This review originally ran June 12, 2022, in conjunction with the film’s world premiere at the Tribeca Festival.
Over the last five years, society has gotten a crash course in Hollywood sexism. With Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor’s groundbreaking reporting on Harvey Weinstein came countless other stories of women’s mistreatment at the hands of producers, directors and even fellow actors.
Some of the most arresting stories along these lines come from crew members, like stunt coordinators who work on rape scenes. In her new documentary “Body Parts,” Kristy Guevara-Flanagan interviews actors, film and TV creators, and crew members who work behind the scenes to put sex onscreen.
Though the film overwhelmingly focuses on big names like Joey Soloway and Rose McGowan, its strongest material comes from accounts by less glitzy experts: body doubles, scholars, intimacy coordinators and one remorseful visual effects artist.
The film’s thesis is nothing new:...
Over the last five years, society has gotten a crash course in Hollywood sexism. With Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor’s groundbreaking reporting on Harvey Weinstein came countless other stories of women’s mistreatment at the hands of producers, directors and even fellow actors.
Some of the most arresting stories along these lines come from crew members, like stunt coordinators who work on rape scenes. In her new documentary “Body Parts,” Kristy Guevara-Flanagan interviews actors, film and TV creators, and crew members who work behind the scenes to put sex onscreen.
Though the film overwhelmingly focuses on big names like Joey Soloway and Rose McGowan, its strongest material comes from accounts by less glitzy experts: body doubles, scholars, intimacy coordinators and one remorseful visual effects artist.
The film’s thesis is nothing new:...
- 2/3/2023
- by Lena Wilson
- The Wrap
It’s been almost five years since The New Yorker published Ronan Farrow’s first exposé of Hollywood’s ugliest open secret, that Harvey Weinstein was a sexual predator, taking the #MeToo movement worldwide and forever shifting the conversation around the film industry’s horrifying treatment of women. The flurry of similar allegations that followed has slowed to a trickle, but there are many women in Hollywood who want to keep the issues front and center. The message is loud and clear in “Body Parts,” a clever and damning documentary about the history of nudity, sex scenes, and women’s bodies on film.
In a brisk 86 minutes, “Body Parts” mashes together interviews with the likes of Jane Fonda and Rosanna Arquette, analysis from film historians, intimacy coordinator trainings, and whirlwind montages from both classic and contemporary films. There’s a lot of ground to cover, and Guevara-Flanagan runs a tight ship.
In a brisk 86 minutes, “Body Parts” mashes together interviews with the likes of Jane Fonda and Rosanna Arquette, analysis from film historians, intimacy coordinator trainings, and whirlwind montages from both classic and contemporary films. There’s a lot of ground to cover, and Guevara-Flanagan runs a tight ship.
- 6/16/2022
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Alfred Hitchcock’s magnum opus film, Psycho is returning to cinemas from today, 27th May. This stunning 4K restoration of the original theatrical cut includes an extra 13 seconds of restored footage – so it can once again be seen as it was originally shown in cinemas back in 1960, exactly as intended by Hitchcock. To celebrate, here are ten things you probably didn’t know about Psycho:
Melon-terror! What did Alfred Hitchcock use to create an authentically terrifying stabbing sound? A melon. Specifically, a casaba melon. Hitchcock and his sound guy are said to have tested all kinds of melons before settling on the casaba – its thick skin gives a denser sound than other varieties. This, combined with a slab of steak, proved the perfect combination. Body Double: in the iconic shower scene, Playboy cover girl Marli Renfro had the uncredited role of Janet Leigh’s body double – and it is her...
Melon-terror! What did Alfred Hitchcock use to create an authentically terrifying stabbing sound? A melon. Specifically, a casaba melon. Hitchcock and his sound guy are said to have tested all kinds of melons before settling on the casaba – its thick skin gives a denser sound than other varieties. This, combined with a slab of steak, proved the perfect combination. Body Double: in the iconic shower scene, Playboy cover girl Marli Renfro had the uncredited role of Janet Leigh’s body double – and it is her...
- 5/27/2022
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
Featuring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Elizabeth Allan, Judith Anderson, Desi Arnaz, Marli Renfro, Mick Garris, Guillermo del Toro | Written and Directed by Alaxandre O. Philippe
You don’t need to be a fan of Hitchcock to know the Psycho shower scene. It is woven into popular culture and for most of us we’ve seen it all our lives. 78/52 takes a look at the famous shower scene, what makes it so special, and why it is so celebrated….
The name 78/52 represents the 78 shots and 52 cuts that make up the death of Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), and the reason it is used as the name for this documentary shows the importance, as well as brilliance. A scene that took 7 days to shoot, it showed an obsession, especially when the film was shot on a 30-day schedule.
In many ways it shows the importance of the scene to Alfred Hitchcock, as if he...
You don’t need to be a fan of Hitchcock to know the Psycho shower scene. It is woven into popular culture and for most of us we’ve seen it all our lives. 78/52 takes a look at the famous shower scene, what makes it so special, and why it is so celebrated….
The name 78/52 represents the 78 shots and 52 cuts that make up the death of Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), and the reason it is used as the name for this documentary shows the importance, as well as brilliance. A scene that took 7 days to shoot, it showed an obsession, especially when the film was shot on a 30-day schedule.
In many ways it shows the importance of the scene to Alfred Hitchcock, as if he...
- 12/11/2017
- by Paul Metcalf
- Nerdly
Not a lot of movie scenes are so famous that entire documentaries are made about them, but not a lot of scenes are like the shower sequence in “Psycho.” One of the most iconic moments in all of cinema gets analyzed in Alexandre O. Philippe’s “78/52,” the title of which refers to the number of setups (78) and cuts (52) it features. Among the interviewees in that documentary is Marli Renfro, who served as Janet Leigh’s body double.
Read More:’78/52′ Trailer: Riveting ‘Psycho’ Documentary Deconstructs Alfred Hitchcock’s Shower Scene — Watch
“I usually tell people that I’m not famous, but I did something famous,” Renfro says in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly. Renfro, who began as a pin-up model before transitioning into acting, recalls disrobing for both Alfred Hitchcock and Leigh herself (“our bodies were very similar — that’s the reason that I got hired”) as well as the...
Read More:’78/52′ Trailer: Riveting ‘Psycho’ Documentary Deconstructs Alfred Hitchcock’s Shower Scene — Watch
“I usually tell people that I’m not famous, but I did something famous,” Renfro says in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly. Renfro, who began as a pin-up model before transitioning into acting, recalls disrobing for both Alfred Hitchcock and Leigh herself (“our bodies were very similar — that’s the reason that I got hired”) as well as the...
- 10/22/2017
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho premiered in 1960, quickly becoming a massive box office success, as well as a critical darling with the press. In the passing decades, it’s become known as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made, the rare violent slasher movie to accompany titles like Casablanca and Gone with the Wind on best-of-all-time film lists. The most talked-about element of the film, aside from the twisting nature of the plot, was undoubtedly the murder of Marion Crane, played by Janet Leigh, in her shower at the Bates Motel. In Hitchcock’s filmography, Psycho came immediately after the star-studded, glossy Hollywood sheen of North by Northwest, a positively safe studio choice by comparison with the black-and-white slasher picture. The film was almost uncharacteristically vicious for Hitchcock in its portrayal of violence, a fact which only added to Psycho’s impact with audiences.
78/52 is an engagingly nerdy...
78/52 is an engagingly nerdy...
- 10/18/2017
- by Tony Hinds
- The Film Stage
It’s hard to imagine one scene of any given film being worthy of feature-length dissection. Yet, it’s even harder to imagine a scene of any given film being as groundbreaking as the infamous “shower scene” in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.
So that’s where 78/52 comes. Director Alexandre O. Phillippe takes to the iconic master of suspense and arguably his crowning aesthetic achievement for one of 2017’s most enjoyable if sleight feature documentaries.
Drawing its title from the number of camera set-ups and edits that were used for this legendary sequence, Phillippe’s film is a critical dissertation that gets a killer (pun only slightly intended) collection of talking heads to bring both a first hand account of the shooting of the sequence as well as a more broadly cultural look at its roots and ultimately its impact. Ranging from Hitchcock’s collaboration with composer Bernard Herrmann to the...
So that’s where 78/52 comes. Director Alexandre O. Phillippe takes to the iconic master of suspense and arguably his crowning aesthetic achievement for one of 2017’s most enjoyable if sleight feature documentaries.
Drawing its title from the number of camera set-ups and edits that were used for this legendary sequence, Phillippe’s film is a critical dissertation that gets a killer (pun only slightly intended) collection of talking heads to bring both a first hand account of the shooting of the sequence as well as a more broadly cultural look at its roots and ultimately its impact. Ranging from Hitchcock’s collaboration with composer Bernard Herrmann to the...
- 10/13/2017
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
Janet Leigh’s brutal death just 20 minutes into Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) is one of the most iconic moments in movie history — but her time in the shower, as in the rest of film, was shorter than initially believed.
While Leigh later told The New York Times that her brief performance, which earned her a Golden Globe and Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, cost her a lifetime fear of showers, she wasn’t actually in the shower for most of the stabbing.
In fact, her appearance in the scene was almost entirely limited to camera angles above the neck,...
While Leigh later told The New York Times that her brief performance, which earned her a Golden Globe and Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, cost her a lifetime fear of showers, she wasn’t actually in the shower for most of the stabbing.
In fact, her appearance in the scene was almost entirely limited to camera angles above the neck,...
- 10/13/2017
- by Mike Miller
- PEOPLE.com
Picture it: any movie theater in the fall of 1960. It was the shower seen around the world, followed quickly and without warning by the screams of millions that reached the darkest recesses of space. Over a short period of time, it was a story that turned legendary, even without seeing the actual film: amateur thief Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), overwhelmed with guilt to return the $40,000 she’s stolen, goes to take a shower and is brutally slashed to death by motel proprietor Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins)… ’s mother. To the studio heads at Paramount, it was the tackiest of numerous tasteless scenes schemed up by a great showman of a director trying his hand at a sleazy B-movie. To history, Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho‘ is a landmark that broke the rules with aplomb and changed the game, all while inspiring a rise in baths among movie patrons (and a joking...
- 10/5/2017
- by William Coffey
- Age of the Nerd
If you are a fan of Alfred Hitchcock's classic psychological horror thriller Psycho, 78/52 is a must watch documentary! I had a chance to see it early this year at the Sundance Film Festival and I loved it! The doc is completely focused on the iconic shower scene in the film and it meticulously breaks it down in ways you never thought of before. It's so freakin' fascinating. I'll never watch Psycho the same way again after watching this film. Here's what I said in my review:
What you may not know, though, is that one of the main reasons behind why Hitchcock wanted to make Psycho was because of that shower scene in which Janet Leigh's Marion Crane is murdered. He was so obsessed with it that he spent seven days shooting it, and it was only three minutes long. That three minutes of had to be perfect,...
What you may not know, though, is that one of the main reasons behind why Hitchcock wanted to make Psycho was because of that shower scene in which Janet Leigh's Marion Crane is murdered. He was so obsessed with it that he spent seven days shooting it, and it was only three minutes long. That three minutes of had to be perfect,...
- 8/31/2017
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
Mark Ramsey knows that it’s sometimes best to hide the star of the show until the moment is absolutely right. It’s why, in the first episode of “Inside Psycho,” a new six-part series about the birth, production and aftermath of the 1960 horror classic, you won’t hear the words “shower” or “Leigh” or “Hitchcock” or “Universal.”
It’s a particularly striking debut, not just because of the delayed introduction of the expected cast of characters. In opening this “Psycho” origin story with a 25-minute overview of the life and crimes of Plainfield, Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein, Ramsey makes an early case that the best path to understanding the film is via a circuitous route, one with an ever-changing narrative perspective. And plenty of “Mother.”
This trail, particularly in its opening salvo, is unapologetically soaked in goo and gore. (“The following contains mature content,” Ramsey explains at the top of the premiere.
It’s a particularly striking debut, not just because of the delayed introduction of the expected cast of characters. In opening this “Psycho” origin story with a 25-minute overview of the life and crimes of Plainfield, Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein, Ramsey makes an early case that the best path to understanding the film is via a circuitous route, one with an ever-changing narrative perspective. And plenty of “Mother.”
This trail, particularly in its opening salvo, is unapologetically soaked in goo and gore. (“The following contains mature content,” Ramsey explains at the top of the premiere.
- 3/28/2017
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
The shower murder in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” sits alongside the opening of “Citizen Kane” and the climax of “2001: A Space Odyssey” as one of the most famous movie scenes in history, but the reasons are both obvious and elusive. Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 proto-slasher film jarred audiences with the sudden death of leading lady Janet Leigh midway through, in a grisly, taboo-shattering bout of nudity and knifing at the ends of a shadowy, cross-dressing Norman Bates. As a complex narrative strategy and a subversive stunt, it kickstarted decades of conversations, so it’s surprising it took so long for someone to make a movie about it.
Enter “78/52,” the latest film-history deep-dive from Alexandre O. Phillipe (“Doc of the Dead,” “The People vs. George Lucas”). A compendium of appreciations, close readings, and reminiscences on the bloody death scene and its lasting impact, Phillipe’s brisk cinematic essay consolidates the enthusiasm...
Enter “78/52,” the latest film-history deep-dive from Alexandre O. Phillipe (“Doc of the Dead,” “The People vs. George Lucas”). A compendium of appreciations, close readings, and reminiscences on the bloody death scene and its lasting impact, Phillipe’s brisk cinematic essay consolidates the enthusiasm...
- 1/26/2017
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
If you're a lover of film then there's no doubt that you're a fan of Alfred Hitchcock. The guy was a genius who made some incredible films in his career. I love everything that he's done, but my favorite would have to be Psycho. I don't need to sit here and tell you how amazing that film is because you already know.
What you may not know, though, is that one of the main reasons behind why Hitchcock wanted to make Psycho was because of that shower scene in which Janet Leigh's Marion Crane is murdered. He was so obsessed with it that he spent seven days shooting it, and it was only three minutes long. That three minutes of had to be perfect, though. It had to be exactly what he wanted it to be, and it had to get his message across loud and clear. This one...
What you may not know, though, is that one of the main reasons behind why Hitchcock wanted to make Psycho was because of that shower scene in which Janet Leigh's Marion Crane is murdered. He was so obsessed with it that he spent seven days shooting it, and it was only three minutes long. That three minutes of had to be perfect, though. It had to be exactly what he wanted it to be, and it had to get his message across loud and clear. This one...
- 1/26/2017
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
Documentarian Alexandre O. Philippe has tackled a variety of topics over his career, including zombies (Doc of the Dead) and the fickleness of Star Wars fans (The People vs. George Lucas), but it’s his latest project, 78/52, which thoughtfully examines the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, that might be his most ambitious project to date. The documentary took Philippe three years to complete, and features a cavalcade of fantastic interviews with numerous notable folks, including Jamie Lee Curtis, Guillermo del Toro, Peter Bogdanovich, Bret Easton Ellis, Danny Elfman, Mick Garris, Karyn Kusama, Oz Perkins, Richard Stanley, Elijah Wood, and many more.
Daily Dead caught up with Philippe on the eve of 78/52’s premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival to discuss the long road to getting the project made, his approach to making sure 78/52 would be accessible to everyone (even those who may not be Psycho fans), some of...
Daily Dead caught up with Philippe on the eve of 78/52’s premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival to discuss the long road to getting the project made, his approach to making sure 78/52 would be accessible to everyone (even those who may not be Psycho fans), some of...
- 1/25/2017
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
In this day and age, when we’ve seen a lot of brilliant horror movie-related documentaries released over the last few years, it’s sometimes hard for me to get too excited about new ones, just because I wonder what on earth is still out there to explore at this point. Then comes along Alexandre O. Philippe’s 78/52, which presents us with a thoughtful and entertaining re-examination of the iconic shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, peeling back some unexpected and wholly new layers about this often discussed moment in cinema.
Filmed in stunning black and white, and featuring several Psycho-related re-enactments to help set the tone throughout its 91-minute runtime, 78/52 takes a comprehensive look back at the moment cinema changed forever in 1960, when Hitchcock dared to take audiences into a roadside motel bathroom to bear cinematic witness to the murder of a young woman by the name...
Filmed in stunning black and white, and featuring several Psycho-related re-enactments to help set the tone throughout its 91-minute runtime, 78/52 takes a comprehensive look back at the moment cinema changed forever in 1960, when Hitchcock dared to take audiences into a roadside motel bathroom to bear cinematic witness to the murder of a young woman by the name...
- 1/24/2017
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
With Halloween right around the corner, we're counting down the days by posting five fun facts about our favorite fright flicks.Today's featured film is Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 classic, "Psycho."1. Chocolate syrup was used as blood in the infamous "shower scene."2. Both Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins had body doubles for movie's most famous scene. A stripper named Marli Renfro was used for any shots where you don't see Leigh's face.3. After securing the movie rights, Hitchcock bought up as many copies of the Robert Block book from stores as possible to prevent people from finding out the ending.4. When the movie was released in 1960, guards were hired to make sure no audience members were admitted into the theater after the opening credits. It was all a publicity gimmick that got people wondering what they'd be missing if they were late.5. The movie was the first studio film to actually show a toilet flushing onscreen.
- 10/22/2012
- by tooFab Staff
- TooFab
What's the greatest Alfred Hitchcock film? Every film fan will have a different answer, with "The 39 Steps," "Rebecca," "Spellbound," "Notorious," "Rear Window," "Vertigo" and "North By Northwest" all making compelling cases for being the very best. But few of his films had such an impact on cinema as "Psycho," the 1960s thriller that saw him go into darker, more shocking territory than ever before, with some of the most famous sequences in the history of the medium.
Following secretary Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) as she embezzles money from an employer and hides out at a deserted motel owned by the mysterious Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), a man with serious mother issues, only to stunningly and unforgettably kill off its lead halfway through the film, the picture turned out to be the biggest hit of Hitchcock's career, and was arguably his last truly great movie. It was released fifty-two years ago tomorrow,...
Following secretary Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) as she embezzles money from an employer and hides out at a deserted motel owned by the mysterious Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), a man with serious mother issues, only to stunningly and unforgettably kill off its lead halfway through the film, the picture turned out to be the biggest hit of Hitchcock's career, and was arguably his last truly great movie. It was released fifty-two years ago tomorrow,...
- 6/15/2012
- by Oliver Lyttelton
- The Playlist
Stephen Rebello, author of Alfred Hitchcock And The Making Of Psycho and screenwriter of the book’s upcoming film adaptation (Hitchcock starring Anthony Hopkins), has decided to share some of his wisdom in the form of Five Things You Ever Knew About The Making Of Psycho.
Dread Central was able to uncover five nuggets about the making of Psycho, arguably one of the best and most famous films (horror or not), and we have posted them below for your enjoyment.
1. Before Psycho, Hitchcock was famed for elegant Technicolor thrillers starring marquee actors such as Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, and James Stewart. With Psycho, Hitchcock tried something completely different. He shot the film in black-and-white and broke with convention by violently killing the film’s biggest star on-screen early in the movie. He also depicted the lead actress in what was then considered an unusually frank sexual relationship, showed and flushed...
Dread Central was able to uncover five nuggets about the making of Psycho, arguably one of the best and most famous films (horror or not), and we have posted them below for your enjoyment.
1. Before Psycho, Hitchcock was famed for elegant Technicolor thrillers starring marquee actors such as Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, and James Stewart. With Psycho, Hitchcock tried something completely different. He shot the film in black-and-white and broke with convention by violently killing the film’s biggest star on-screen early in the movie. He also depicted the lead actress in what was then considered an unusually frank sexual relationship, showed and flushed...
- 6/6/2012
- by Andy Greene
- FamousMonsters of Filmland
"It's not like my mother is a maniac or a raving thing. She just goes a little mad sometimes. We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven't you?" These are my absolute favorite movie lines of all time, and even though the source is decades old, we're still learning about it.
It's so powerful because as Norman Bates asks the question of Marion Crane (who happens to be sitting on $40,000 of regretfully stolen money), he's also asking it of the entire viewing audience ... and aren't we all forced to answer the same way as Marion did? "Yes. Sometimes just one time can be enough."
Psycho was not the first horror movie to scare the bejesus out of America. Certainly by 1960 scores of horror films had graced the silver screen. But Psycho was one of, if not the, first truly disturbing film. The one that dug into the American psyche and...
It's so powerful because as Norman Bates asks the question of Marion Crane (who happens to be sitting on $40,000 of regretfully stolen money), he's also asking it of the entire viewing audience ... and aren't we all forced to answer the same way as Marion did? "Yes. Sometimes just one time can be enough."
Psycho was not the first horror movie to scare the bejesus out of America. Certainly by 1960 scores of horror films had graced the silver screen. But Psycho was one of, if not the, first truly disturbing film. The one that dug into the American psyche and...
- 6/5/2012
- by Doctor Gash
- DreadCentral.com
This is one of the few times we'll ever be excited about the role of a graphic designer getting cast in a movie, but when it comes to Saul Bass, there are are exceptions to every rule...
"CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" star Wallace Langham has landed the role of the legendary Saul Bass in Sacha Gervasi's star-studded "Alfred Hitchcock And The Making of Psycho." Bass rubbed shoulders with some titans of filmmaking including Stanley Kubrick, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder and more, creating title sequences and poster art that to this day, remains hugely influential (indeed, Google Saul Bass and you'll get countless homages to his work). However, some of his most iconic efforts were done for Hitchcock, who he worked with on "Vertigo," "North By Northwest" and "Psycho" -- but their creative clashes would mark this film as the last time they would collaborate.
Bass handled the storyboards and title sequence for the film,...
"CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" star Wallace Langham has landed the role of the legendary Saul Bass in Sacha Gervasi's star-studded "Alfred Hitchcock And The Making of Psycho." Bass rubbed shoulders with some titans of filmmaking including Stanley Kubrick, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder and more, creating title sequences and poster art that to this day, remains hugely influential (indeed, Google Saul Bass and you'll get countless homages to his work). However, some of his most iconic efforts were done for Hitchcock, who he worked with on "Vertigo," "North By Northwest" and "Psycho" -- but their creative clashes would mark this film as the last time they would collaborate.
Bass handled the storyboards and title sequence for the film,...
- 4/9/2012
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Peter Bradshaw peeks at the strange legacy of Hitchcock's famous film
Fifty years ago, all America was convulsed by a low-budget, violent movie in black and white, featuring a motel bathroom with shockingly visible flushing lavatory and a grisly murder scene of unparalleled ingenuity and cinematic flair: Psycho. Nowadays, such a film would be expected to come from a young hotshot, but this was directed by the 61-year-old Alfred Hitchcock, a figure known for elegance and high production values and as the star of a popular TV show, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, but also as someone beginning a gentle career decline. Instead, Psycho sensationally jolted Hitchcock's reputation up to a higher level, and as the owner of a profit-percentage in the film, he became staggeringly wealthy as few studio directors could ever dream of being.
The career of fellow Englishman Michael Powell had been destroyed by his own transgressive chiller, Peeping Tom,...
Fifty years ago, all America was convulsed by a low-budget, violent movie in black and white, featuring a motel bathroom with shockingly visible flushing lavatory and a grisly murder scene of unparalleled ingenuity and cinematic flair: Psycho. Nowadays, such a film would be expected to come from a young hotshot, but this was directed by the 61-year-old Alfred Hitchcock, a figure known for elegance and high production values and as the star of a popular TV show, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, but also as someone beginning a gentle career decline. Instead, Psycho sensationally jolted Hitchcock's reputation up to a higher level, and as the owner of a profit-percentage in the film, he became staggeringly wealthy as few studio directors could ever dream of being.
The career of fellow Englishman Michael Powell had been destroyed by his own transgressive chiller, Peeping Tom,...
- 4/2/2010
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
It is one of the most notorious scenes ever filmed – yet Hitchcock and Janet Leigh didn't tell the truth about it. Will Hodgkinson on a real-life story of body doubles and murder
In the run-up to the release of Psycho in 1960, Alfred Hitchcock did everything he could to build up the suspense. "No one will be admitted to the theatre after the start of each performance," declared the poster, bearing a sulky-looking Hitchcock wagging a finger. The director bought up all copies of the original novel, which he had optioned for a paltry $9,000, so that hardly anyone would know how the story ended. He also filmed on a closed set and forced cast and crew to sign an agreement promising not to mention the ending to anyone. There were no advance screenings.
When the reviews for Psycho, which is rereleased this week, rolled in, they focused on one shocking moment: the shower sequence,...
In the run-up to the release of Psycho in 1960, Alfred Hitchcock did everything he could to build up the suspense. "No one will be admitted to the theatre after the start of each performance," declared the poster, bearing a sulky-looking Hitchcock wagging a finger. The director bought up all copies of the original novel, which he had optioned for a paltry $9,000, so that hardly anyone would know how the story ended. He also filmed on a closed set and forced cast and crew to sign an agreement promising not to mention the ending to anyone. There were no advance screenings.
When the reviews for Psycho, which is rereleased this week, rolled in, they focused on one shocking moment: the shower sequence,...
- 3/29/2010
- by Will Hodgkinson
- The Guardian - Film News
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