How Many Angles on Norman in the Parlor Scene?

The great and now famous parlor chat in Psycho between Marion and Norman works for a lot of reasons, but one is its great SIMPLICITY. The room is tiny. He sits over there. She sits over there. A couch to sit on and a table to nibble on for her(with a striking cameo above her -- feminine.)

Marion gets a main "controlling shot" of her sitting on the couch, buttering her bread,ripping it, eating it. And I'm pretty sure she gets some more shots -- a couple of close-ups, at least.

But things are a bit more striking on Norman's side of the room.

Hitchcock is introducing a new character to us -- clearly played by as major a star as Psycho will have, in Anthony Perkins. So Hitchcock "feeds" him more shots than Marion gets. We've spent a lot of time with HER -- time to shift our attention to HIM.

"Without even looking," I'm going to do some guesswork on how many different shots and angles of Norman Hitchcock gives us:

ONE: Long shot of the entire room as Marion and Norman sit down -- in perfect choreographed harmony.

TWO: Medium shot -- at level -- of Norman sitting his his chair, with his arm outstretched to stroke the bird on the table behind him. With his outstretched arm, Norman rather forms an "inverted L" in the rectangular frame -- it is pleasing to the eye. Norman is also at a comfortable, friendly distance in the medium shot. He doesn't impose. It is within this shot -- cut to many times away from Marion at the couch -- that Norman suddenly pulls his arm down and says "Well...a boy's best friend is his mother."

THREE: A low-angle medium shot designed to take in both Norman(now in half profile) AND the two major stuffed birds above him. They frame him, the birds do, and they give Psycho a "macabre" charge that the audience probably takes note of: this room isn't quite NORMAL. Those are not hunted birds up there. It is from this angle, I think, that Norman says "Sometimes I'd like to go up there, and confront her, and defy her!"

FOUR: On Marion's famous line "Shouldn't she be put...some place?" Hitchcock finally goes for a close-up of Norman, though not an extreme close-up -- there's space to the left of Norman's head for him to "lean in" to the left of the screen. Norman's face goes dead...its ominous. And then the rage starts to boil up. "You mean an institution...a madhouse?" Norman's leap to that surmise has always struck me as "too much." Maybe Marion just meant ...a retirement home. But Norman KNOWS of madhouses...

It has been noticed that through the various shots above, Norman tends to lean forward(when Mother is controlling him) and then to lean back(when calm reclaims him). Its a simple device WITHIN the simple device of the shot selection.

Norman calms down within this close up("Of course...I've considered it myself") and then we get perhaps my favorite angle of the scene:

FIVE: Marion has risen to a standing position to affirm her imminent departure. Hitchcock gives us a very high angle looking down at Norman as he sits there, smiling -- the epitome of relaxed, OK boyishness again -- how soon we forget the menace.

"You wouldn't like to stay a little longer...just for talk?" How friendly -- but also a bit desperate.

And then on Marion's fatal giveaway:

Marion: I have a long drive tomorrow. All the way back to Phoenix.
Norman: Really?

Norman's "really?" -- still framed from above looking down on him with a very flattering slimness of face(whereas Janet Leigh has to endure a low angle on HER face and neck) -- is so very well delivered. He seems to be surprised that this woman is driving back a great distance...all the way to Phoenix. But he's also probably caught the lie: Marion announced she was from Los Angeles (and he'll go check that.)

SIX: The final angle on Norman, I suppose, is when he finally rises to see Marion out(he actually remained seated probably too long..he lacks proper manners), and watches her go out through the office door(in a POV shot of Marion exiting to the left out through the door that will be exactly matched later, by Mother's exit from the bathroom after killing Marion.) The shot of Norman here is very "normal" -- medium shot to capture him standing and watching Marion leave. The parlor scene is over.

So that's six shots I count. Six times Hitchcock moved the camera and probably changed the lighting. That's not very many. Of course, he often cuts back and forth to Marion during these shots of Norman, which multiplies the simplicity out a ways.

How many shots did I miss? I guess I may have to haul out the Psycho DVD to make sure.