The human body and mind are the most complex and intricate tools known to man. The connection between the two are remarkable, the way body feels pain and the mind is able to understand from where and how the pain is being formed, the way the body lags and drops when the mind does not have enough sleep and rest. Most curiously, it is the way our body and mind speak to each other without really knowing. It is the uncomfortable feeling in your chest, the tenseness of your shoulders and the goose-bumps on your arms that are the very basics of human intuition. Intuition is knowing something without having a logical or reasonable explanation to follow the feeling. But it is when our intuition overcomes our ability to think that we become paranoid; constantly looking over our shoulders, noticing people and objects that were never noticed before, and having this retching feeling that someone is out to get you. Paranoia is a thought process where anxiety and fear accumulate to the point where the person suffers from irritation and delusions. It is often developed through an inner guilty conscience which threatens the self. It is that exact tingling sensation in your stomach, the tightness in your throat and the eerie feeling that you are being watched that makes James and Hitchcock's pieces realistically fantastical. The alternate worlds illustrated in these pieces are not of those of dreams and fairy tales, nor those people superheroes or chimeras, but a realist world, where the minds of the characters are exposed and the only source of reliability. James depicts a young woman who struggles to be a heroine for her wards, only to be torn between the lines of sanity as she questions the existence of two ghosts, while Hitchcock’s psycho can ...
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... come across a police officer following them, Marion continues to do the opposite of normal in her frazzled state. Much like how Marion’s paranoia develops once she is in her car, Norman’s paranoia intensifies and becomes much more evident within his first, and continuous encounters with people. In meeting his first, and only, customer for the night, Norman becomes edgy and nervous and constantly tries to engage Marion in conversation. Knowing fully well that his mother would disapprove of such interactions, Norman becomes protective, obsessive and deranged at the mention of his sick mother. Norman’s sickness combined with his obvious paranoia of people coming around him and his “mother” only leads to him committing several murders all being blamed on his mother. This sickness that each character suffers from can only leads to a greater downfall; obvious insanity.
...y away from women, Norman seems to lusts after Marion, and “Mother” did not approve of it. Of course at the end of the film we discover that the mother is actually also Norman, who “transforms” into his mother whenever he experiences sexual desire for other women. Norman’s mother’s personality that consumed him would kill those who threatened to come between them. After listening to the manner in which Norman’s mother spoke to her son, Marion can't believe that Norman is traumatized so harshly by his mother and suggests he should break away from her. She overstepped her boundaries when she suggested Norman place his mom in an asylum. Marion insists that he can free himself from the traps that he feels have possessed him. The fact that Norman lusted Marion and Marion threatened the relationship between him and “mother’s” served purpose enough for her murder.
first time a woman had ever been shown in a bra. This type of film was
In Alfred Hitchcock’s famous “slasher” movie, Psycho, the audience is introduced to Norman Bates. Like many ot...
It seems that in all three of these works there is a sense of paranoia.
Alfred Hitchcock's film Psycho Psycho, by Alfred Hitchcock, was shocking for its time. Made in the 1960's when film censorship was very tight to today's standards, Hitchcock pushed the limits of what could be shown and did with psycho things that had never been done before. The cinematic art, symbolism and sub-conscious images in this film were brilliant for the time and still are now. Realised for this, psycho has been copied in many ways and the things that made it great have become very clichéd. From the very first scene in psycho, it is clear that the viewer will be sucked into the world of Marion Crane and Norman Bates.
Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo is a film which functions on multiple levels simultaneously. On a literal level it is a mystery-suspense story of a man hoodwinked into acting as an accomplice in a murder, his discovery of the hoax, and the unraveling of the threads of the murder plot. On a psychological level the film traces the twisted, circuitous routes of a psyche burdened down with guilt, desperately searching for an object on which to concentrate its repressed energy. Finally, on an allegorical or figurative level, it is a retelling of the immemorial tale of a man who has lost his love to death and in hope of redeeming her descends into the underworld.
While Alfred Hitchcock is most well known for causing his audiences to feel fear, there is more to his movies then that. The themes of inadequateness of the police, control of all details in his films, and long stretches of no dialogue are prevalent in several of his films. He does not just happen to do these things by chance, but they are all related to things that happened to him during his childhood and his early career. No one can escape their past and not let it influence at least part of their life, and Alfred Hitchcock was no exception.
Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho has been commended for forming the film. archetypical basis of all horror films that followed its 1960 release. The mass appeal that Psycho has maintained for over three decades can undoubtedly be. attributed to its universality and awe. In Psycho, Hitchcock allows the audience to become a subjective character within the plot to enhance the film's psychological effects for an audience that is forced to recognise its own.
One major attribute in Hitchcock films is how creatively Hitchcock tricks the audience about the fate of the characters and the sequence of events. Many people argue that it is a tactic by Hitchcock to surprise his audience in order to increase the suspense of the movie. For example, in Shadow of a Doubt, the audience assumes that young Charlie is an innocent young girl who loves her uncle dearly. However as the movie progresses, Young Charlie is not as innocent as the audience suspects. Young Charlie, once a guiltless child, ends up killing her evil uncle. In Vertigo, the same Hitchcock trickery takes place. In the beginning, the audience has the impression that the Blond women is possessed by another woman who is trying to kill her. The audience also has the notion that the detective is a happy man who will solve the murder case correctly. Just before the movie ends, the audience realizes that the detective was specifically hired by a man to kill his wife. The detective, in the end, seems to be the hopeless, sad victim.
The audience is in disbelief at this point. The next scene takes place at the police station. Where a psychiatrist is busy talking to Norman. When he is done examining Norman he goes into the room where Lila and Sam are anxiously waiting. He then describes in detail what is going on in Norman’s mind. After his explanation the movie goes into the room where Norman/Mother is sitting alone. There is a fly in the room with her and she knows that people are watching her. Her last thought that the audience hears is her saying “Why she wouldn’t even harm a fly” (Hitchcock).
Vertigo, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, tells the story of a man with acrophobia and vertigo who was hired by a friend to investigate his strange wife. The film centers around main character, Scottie Ferguson, and his subject, Madeleine. Scottie’s ex-fiancee and friend, Midge Wood, acts as a secondary character and afterthought of Scottie in terms of his thoughts regarding sexuality and attraction. Midge’s true role and meaning in Vertigo is one of relative mystery and allows for the audience to decipher and interpret how Hitchcock wanted her character to be in relation to Scottie. The theme of the male gaze and the thoughts of Scottie coincide with how Midge’s character is perceived by critics and viewers of the film. Midge’s personal attributes and status contribute to her regard both by Scottie and in the film in general. Midge Wood’s character in Vertigo demonstrates the personification of reality, while she juxtaposes Madeleines role to show the flaws of the male
The most believable theory presented in Room 237 suggests that Stanley Kubrick, the director of The Shining, directed the movie to reflect the genocide of the American Indians. When first hearing this theory, it seems completely absurd. How can a horror movie about a homicidal maniac trying to kill his family have any correlation with the displacement, exploitation, and murder of thousands of Native Americans?
Norman Bates is the antagonist of the movie Psycho. Norman Bates is a handsome young gentleman-like individual. However, even though he has a shy but eerie persona, we can’t imagine that this turns into a creepy murderer. The reason that ultimately leads to his insanity is his strange attachment to his mother. Besides being plain old Norman Bates, Norman’s other character is his mother. Norman dresses like his mother and can even have a conversation with himself shifting from one persona to the next. In the movie, we find out that Norman killed his mother and the mother’s partner because he was jealous of her. After killing his mother, he coped with the murder by physically having his mom’s corpse in the house and mentally absorbing per personality. The significant point in Psycho comes when Marion’s comments in the lounge threaten Norman’s mother, when she refers to him leaving her forever. Norman leans forward to defend his mother/himself from Marion. Throughout their discussion his posture changes, his emotions and words alternate between passive and aggressive. Although the slight sexual references between Norman and Marion are nothing more than harmless flirting, Norman is unable to separate his desires from his mother’s judgments. Norman is unable to mention words that are associated with sex. The bond Norman has with his mother is so strong that it makes it impossible for him to have an intimate relationship with women, the exception being that his brain has been programmed to move from words to action, white to black with nothing in between. His mother’s influence has caused all sexual thoughts to trig...
Norman’s mind housed two personalities, his and his mother’s. After his father had died, Norman and his mother had lived “as if there was no one else in the world.” A few years later, Norman’s mother met a man that she planned to marry. Driven with jealousy, Norman murdered both the man and his mother because he had felt replaced. The guilt ate him up and caused him to pretend that his mother was still alive. In order to do this, half of him became his mother. Just as Norman was jealous of any man who came near his mother, the mother half of Norman was also jealous of anyone that aroused Norman himself. Therefore, when Marion came to stay at the Bates Motel, owned by Norman, he was attracted to her, and his attraction spurred the mother half of him to become jealous and murder Marion. Sometimes Norman would dress up as his mother when reality came too close and threatened his illusion. Since his mind was housing two personalities, there was a battle, and eventually his mother won and completely took over Norman. Norman was gone, and his mother has fully taken over (Psycho). The viewers realize that Norman Bates never meant to hurt anyone. It was his jealous emotions stemming from his mother that caused him to murder Marion. In Norman’s case, his mental illness was to blame for his vile crime. Through this portrayal, the viewers are more likely to view mental illnesses negatively. Because Norman’s
Alfred Hitchcock, the incredible director who brilliantly integrated sex, humor and suspense in his movies passed away over three decades ago. Despite the thirty years since his death, the legacy of films he made continues. His work has influenced many of the great directors today, and inspired the foundation of the spin off television series Bates Motel. To better interpret the films he created, it is essential to understand the creator of them and examine how his past life traumas and deep inner-thoughts in reality transpired through the fictitious worlds that he created on the big screen. Hitchcock, whether consciously or subconsciously, portrayed his frustrations, fears, and fantasies with the opposite sex through his leading actors and films. This ultimatley allows us to take a look at his past.