the character work is second to none.
I've never found the film scary, per se. It's more of a tragedy to me. Anthony Perkins is so good in the movie that I find every time I revisit it I am pulling for him despite knowing the twist. I want Norman to be okay and get away from his awful mother. I don't forget the ending, but I hope that every time I watch it I'm giving it a chance to end differently where Norman's the hero who stops his mother. It might be delusional, but it's inspired by the great character writing and acting on display.
It's one of my favorites (and Psycho II is right up there as well), so I'm happy to bring it back to this column. Check out Hitch and Perkins below.
Kinda looks like Hitch is groaning at a bad joke that Perkins is super proud of, no?
Tomorrow we'll be going to a slightly more happy kind of movie. We'll start at the very beginning. A very good place to start, I think. See ya' then!
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
Follow Me On Twitter
