Psycho 1960 - Image 2 Analysis

This image is from the shower scene, just after her murder. The scene visualises Normal – dressed as his mother – killing her; she then falls out of the bath to the floor. The end shot of this scene displays Marion’s blood washing down the drain; this shot is then edited into Marion’s eye – symbolises that of her life washing away.

In terms of montage, this particular scene depicts fast sequence shots – of Marion’s murder -which differentiates from the collision cutting aspects of this shot where the scene changes to very slow which highlights the sad emotion of Marion’s death. This reflects the auteur influence of Alfred because he learnt how to make films during the soviet montage/silent era.

This extreme close-up of Marion’s tears still streaming down her face makes us sympathise for her because this cinematographic technique is used in order to emphasise that her life has just been taken from her. Not only that, with the direct approach of looking right into the camera; right at us, we feel slightly at blame for her death due to how helpless we are.

In addition to this, this whole shot is high-key lighting; it’s very bright and soothing. Expresses that of delicacy and innateness, I also feel this refers to her innocence; granted she stole the money but she planned to make things right and return the money.

Alfred loved to shock his audiences, and he done this extremely well in Psycho when he killed Janet Leigh (the woman who played Marion Crane’s character) – a huge Hollywood star - halfway through the film, thus referencing to the institutional context.