PSYCHCEDIPUS

Psycho

dicected by Alfred Hitchcock

starring Norman Bates and Janet

Leigh at the Brattle Theatre

March 23

She might have fooled me, but she didn't fool mother. -Norman Bates

Most of you have probably seen "Psyho," Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece of suspense and lunacy, at some time or another. It's one of those films that has achieved the status of American institution, like "Casablanca" or "Citizen kane." The Shower Scene. The screech-screech noise. Need I say more?

But I have a question for you: have you ever seen this film on the big screen? like every old film, "Psycho" is only available on videocassette, a format that gets about as close to the experience of seeing a film in a theatre as a tenth generation cassette gets to live performance. Do you remember the scene when Lila approaches the Bates mansion? The picture cuts from her to the house; then to Lila, a little closer; then to the house, a little bigger; then to Lila, almost at the porch...but on your cruddy TV the effect of that ominous shot of the house looming over her was somewhat diminished by the tiny scale and the foggy reproduction of the original print, not to mention the two empty beer cans blocking your view and the sound of your roomate's stereo blending with the sound-track. There is a rare opportunity to see this film as it was meant to be seen next Wednesday night at the Brittle, and trust me, this is one of those films that uses the space of the darkened movie theatre and the scale of the movie screen to every possible advantage.

Of course, a movie like "Psycho" still freaks you out even in a well-lit living room with the remote control safely in hand. It manages to maintain suspense from the opening scene until the end (with one notable exception)--something that no one, Hitchcock included, has been able to do before or since. This feat is accomplished by multiple layers of suspense via different plot structures, For the first half hour of the film we do not even meet Norman Bates or his mother: the plot concerns a woman, Marion Crane, who steals forty thousand dollars from her boss and hits the road. She is understandably possessed by rears of being found out; as she drives, she imagines the reactions of her boss, her sister and her co-worker as they discover that she and the money are gone. A suspicious cop adds to the drama, especially if we know what's in store for her in that shower (as you undoubtedly do): if only she'd turn herself in to this cop, we can't help but think. For a good deal of the movie, most characters think that they are involved in thatplot, in one case up to the point of meeting the same grisly demise as Marion.

Unfortunately I can't delve too much further into the plot, for the sake of the few of you who haven't seen "Psycho." The twists of this story--in particular, one final twist--are so shocking and bewildering that Hitchcock felt the need to include a scene with a shrink to explain it all at the end. This is the one scene where the suspense, held so masterfully up until this point (and afterwards in Norman's final soliloquy), breaks. Some silly guy swings his finger around and ties it all up nicely for us. But keep in mind that most thrillers--even Hitchcock films--have numerous scenes that merely establish the context for suspense to come, while "Psycho' manages to build suspense with suspense itself. Like an unappeasable lover, this movie offers no respite.

When I came to the shower scene, I braced myself to be disappointed this brief passage has gotten so much attention that it will have to be a downer, I figured. Not so. In a series of astonishing cuts (of two different kinds), Hitchcock gets away with, well, murder. He shows us the approach of Mother through the shower curtain, which would theoretically dull the effect of the attack that follows, without lessening the primal terror we feel when she does attack one bit. The shower runs throughout the scene (and well into the following one), draining the blood in a forshadowing of Norman's own obsessive cleaning.

It's hard to review a film that has achieved the status of classic so deservedly: all I can say is, don't miss your chance to see the mother of all thrillers on the big screen. It "Psycho" in the theatre leaves you cold, well, there's something wrong with you. And if it scares you so much that you can't sleep for weeks, well, don't say I didn't warn you, Mother.