Hitchcock 101: Everything You've Ever Wanted to Know About Psycho

Have you ever been at one of those parties where people talk about movies and Hitchcock comes up, but you’ve never seen any Hitchcock? So then you get all sweaty and start avoiding people’s gaze? It feels like everyone is watching you, the world is slowly closing in and you get so claustrophobic and insane that you feel like you want to scream? Us neither. Funnily enough, the experience of watching Psycho for the first time feels exactly the same way. So now that you know what you’re in for, it’s time to stop making excuses and just watch it. Right now. Or rather, after you’ve listened to this podcast and before you go see Alexandre Phillipe’s illuminating documentary 78/52. This documentary defies the mere convention of looking back at an entire filmmaker’s career and it takes an even deeper focus than just examining one film. Instead, Phillipe focuses on one scene. Psycho’s infamous shower scene, which had 78 camera setups, 52 cuts and took seven days to shoot. In many ways, examining this one scene provides us with more insight on Hitchcock’s filmmaking than if we were to look at his resume as a whole. Jon Fusco sits down with Phillipe to discuss Hitchcock’s legacy, what Psycho has to say about his tendencies as a filmmaker, and plenty more interesting facts that will place you firmly in the realm of Hitchcock expert.

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