But no woman was there and I don't believe in ghosts

[sovay]

I realize it would be funnier if I saw Psycho (1960) twice in one day and then got nervous of showers, but I am afraid I came out of the shower just fine and talking about Psycho II (1983) and III (1986)—sorry, Hitch. My early birthday present actually totaled seven hours of Anthony Perkins: I sat through the triple feature and then stayed for the evening re-run of Psycho. It was like a miniature marathon. teenybuffalo came for the evening show. spatch dropped by II on his break. The streets when I went outside between the first two movies were filled with HONK! and I count myself lucky that I managed to purchase a macaroon from the Diesel, because any place that sold actual food (or, God forbid, ice cream) I wasn't getting near without siege machinery. I didn't manage to eat dinner until eleven o'clock tonight, but I had a wonderful time. Review definitely forthcoming, albeit after I finish some major work. Unrelatedly, I promise, I wish I were in D.C. to see this exhibit on Frances Glessner Lee.

Comments

[thawrecka]

That sounds delightful.

[sovay]

That sounds delightful.

It was!

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, I'm glad you had a good time!

[sovay]

Aw, I'm glad you had a good time!

Thank you!

[teenybuffalo]

HE WAS LOVELY. This is what I was trying to articulate last night: Perkins was so damn charming and funny and human that, during his first couple scenes, I forgot to think about what was coming. That was what made me go :D

It was awesome, in retrospect, that the movie managed to do away with my sense of experiencing-the-end-before-the-middle. It wasn't quite like my cultural context for the film was removed, just that I didn't have room to think about it. And it's all down to Perkins.

It was completely plausible that, sure, he's angry and dysfunctional and has mood swings, but, hey, lots of people go through bad family stuff, and he's just trying to stay optimistic. ("We were the victims of circumstances.")

[sovay]

It was completely plausible that, sure, he's angry and dysfunctional and has mood swings, but, hey, lots of people go through bad family stuff, and he's just trying to stay optimistic.

Yes. Nothing he does in his scenes with Marion is outside of intelligent, isolated, unhappy human norm. This is something I want to mention in my review: he talks about taxidermy and mental institutions and he doesn't creep her out. She's not failing to recognize the warning signs, either; there aren't any. They just click. It's part of the tragedy.

[alexxkay]

sorry, Hitch

Do you think he actually wanted to make the world less hygenic?

(When I was much younger, I spoke to an older librarian friend who informed me that, after she saw Psycho in the theater, she didn't shower for weeks.)

[sovay]

(When I was much younger, I spoke to an older librarian friend who informed me that, after she saw Psycho in the theater, she didn't shower for weeks.)

I'm told it's a not uncommon reaction! I just . . . didn't have it.

[ethelmay]

My mother wouldn't go down in the basement after dark after seeing Psycho on TV (well, for a few months anyway; I believe she got over it). She took to ironing upstairs. The dog wouldn't go down with her either; she said she wasn't sure if he'd seen Psycho or not.

[sovay]

She took to ironing upstairs. The dog wouldn't go down with her either; she said she wasn't sure if he'd seen Psycho or not.

My mother and grandmother once cleared out of a motel on a cross-country trip c. 1967 because the solitary proprietor reminded them overwhelmingly of Norman Bates. (I haven't been able to establish whether this means he was transfixingly beautiful or just weird.) I understand that all actors have to live with their screen reputations as distinct from their lives, but I feel Anthony Perkins must have had a particularly strange time.

[selenak]

Speaking of the shower scene, did you know that Alma Reville, Hitchcock's wife and creative partner, had to convince her husband to use Bernard Herrmann's music for that scene;, because Hitchcock at first wanted the scene to be silent. (And Bernard Herrmann was mortally insulted about that.) Can you imagine it without those iconic screaming strings? They're there because he deferred to Alma's judgment.

[sovay]

Speaking of the shower scene, did you know that Alma Reville, Hitchcock's wife and creative partner, had to convince her husband to use Bernard Herrmann's music for that scene

I knew that Hitchcock wanted it without music and Herrmann scored it anyway, but I hadn't heard Alma's part in the story. Thanks for supplying that.

[selenak]

I confess I have a huge soft spot for Alma, and thus I shall gratiously quote Hitchock's tribute to her a few months before his death at the AFI Award. Quoth Hitch in his acceptance speech: I beg permission to mention by name only four people who have given me the most affection, appreciation, and encouragement, and constant collaboration. The first of the four is a film editor, the second is a scriptwriter, the third is the mother of my daughter Pat, and the fourth is as fine a cook as ever performed miracles in a domestic kitchen. And their names are Alma Reville. Had the beautiful Ms. Reville not accepted a lifetime contract without options as Mrs. Alfred Hitchcock some 53 years ago, Mr. Alfred Hitchcock might be in this room tonight, not at this table but as one of the slower waiters on the floor.

Which is why I was fully on board with the creative decision to make the movie Hitchcock, set during the making of Psycho, all about the Hitchcock marriage!

[sovay]

And their names are Alma Reville.

I think that's the sweetest thing I've ever read Hitchcock say about anybody. Nice.

Which is why I was fully on board with the creative decision to make the movie Hitchcock, set during the making of Psycho, all about the Hitchcock marriage!

Fair enough!

[selenak]

Also, Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren evidently had a great time playing the Hitchcocks. Even if there isn't much physical resemblance. This is my favourite photo of the originals in their wunderkinds of the British film phase:



One anecdote I've always liked was that since she'd made assistant director before he did, he didn't dare to ask her out until making AD as well, and that he hadn't as much as held her hand when he asked her to come to Germany with him so they could helm their first directed-by-him film together (ah, the silent movie days, when language wasn't a problem), and she said yes for the work chance and adventure as much as anything else.

[sovay]

This is my favourite photo of the originals in their wunderkinds of the British film phase

It's an excellent photo. I don't suppose you have any idea who the guy on the left is?

One anecdote I've always liked was that since she'd made assistant director before he did, he didn't dare to ask her out until making AD as well, and that he hadn't as much as held her hand when he asked her to come to Germany with him so they could helm their first directed-by-him film together (ah, the silent movie days, when language wasn't a problem), and she said yes for the work chance and adventure as much as anything else.

So really what you're telling me is that in addition to the making-of-Psycho biopic, there needs to be an adorable backstage romance about the young Hitchcock and Reville in Germany.

[gwynnega]

I'm glad that your waiting for just the right opportunity to see Psycho paid off so beautifully!

[sovay]

I'm glad that your waiting for just the right opportunity to see Psycho paid off so beautifully!

It really, really did. And as soon as I get out from under this mountain of deadlines, I'll say so at greater length!

[choco_frosh]

Mostly unrelatedly, advance happy birthday, since I don't seem to actually have it in my calendar, but suspect in any case that I'm going to be too busy/drunk/in Maine to remember to congratulate you on the actual day. At some point you will get a birthday present, though it's looking like it's gonna so late as to also qualify as an early Hanukkah present.

[sovay]

Mostly unrelatedly, advance happy birthday, since I don't seem to actually have it in my calendar, but suspect in any case that I'm going to be too busy/drunk/in Maine to remember to congratulate you on the actual day.

It is now the actual day, so you were pretty close! Thank you.

At some point you will get a birthday present, though it's looking like it's gonna so late as to also qualify as an early Hanukkah present.

I will still appreciate it.

[asakiyume]

Whoa, an exhibit on Frances Glessner Lee--excellent!

[sovay]

Whoa, an exhibit on Frances Glessner Lee--excellent!

I really want to see it!