Throughout the film industry, Alfred Hitchcock’s film Psycho has revolutionized the horror genre with his ways of merging the obvious with the mysterious. Alfred Hitchcock, ‘Master of Suspense,’ is known for his filming techniques which made his film stand out compared to other horror films during his period. Hitchcock used these techniques throughout the film Psycho to allow the viewers to get an insight of what is happening in the film. One of the most important scenes, where Hitchcock used several of techniques to reveal the film, is the parlor scene. The shot-by-shot analysis of the parlor scene is characterized by dialogue, lighting, symbols, and the four-quadrant rule. These techniques give us insights into the personality of Norman Bates,
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The scene begins with Norman inviting Marion over for dinner in his parlor. Norman says, “I have the parlor behind this... if you'd like.” This senses some sort of a trap for Marion as Norman states “my parlor” showing Norman as the predator and Marion as the prey. The predator, Norman, can be seen inviting the prey, Marion, into his trap which is the parlor. As Marion enters the parlor and begins to eat, Norman says, “You eat like a bird.” This idea contributes to Marion being the prey since birds are mostly small animals with no little to no combat skills. This idea becomes evident in the shower scene when we see Norman kill Marion showing that these dialogues foreshadowed Marion walking into Norman’s trap which is the parlor. As Marion is eating and talking to Norman about possibly putting his mother ‘someplace’, Norman says, “An Institution? A madhouse? People always call a madhouse "someplace." This idea is quite unique as we can see Norman’s facial expression change almost immediately to distress showing that he disproves the idea of getting her put ‘someplace.’ This idea becomes evident at the end when the film reveals that Norman’s mother being a part of Norman. We can see his mother didn’t like the idea of being put ‘someplace’ causing her side to take over Norman during that …show more content…
In the scene when Norman meets Marion outside of the parlor, we can see the low-key side lighting being used which results in Norman’s face to be half lit while the other half is dark and Marion’s face is lit showing a warm glow. Low key lighting is often used to signal danger or sadness. Norman’s intentions seem unclear to the viewer since the viewer doesn’t know if he has good or evil intentions towards Marion. The lightening resembles his unclear intentions since the lit half of his face resembles his good side and the dark half is his evil side. Marion’s intentions seem good due to the warm glow displayed on her face showing she has no evil intentions towards Norman. She planned to return the forty-thousand dollars that she stole from her employer showing that she is not in the shadows of evil. The glow also resembles her innocence and foreshadows danger for her since we see the shot surrounded by dark shadows showing Marion as a powerless and weak figure. Later in the scene, we see the shot of Marion eating in the parlor that only has a single source of lighting, which is a lamp brightly shining on her face while Norman is accompanied with dark shadows again. This is not a coincidence that Norman is constantly being shot in a mixture of light and dark shadows, but rather foreshadowing from Alfred that he potentially has evil intentions
The scene begins with Norman inviting Marion over for dinner in his parlor. Norman says, “I have the parlor behind this... if you'd like.” This senses some sort of a trap for Marion as Norman states “my parlor” showing Norman as the predator and Marion as the prey. The predator, Norman, can be seen inviting the prey, Marion, into his trap which is the parlor. As Marion enters the parlor and begins to eat, Norman says, “You eat like a bird.” This idea contributes to Marion being the prey since birds are mostly small animals with no little to no combat skills. This idea becomes evident in the shower scene when we see Norman kill Marion showing that these dialogues foreshadowed Marion walking into Norman’s trap which is the parlor. As Marion is eating and talking to Norman about possibly putting his mother ‘someplace’, Norman says, “An Institution? A madhouse? People always call a madhouse "someplace." This idea is quite unique as we can see Norman’s facial expression change almost immediately to distress showing that he disproves the idea of getting her put ‘someplace.’ This idea becomes evident at the end when the film reveals that Norman’s mother being a part of Norman. We can see his mother didn’t like the idea of being put ‘someplace’ causing her side to take over Norman during that …show more content…
In the scene when Norman meets Marion outside of the parlor, we can see the low-key side lighting being used which results in Norman’s face to be half lit while the other half is dark and Marion’s face is lit showing a warm glow. Low key lighting is often used to signal danger or sadness. Norman’s intentions seem unclear to the viewer since the viewer doesn’t know if he has good or evil intentions towards Marion. The lightening resembles his unclear intentions since the lit half of his face resembles his good side and the dark half is his evil side. Marion’s intentions seem good due to the warm glow displayed on her face showing she has no evil intentions towards Norman. She planned to return the forty-thousand dollars that she stole from her employer showing that she is not in the shadows of evil. The glow also resembles her innocence and foreshadows danger for her since we see the shot surrounded by dark shadows showing Marion as a powerless and weak figure. Later in the scene, we see the shot of Marion eating in the parlor that only has a single source of lighting, which is a lamp brightly shining on her face while Norman is accompanied with dark shadows again. This is not a coincidence that Norman is constantly being shot in a mixture of light and dark shadows, but rather foreshadowing from Alfred that he potentially has evil intentions