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The Choreography of Psycho

posted 7 years ago by ecarle (14979)
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Sometime ago, I did a post on "The Topography of Psycho," and how the film maximized its use of "settings within the settings" of the classic tale: the house and the motel, but also the rooms WITHIN them(Mother's bedroom, Norman's, the fruit cellar -- Cabin One and its bathroom) and the swamp nearby. No wonder Hitchcock did the Psycho trailer as his personal tour of the world in which it took place...

...but here's another angle on Psycho that demonstrates(I think) how Hitchcock's movies are a world of their own:

The choreography of Psycho.

Hitchcock as a director understood that movie actors and actresses have varying facets of their star personalities: their faces(so often beautiful for leading roles, ala Perkins and Leigh here); their bodies(usually more trim, skinny, and fit than the average movie goer -- stars who gained weight became character actors quickly); their voices(so important to Hitchocck, hence the casting of Grant, Stewart, Fonda, Mason)...and, how they MOVE.

A few actors had a famous walk -- John Wayne's rather pigeon-toed stride, Cary Grant's backward leaning smoothness. Other actors had less famous walks, but you can sense them: James Coburn had a GREAT walk, and Paul Newman had a rather "over-studied" walk(a "swagger," with shoulders down, you can see it in Torn Curtain and Towering Inferno), but it was cool.

Actresses with sex appeal knew how to sway those hips...as Jack Lemmon remarks of MM's walk in "Some Like It Hot" -- "She's like jello on springs! I tell you, its a whole other sex."

Hitchcock didn't have terribly famous stars with terribly famous walks or moves in "Psycho," but somehow he choreographed HOW they walked - and stood, and sat -- and it is part of the entertainment value of the film, you ask me.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

Some examples:

When Norman invites Marion into his parlor for supper, watch how the two actors look at eah other and sit down at exactly the same time, in unison, butts landing in seats at almost exactly the same time.

OR

When Norman enters the mansion after spying on Marion; he starts up the stairs but catches himself...and suddenly his shoulders slump and his hands go in his pockets and he summons up an odd resignation (no, he won't be confronting Mother after all) as he walks back to the kitchen, which takes two shots and ends with Norman resignedly sitting at the kitchen table and looking out -- kind of at us, but kind of not.

Or

Norman has finished peeping on Marion. He replaces the painting on the wall, turns slowly, his face a clouded, troubled mask that seems to be hardening into anger and resolve. He walks out to the front door of the motel and Hitchcock CUTS to a close-up from the side as Norman clears the door and heads down the porch to go up the hill to Mother. The camera pulls back on the close-up to follow Norman and we feel the actor AND the director working in tandem to excite us with the resolve and forward motion of Norman Bates down that porch.

OR

Later, Norman goes out that motel office door first and moves right(to the cabins), but Arbogast goes out second and moves left (to the end of the porch.) Its nicely choreographed: the two men move apart and then, when Norman notices Arbogast looking up at Mother's house("Something wrong?") Norman moves towards Arbogast and the two men come together at the edge of the porch for a friendly confrontation ("You know, I must have one of those faces that you just can't help believing.") Anyway: out the door, splitting up, moving back together.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

OR

Arbogast walking up the steps on the hill to the house. My favorite shot in the film for its "flavor"(a modern man in a business suit and hat enters a rotted, hilly, and otherworldly Gothic world, with the motel framing the shot screen right), for its suspense(don't go up THERE!) but also for the crisp authority of Arbogast's walk. The script called for Arbogast to "dash up the hill"(to avoid detection), but Hitchcock has Arbogast make a calm, confident, brisk walk of it -- and we see Arbogast look briefly to his right BEHIND the motel on his walk up to the house: alert to anything.

OR

Marion and Sam rising from their Phoenix hotel room bed at the same time. Marion takes the lead by abruptly sitting up in offensive at Sam's "lurid" comment; the two split to opposite sides of the room on a "plane" that connects them -- with Sam sitting and showing off his bare chest and wide shoulders as Marion pertly gets his skirt and blouse back on.

OR

Sam coming out of his back storeroom office to meet Lila ("Sam, lady wants to meet you!" calls his assistant). I like how Sam rises from his chair, tucks in his shirt, adjusts his pants, gathering himself to full tidy manliness to meet Lila and to walk towards her.

OR

California Charlie and Marion walking to his office in one direction, while first she, and then he, look back over her shoulder at the cop across the street in the other direction. Hitchcock "travels the shot" of Charlie and Marion walking -- with Charlie's face showing growing concern -- and inserts POV shots of the cop behind them. Thus are a sense of paranoia and growing SENSATION of danger conveyed by the movements of the actors.

---

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

I guess I could go on and on, but my point is: whether because of the actors' training or Hitchcock's physical direction, everybody MOVES real nicely in Psycho, we are pleased to see how the actors move in Hitchcock's carefully composed shots.

Which reminds me:

Famously, Marion first(when she first arrives at the Bates Motel) and then Arbogast later(when HE first arrives at the Bates Motel, and later when he returns there to die) both get out of their cars from the driver's seat by sliding across the passengers side and getting out over there.

As discussed here many times, these movements are designed to avoid wasting time on two shots of the characters getting out of their cars(budget) or to avoid moving the camera on an awkward move.

I expect there are no greater examples in Psycho of "choreographed unnatural movement to achieve an un-noticed natural effect" than how Marion and Arbogast slide across to the passenger side of their cars.