Psycho (1960) Picture Analysis

This scene from Psycho (1960) illustrates the hidden side to Norman Bates, it shows the expression of him getting a sexual thrill from peeping on Marion, who has been deliberately placed in room 1 so she is next to his office. This fits the ideology of voyeurism as Norman is enjoying watching Marion without being noticed through the tiny opening in the wall. This is a common feature of Alfred Hitchcock’s “auteur” style, which Laura Mulvey recognised in her essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” In it, she says women are shot in a way that gives pleasure to “The Male Gaze” of viewers; she said it was a result of appeasing the male-dominated cultural dominant ideologies (CDI) and also because of the amount of male producers and directors. The use of low key lighting makes the atmosphere dark and secretive, with the shadows on Norman’s face it connotes his darker personality towards women. This scene also forces us to become associated with Norman’s plan as the point of view shot makes feel as though we are in the room with him also peeping on innocent Marion. It was clear from the moment Marion met Norman that he wasn’t going to fit into the CDI as his character was acting very odd and his continuous fascination with Marion didn’t seem right.

In this scene we meet Norman’s mother for the first time, although the use of restricted narration still makes “her” an unknown character. However the use of the phallic weapon to kill Marion questions whether or not it is actually his mother. The montage of a quickly edited sequence in this scene makes it confusing for the audience to follow, an emotion emphasised by the collision cutting from a quiet shower scene with the sound of water trickling to the outburst of a fast paced sequence of Mother attacking Marion. The uncomfortable feelings created by the cinematography and editing are emphasised by the sound of a high pitched chord repeating as the knife penetrates her skin.
However you don’t see the knife go in due to the strict Hays Code, although it began to die out in the 1960’s films still couldn’t be gory. This scene also makes us feel sympathetic for Norman as he is
being controlled by his mother which makes him isolated from any form of social interaction, which also relates to the life of Ed Gein.