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A Thoughtful Painting Poster All About "Psycho" -- and Arbogast's Raincoat

posted 6 years ago by ecarle (14979)
9 replies | jump to latest

I continue my surfing through and around the net to find "Psycho" nuggets, and I found one that intrigued me.

(I do so wish I could get links up, but I can't.)

Its some sort of very clear and precise poster for the movie, designed I think as an art project.

It is in black and white and gray, and thus it captures the "look and feel" of Psycho perfectly.

I will try to describe it:

The concept is to create a series of "levels" connected by stone steps, from the bottom of the poster(where the swamp is) to the top of the poster(where the Bates house is, with Mother's shadow in the window.)

Each level is given to a certain Psycho character and thus you see them all together(less Sam Loomis, poor stiff) in representations of their key scenes.

What is really amazing, though, is how two of the characters -- Norman and Lila -- are captured perfectly as if from a given frame of the movie, in given postures that have immediate nostalgic power: "Oh, yeah -- they looked exactly like THAT! at that moment."

So here goes:

Bottom level: Norman watches the car sinking in the swamp, his arms folded in front of him and clenched around him("Oh, yeah, he looked exactly like THAT!") The car is a perfect match, too.

Next level up: The Bates Motel, and Cabin One, and the shadow of a woman taking a shower.

Next level up: Arbogast striding out of a phone booth. Odd: this "take" on Arbogast doesn't match the movie, but he looks confident and cool, and there's a great additive: he is carrying his raincoat, which, as a trivia matter, he holds all during his hardware store scene, thus suggesting: there's rain in the story of Psycho even when we don't see it. I've always felt that Arbogast holding his raincoat in the hardware store scene is a "major detail that nobody notices."

Next level up: the porch of the Bates house, and Lila, in HER trademark overcoat, is at the door seen from behind and again we think: "Hey, she looks exactly like THAT in that scene in the movie.") It is hyper-clear and crystalline.

Next level up: Mother's shadow in the window, with the entire house taking up the top half of the poster even as a "oversized hill and steps with levels and the Bates Motel and the swamp" takes up the lower half of the poster.

The effect is to encapsulate the story, setting, and characters (well, the most important four of them) in one place at one time, and I found it worth smiling over. Its a very cool concept.

Maybe I can find the link....

[–] Gubbio (3893) 6 years ago

Is this the one, EC ?

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0558/2081/products/unnamed_cafdeec6-0724-4eba-b226-83085d375c79_1024x1024.png?v=1518040096

https://mondotees.com/products/psycho-simpson-poster?variant=1241505890318

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

Update...it is by "Adam Simpson."

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

Is this the one, EC ?

---

hi, Gubbio! You found the link evidently right before I found the name Adam Simpson. I hoped this could be done. Thank you!

So, gee...its hardly like I needed to describe it. But still...it IS an interesting concept I think. Demonstrating how the world of Psycho and its characters is so compact and compelling. A bit three-dimensional in the representation of the swamp, as if it is some sort of "tank."

Its hard to read the lettering, but the "poster" plays a bit with the original billings on the real poster:

It says, for instance "A Universal Picture," when we know Psycho originated with Paramount, but was indeed filmed AT Universal, and with Universal sound effects, and eventually bought BY Universal so...Psycho is a Universal picture now. But it WAS a Paramount picture. Hey...split personality.

Names are rearranged.

The original poster:

Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO

starring

Anthony Perkins
Vera Miles
John Gavin

co-starring Martin Balsam and John McIntire

and Janet Leigh as Marion Crane

THIS poster

Anthony Perkins in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho

co-starring Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam, John McIntire

and Janet Leigh as Marion Crane

vs MY poster which would be:

Anthony Perkins
Janet Leigh (why give away her short role?)
Martin Balsam
Vera Miles
John Gavin

in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho

(This is "Anatomy of a Murder/Advise and Consent" Otto Preminger style billing in which the top names are all grouped together above the title -- and I raise Balsam to third lead, where he belongs.)

[–] MizhuB (165) 6 years ago

ecarle, you may not be able to do 'clickable' links (neither can I!), but you can always just copy the URL and past it into your post. Then all one has to do is copy the link and paste it into the URL. Like this:

https://mondotees.com/products/psycho-simpson-poster?variant=1241505890318

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

http://www.the13thfloor.tv/2016/09/01/four-color-psycho-the-one-and-only-time-norman-bates-appeared-in-a-comic-book/

Let's see if the one above works.

It links to an article about a comic book, released in three issues (I was only able to buy the first one, which stops before the first murder!) that encapsulated Psycho start to finish in a weird comic form.

If the link works for you, you can see how the comic book makers were unable to secure Anthony Perkins (then alive)'s permission to use his image for the drawings of Norman Bates, so they created a whole other face for Norman. The other actors (Leigh, Balsam, Miles, Gavin) all allowed their faces to be drawn.

As always(it seems to me), the shower scene on paper looks abstract and absent of brutality but -- the Arbogast murder looks much more brutal, certainly here. The comic book makers don't have Bernard Herrmann's shrieking score to accompany that murder, so we get Arbogast's reactions throughout the murder: "No!" "Urrk!" "Aaagh" and "Uff!" when he hits the foyer floor. Plus "chk, chk, chk" for the knife blows and "crack!" for Arbo's back breaking when hits the floor(Hitchcock's description in the trailer) These comic book guys really knew how to write sound effects.

This comic book imagery is more brutal than the rather "pure" painting poster by Adam Gibson, and in ways, more brutal than what is on screen in Psycho the movie. But...it is there, yet another "frame by frame" representation of Psycho in what seems to be an steady supply of them (not endless, but steady.)

[–] swanstep (2715) 6 years ago

Very cool poster indeed (with Lila partcularly well done)! Thanks for finding this.

This vaguely reminded me of a recent Hollywood Reporter video were actors were asked to state their most embarassingly unseen movie classic. Lots of people confessed that they hadn't seen Citizen Kane yet, but Adam Driver confessed he hadn't seen Psycho:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZZr2XJWgGI

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

I'd say that those who have missed Psycho, Casablanca, Star Wars, and The Godfather are problematic. Those are seminal films that are pretty easy to watch -- even the three-hour Godfather moves fast -- and entertaining. The Godfather would seem to me to be required viewing for anyone wanting to work in movies, Psycho not far behind(I like Psycho better, but The Godfather is more "modern", fits the movies made ever since in its realism.)

Funny to see Mad Men's Jon Hamm -- always such a funny guy after playing such a moody one on that show -- recommending to Driver that he see "the Vince Vaughn version" first ("Its the same movie" he says with a knowing laugh.)

The one who was worried they haven't seen "Gandhi"? Well, neither have I . I never got around to it in 1982 and when it beat ET, I initiated a boycott that has never ended. (But good sport Spielberg cast Gandhi director Richard Attenborough in Jurassic Park -- a coup; Attenborough had not acted in years.) Indeed, I have a standing boycott of both Chariots of Fire(the 1981 Best Picture) AND Gandhi(the 1982 Best Picture) because I felt Spielberg owned both years. Also, they looked boring to me.

I chuckled at the woman director who kept falling asleep during Dr. Zhivago. My parents took me to both Lawrence of Arabia and Dr. Zhivago "way too young"(they thought I needed some education) and both films were ordeals. With Lawrence, I entered the theater with a sore throat and emerged with the mumps(visible, chipmunk swollen throat). All that sand and sun on screen, had made the throat pain intolerable. Zhivago just bored me -- it felt like three hours of it took place in a train car loaded with people. As you might gather, I ain't much of a David Lean fan. And I saw both of those films decades later to catch up, and still wasn't much impressed. (Bridge on the River Kwai is much better, and I have some affection for Ryan's Daughter. After all, Robert Mitchum and Barry Foster are in it.)

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

Speaking of people who haven't seen Psycho, neither Vince Vaughn nor Anne Heche had seen it before accepting the roles of Norman and Marion. Heche rented it right after landing the role and told the press: "Psycho is now my favorite movie!" Yeah, right.

William H. Macy was more circumspect. To promote the film he said that "Arbogast is the best written role in Psycho," but after the film failed he said "With regard to Hitchcock, I'm not a fan. I think most of his work is pretty lame." Ouch. He later apologized for that. But I don't think he saw Psycho either before playing his part.

I think it was Peter Bogdanovich who said he was shocked how little film history modern film actors know. He'd tell one to "put a little James Cagney" in their performance and the actor would say "who's James Cagney?" Truth be told, acting involves such hustling, line memorization, and partying that I expect lots of young actors don't have the TIME to watch the classics.

Which reminds me. I bought the new Vanity Fair annual "movie issue" and it seemed a very flat and deflated piece. Their covers used to get major stars to stand in line for a group photograph (Harrison Ford next to Meryl Streep next to Julia Roberts next to Tom Hanks.) This cover features a bunch of young actors fairly well known in obscure Oscar-bait but hardly looking like identifiable stars(I'll eat crow when one or more of them becomes big.)

And for once, I couldn't find a Hitchocck bit in the issue. Past issues featured Tippi or Eva Marie or Kim; one issue put new stars in homages to old Hitchocck scenes. I think Hitch is too much in the past and his players too old or gone to participate.

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

Meanwhile, perhaps the most exciting article in the issue is , indeed, that photo preview of QT's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," written up like the Next Big Thing and a reminder that our modern film world is woefully low on "star auteurs" -- QT, Scorsese, Spielberg, The Coens....a few more, but not many. QT may get dissed, but the fact that he's doing something is still...worthy of copy.

The issue also has a salute to "great movie scenes of the past 25 years" (Saving Private Ryan D Day; Matrix bullet dodging, Drew Barrymore's Scream opening) which indeed reminds us that there have been some great movies in the past 25 years. (Though nothing from Pulp Fiction or LA Confidential?)

Hollywood ain't entirely dead yet....but Vanity Fair may be.