Audience Expectations In Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho
How does Hitchcock exceed audience expectations in Psycho?
The director of the 1960 film Psycho was directed by Alfred Hitchcock, born 13th August 1899, in London. He died 29th April 1980 aged 80. He was a British filmmaker and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in the United Kingdom in both silent films and early sound films, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood. In 1956 he became an American citizen while retaining his British citizenship.
Hitchcock directed more than fifty feature films in his career lasting six decades. He remains one of the most popular and most famous filmmakers of all time. People recognised him due to cameo appearances in his own films and …show more content…
You can see this by the fact that Hitchcock cast fairly unknown actors. Anthony Perkins, who played Norman Bates, was known as a supporting actor and does not play main lead or “anti-hero” this was unexpected for the audience. The unknown actors meant that the audience could not tell what the film will be about due to the type-coating of the actors.
Hitchcock was clever with the censorship. Censorship was very strict in 1960s. Directors were not allowed to show explicit nudity, sexual activity and violent scenes including blood and on-screen death etc. Hitchcock gets round the censorship in the first scene by showing Sam and Marion in the hotel room getting dressed, the bed also is unmade. This leads to the audiences’ assumption of them sleeping together, this all happens without the audience seeing any explicit shots.
In the shower scene Hitchcock got round the censorship by Marion wearing a skin coloured bikini so it looks like Marion is naked but she actually is not. The film is shown in black and white so they can show blood as it was illegal to show blood in colour, chocolate sauce was used as blood. The sound of the attack on Marion was made by stabbing a watermelon. The camera-angles were clever as not one actually showed the knife stabbing
The director of the 1960 film Psycho was directed by Alfred Hitchcock, born 13th August 1899, in London. He died 29th April 1980 aged 80. He was a British filmmaker and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in the United Kingdom in both silent films and early sound films, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood. In 1956 he became an American citizen while retaining his British citizenship.
Hitchcock directed more than fifty feature films in his career lasting six decades. He remains one of the most popular and most famous filmmakers of all time. People recognised him due to cameo appearances in his own films and …show more content…
You can see this by the fact that Hitchcock cast fairly unknown actors. Anthony Perkins, who played Norman Bates, was known as a supporting actor and does not play main lead or “anti-hero” this was unexpected for the audience. The unknown actors meant that the audience could not tell what the film will be about due to the type-coating of the actors.
Hitchcock was clever with the censorship. Censorship was very strict in 1960s. Directors were not allowed to show explicit nudity, sexual activity and violent scenes including blood and on-screen death etc. Hitchcock gets round the censorship in the first scene by showing Sam and Marion in the hotel room getting dressed, the bed also is unmade. This leads to the audiences’ assumption of them sleeping together, this all happens without the audience seeing any explicit shots.
In the shower scene Hitchcock got round the censorship by Marion wearing a skin coloured bikini so it looks like Marion is naked but she actually is not. The film is shown in black and white so they can show blood as it was illegal to show blood in colour, chocolate sauce was used as blood. The sound of the attack on Marion was made by stabbing a watermelon. The camera-angles were clever as not one actually showed the knife stabbing