Psycho (1960)

Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)

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A Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run, and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.

Psycho is probably the film that represents Alfred Hitchcock the most in popular culture. With the proto-slasher killer and the now legendary shower scene where Janet Leigh gets butchered naked. Psycho is now encrusted in the common minds as Hitchcock’s masterpiece and his trademark of Horror.  Well that is part right and part wrong. First, Hitchcock was not a dedicated horror filmmaker has much as a storyteller that mastered thrills and suspense. Is Psycho his masterpiece? We can count at least five films as his masterpieces; Rear Window, North By Northwest, Vertigo, Psycho, and The Birds. However, is Psycho his ultimate masterpiece? Some might say yes to that answer but recently, 2012, Vertigo was recognized as the greatest film of all time by the Sight and Sound poll held each decade since 1952. However, is you ask me, and I believe that if you are reading those lines you are asking me, Psycho might be the most personal masterpiece Hitchcock ever directed. With the floating sexuality from the beginning of the traveling in the hotel bedroom where Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) and Sam are having an affair to the shower scene, sex is present. Then you have the thrill, the build-up to the first murder, the fear of the policeman that suspects Marion of getting away in a hurry and follows her to the point where seh trades car, Hitchcock was affraid of cops since a childhood memory that his father asked the police to jail him for a moment so he would behave. There are themes of Hitchcock’s obsessions that are recurring but also completely succesful in their execution.

Let’s now discuss the thing that is almost synonymous with Psycho, the shower scene. In his discussions with François Truffaut, Hitchcock admitted that it was the only reason he wanted to do the film. I doubt that a bit since the film is so perfect in every one of its elements that, yes the scene is outstanding and his use of montage, jump cuts, traveling into Leigh’s eye to show us she looked at the money before life gets out of her, and the shot of the knife entering the flesh that was shot in reverse so that the knife never penetrates the wet skin, but still the build up leading to that scene is a lesson in cinema. That scene took many days to shot and the use of many angles makes it geometric and puts us into the shower side by side with Marion. As if we were taking the shower with her and witnessing the scene getting soaked. When the killer gets in and attacks then kill Marion, the story shifts from the point of view of Marion to Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) that comes and washes meticulously the crime scene. This long afterwards of cleaning and getting rid of the body and the car is also as interesting as the assassination scene itself. When he gazes the car slowly sinking into the swamp, the montage from the car to his face has a comic mesure that makes us his acolytes.

Janet Leigh

Anthony Perkins

Birds

Horror

Cinematography

Saul Bass 

L’Avventura

L’Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960)

A woman disappears during a Mediterranean boating trip. But during the search, her lover and her best friend become attracted to each other.

Infamously known as one of the masterpieces of the seventh art to have been booed at its first showing at Cannes in 1960. Michelangelo Antonioni’s existential film about the isolation of souls, L’Avventura isn’t one of the most appreciated films of all time. Despite having some elements of mystery and adventure, the simple plot of a woman (Lea Massari) who disappears during a cruise of friends on an Island of Italy and he search of her best friend (Monica Vitti) and her boyfriend (Gabriele Ferzetti) who inevitably fall for each other in the way might even sound a little cliché.

Having myself written a screenplay based on this story, I cannot hide my admiration towards the contemplative elements of Antonioni’s visual storytelling. Of the few Antonioni pictures I have seen, L’Avventura and Blow Up are my favorites. Both films are about mysteries and their central characters are pursuing something that is almost never on the screen. It is the superb cinematography of Antonioni’s spleen story that will let an indelible mark into the cinephiles’ minds.

The simplicity of the story and the apparent simplicity of the mise en scène, that is in fact everything but simple, demonstrate how talented and visionary Antonioni’s contemplative masterpiece can be. In some point, as I was asked to participate to a weekly feature on the now defunct website The Cinematheque, I ranked L’Avventura as the greatest road movie along with Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries. The adventure that represents Antonioni’s film blends with the spirit of the road movie genre. An introspective journey not only on the road but into the characters’ selves. Few movies have demonstrated that the chase is better than the catch and with L’Avventura we are there and the payoff is not the final moments of the film. But I think that this ending is pure genius.
Or I should say that the journey is the road not the destination. It reveals something in the face of viewers and I believe that it is a film that stinks with you for a long time. You have to actually experience it to completely sense the depth and importance of this unique movie.

The Antonioni regular, Monica Vitti has this mysterious presence on film. Full of beauty and sexual magnetism it is no surprise that she was in a relationship with the director until the 1960’s. Antonioni shoots Vitti with the eye of a lover and knows how to unveil her strong sides as her frailty.

It is very high brow and not that accessible for the average movie goer but I don’t think you have to be a film critic to actually enjoy the cinematic grandeur that Michelangelo Antonioni has accomplished. As a final note, I would recommend watching Blow Up before getting to L’Avventura but only just to get the kind of vibe that the Italian director carries.

Le Trou

Le Trou (Jacques Becker, 1960)

Introduced by one of the five men who tried to escape the prison Paix la Santé in France. This is the last film of director Jacques Becker, who died shortly after finishing the filming, Le Trou, is an excellent suspense film that however reminded of Grand Illusion, Becker was assistant director for Jean Renoir, and Robert Bresson’s A Man Escaped. It is probably as entertaining as both movies but not as deep and masterful in meaning as neither of them. It is, indeed, a great movie but not a masterpiece as both titles aforementioned apply.

The Apartment

The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960)

A man tries to rise in his company by letting its executives use his apartment for trysts, but complications and a romance of his own ensue.

The appreciation of a movie can change from a person to another, from a director like Billy Wilder who directed his share of notable pictures, one can argue that Some Like it Hot was better than The Apartment or that his crowning achievement is Sunset Blvd. The same can be said about the director himself, the late Andrew Sarris used to lower the income of Wilder into Cinema and might compare him to a John Ford for whom he ranked as a pantheon director. Being an absolute fan of comedies, I cannot pass under the radar the filmography of Wilder. His sardonic, acerbic touch and his unique screenwriting rank him amongst the greats, in my own top.

La Dolce Vita

La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1960)

Of the many monoliths of Cinema one can count Citizen Kane, Vertigo, 2001: A Space Odyssey, La règle du jeu, Tokyo Story, Seven Samurai, The Godfather (see Sight and Sound’s 2002 Top 10 http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/polls/topten/) one can easily add Federico Fellini’s masterpiece La dolce vita. 1960 was such a great year that I just can’t pass over mentioning Psycho, The Apartment, Spartacus, Les yeux sans visage,  À bout de souffle, Peeping Tom, L’Avventura. The later film, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni was his big break and I read somewhere that La dolce vita was the film that Fellini made after he encountered the Italian Neo-Realist Antonioni. That it was his attempt to make a film like his Italian peer and that it restrained the best of him. This is partially right because Fellini’s films changed a bit in the 1960’s to get a new layer of reading and become more concentrated on contemporary issues.

La dolce vita is the story of Marcello (Marcello Mastroianni) who’s empty life is punctuated by his encounters as a journalist “paparazzo”. The term of paparazzi actually became famous with the movie itself. Marcello suffers from not knowing his purpose in life and like many Fellini characters he will have to face his destiny and make a choice. This is a breaking point in the director’s career with the self-consciousness of the characters and the more grounded emotions and less caricatural presences. It is also a far example of free narrative and moment centered scenes with the long party sequence, the almost allegorical depiction of women, and the wandering of Marcello. His presence as a man who is looking for sense in his life and his personal search for himself translates the sickness of the contemporary world. He is a man who has everything, women, car, money, even if he isn’t that much wealthy the material fulfilment of his universe makes him emptier. The drama of Marcello is a satyr on how society has brought us everything we want but not what we really need. It is why the quest of this journalist or paparazzo who wants to live the life of the stars he encounters and try to “suck” their joy and happiness by reflection brings him in front of a dead sea monster who represents how dead of feelings and happiness Marcello really is.

At first sight, this 180 minutes movie can certainly seem difficult to get into, especially when someone is not acquainted to Federico Fellini’s films. But the film enthusiast will get over this little bump and live the experience of many great moments of cinematic History. The famous fountain scene where Sylvia (Anita Ekberg) baths herself in her voluptuous black dress representing the birth of Venus from the water. There is also the superb cinematography of the streets of Roma where Marcello drives his convertible car. Don’t forget the party and the music. A haunted house visit and the final and unavoidable scene at the beach. If those moments aren’t enough reasons to check out this film then this cinephile will lost his faith his films.

Peeping Tom

Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960)

Famously released in the same year that Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, Michael Powell’s first film without Emeric Pressburger since the 1940’s divided critics and audiences for his subject matter and the treatment of it all. After Peeping Tom, Powell never been able to work again in England. He shocked audiences and his reputation got tarnished. However, with the help of many respected directors like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, for whom Powell worked at his Gulf+Western company, Powell regained his reputation and he is considered as one of the greatest filmmaker to have ever worked in Cinema.

Peeping Tom is the name of voyeurs taken from the legend of Lady Godiva where a man named Tom watched the lady during her nude ride and he was struck blind or dead. The voyeur in the movie here is Mark Lewis (Carl Boehm) a low voiced shy photograph and cameraman who never goes out of his home without his crosshair handheld movie camera. The film opens with the cameraman’s point of view of the encounter with a prostitute that quickly turns to the final moments of her life in front of the camera. We easily understand that Mark gets a kick out at filming the final moments of those poor women that he kills with the leg of his camera’s tripod obviously representing a phallic symbol in full erection. From Mark’s relationship with the downstairs neighbour Helen (Anna Massey), the only woman he cares for, we understand that Mark isn’t really experienced with women and that the murders are psychosexual symbols of the transfer of his sexual needs.

Powell’s filmmaking here isn’t the fact that he established the pattern of the serial killer films to come, it is the fact that, like Hitchcock, he puts the audience in the killer’s seat and he makes us “feel” or react to the horror of the crude images and the terror of the murdered women. In some way, the viewer or the voyeur enters in Mark’s mind and is represented in the idea that as the audience we always want to see more and be the witnesses of the most sensational images and Powell proves it right here. He analyzes our envy for the most realistic emotions captured on the big screen and to actually watch people live and die, in this case, in front of our eyes. The popularity of reality television proved Powell’s theory to be right. What probably shocked the most with Peeping Tom is the way the audience is involved and how the reactions of the women are presented. In the theatre with all are in the dark just like Mark and observing the screen with our complete attention to every detail and action displayed.

With Peeping Tom, Michael Powell forces us to reconsider our and undertake the implication of the images we encounter in our films. It translates our voyeuristic needs into a mass appeal of the visual medias. An essential film that might divide cinephiles but that will create reactions for sure.

Eyes Withtout A Face

Les yeux sans visage aka Eyes Without A Face (Georges Franju, 1960)

Entering into Les yeux sans visage wasn't very hard because I heard so much good words about it that it was just a matter of time before I actually watched it. Released by Criterion Collectin it wears the seal of approval of many cinephiles including myself. Categorized as a Horror movie or some might say a foreign film, Georges Franju's most famous film is an amalgame of Frankenstein, moral dilemma, thriller, medical experiences, and beautiful imagery.

Way way ahead of its time Les yeux sans visage, takes you on terrains you wouldn't guessed for a film of the 1960's. A doctor who's daughter has lost her beautiful face because of his bad driving that caused an accident has swore to himself to get her a face so she'll be able to relive again and have a normal life. The doctor reprensents how science wants to control nature or the creatures of God. To find a new face for his daughter he must kidnap young women with his wife and take off the flesh of their face and put it on his daughter. The surgery and the special effects are well executed and the scene is actually very convincing. Even with her mask, Christiane, the daughter, has somekind of scary ghost like look of the same kind as the Phantom of the opera.

The moral issues and the treatment of the story gives goosebumps and the clean black and white give a Universal look to the film which helps a little to be a less frightened because if it was in colours I bet many scenes would have shocked people even more. Mixing classic elements of the genre and the ever evolving medical science, Les yeux sans visage is a must see. This is a great Horror movie, a classic and probably a masterpiece of execution and storytelling.

 

The Virgin Spring

TSPDT Greatest Films #707 The Virgin Spring (Ingmar Bergman, 1960)


Bergman's films are pieces of pure Cinema. For some contemporary viewers his style may tend to be too theatrical and dramatic. The acting is, in fact, too much and that's a thing I really had troubles to get into his films. The Virgin Spring is the tenth film from Ingmar Bergman I've seen and one of the good ones. In my opinion, Wild Strawberries, The Seventh Seal, Persona, Cries and Whispers and even Fanny and Alexander are far better works.

Bergman's filmography is far too dense to name my favorite (maybe Fanny and Alexander... tomorrow it would be another one...). I didn't even seen half of the films he has done.

The Virgin Spring is the story of a farmer's family in Medieval time. His daughter is his pride and he loves her very much. But on her way to a distant church she is raped and killed by goat herders. Those goat herders ask for a roof and food for the night to the peasant parents of their victim.

The themes of The Virgin Spring are universal; virginity, rape, murder, revenge, good vs. bad. The story is set in Medieval time but could happen in any time period. It reminded me the film currently in theaters by Daniel Grou a.k.a. Podz Les 7 jours du talion.

I liked The Virgin Spring as a piece of the history of Cinema but I would go back to The Seventh Seal or Wild Strawberries way before watching again The Virgin Spring if I want to go back to rewatch Bergman's films...

A Film Retrospective by Michaël Parent

Black Sunday aka The Mask of the Devil de Mario Bava – Italian Horror Blog-A-Thon

TSPDT Greatest Films #726 Black Sunday (Mario Bava, 1960)


Voici ma troisième et dernière intervention pour le Italian Horror Blog-A-Thon du Blogue Hugo Stiglitz Makes Movies de mon compatriote Kevin J. Olson. L’un des plus grands films d’épouvante de l’histoire ! Disponible sur YouTube en passant, le Black Sunday de Mario Bava réalisé en 1960 vous sera présenté dans ce tour du chapeau au Blog-A-Thon. Débutant comme nul autre film n’a su imprégner la face de l’horreur à son auditoire, Black Sunday nous présente une sorcière et son frère sorcier qui sont condamnés pour sorcellerie. On leur met un masque représentant le visage du diable orné à l’intérieur de clous qui entrent dans la peau di visage des victimes à l’aide d’un bon coup de masse sur le masque… Cependant, la sorcière jette un sort sur ses tortionnaires et elle leur jure qu’elle se vengera.

Là commence le générique d’ouverture, l’histoire se situe deux cent ans après cet épisode lorsque deux professeurs passent en calèche près de l’endroit où la sorcière est enterrée. L’un des deux professeurs étant trop curieux retire le masque du diable qui recouvrait le visage de la sorcière et découvre que celui-ci n’a pas été ravagé par la putréfaction et le temps. C’est à cet instant que la malédiction de la sorcière commence son cours.

Mélangeant le récit de sorcière et l’histoire classique du vampire qui se réveille et fait plusieurs victimes, ce film présente une histoire crédible des plus intéressantes. Le travail de réalisation de Bava est remarquable et il peut facilement se frotter aux films de grande qualité issus du studio britannique Hammer Films dont l’excellent Horror of Dracula de Terence Fisher sorti la même année.

Les interprètes sont très bons et mention plus qu’honorable à Barbara Steele qui joue un double rôle soit celui de la sorcière et celui de la jeune victime innocente. Elle réussie parfaitement à instaurer le mal dans son regard ainsi que l’innocence pour son double rôle.

Des trois films italiens observés pour ce Blog-A-Thon c’est le film le plus classique du genre film d’épouvante. C’est-à-dire, on est dans les thèmes de la sorcellerie et du vampirisme en même temps et sans être forcé du tout !

Here’s my third and last post for the Italian Horror Blog-A-Thon at Kevin J. Olson’s Hugo Stiglitz Makes Movies. It’s about one of the greatest horror film ever! -By the way, available through the almighty YouTube - Will be observed here, Mario Bava’s Black Sunday of 1960. With a beginning like no other film, Bava knows how to create an atmosphere of pure horror. As an introduction, we see a witch and her sorcerer brother condemned for sorcery. As their punishment, the inquisitors nail the mask of the demon on their faces till their death! Meanwhile, the witch throws a curse of vengeance for herself.

Then the beginning credits appear, the story is set two hundred years after the prologue. Two professors stop by the chapel where the witch is buried because their coach got stuck. They discover her coffin and they pull off the mask of the demon to find her face intact without any sign of time or putrefaction. This unclenches the curse of the witch.

With the story of the witch and the classic vampire story, Bava presents a great blend of the two genres. The production is even better than some Hollywoodian films of the time and the direction is inspired and strong. This film can be compared for its quality and with no shame to Terence Fisher’s Horror of Dracula from the Hammer Films studios.

The actors are amazing and especially Barbara Steele who plays two characters; the witch, where pure evil can be seen in her eyes, and the young innocent victim.

Of the three films I’ve reviewed for this Blog-A-Thon, this one’s the most classic in the horror genre. The film is inspired by the themes of sorcery and vampirism without any gore effects or lakes of blood… But, it’s a must see for any horror film fan!