Ufr angellier close-up on alfred hitchcock

3.Clues Given by Hitchcock

Norman’s behaviour

In The Power of the Image: Essays on Representation and Sexuality, Annette Kuhn argues that “an actor’s role is assumed like a mask, the mask concealing the performer’s ‘true self’¹⁹.” Psycho can be analysed as a play within the play since Anthony Perkins performs the character of Norman Bates who himself acts as if he were Mrs Bates from time to time. The film may be interpreted as an example of Shakespeare’s famous lines: “All the world’s a stage, / And all the men and women merely players” from As you Like It. Besides, at the end of the film, a shot showing Norman arriving in the house can be seen as a metaphor for a theatre. The two parts of a curtain frame the window and Norman is right in the middle of the screen. When the curtains open in a theatre, a story is about to be told. In the film, it is the truth that is about to be revealed (see Fig. 17).

Fig. 17: The curtains resemble those of a theatre

When Norman describes the cabin to Marion, he cannot pronounce the word “bathroom”. First, we could think it is due to his shyness. Yet, the audience will rapidly understand that Norman has chosen to rent this cabin to Marion on purpose because there is a hole between the wall of his parlour and that of the bathroom. He will be able to spy on her and he has probably already planned to do so.

When Norman decides to clean the bathroom and to hide Marion’s body, he is very methodical. He uses the shower curtain to wrap her body and he is careful of getting rid of all the evidence. He does not panic and behaves as if he had already done such a thing. The spectators do not realise this when they watch the film for the first time because they are still shocked. Yet, Norman’s determination is arguably a clue about his guilt.

When Arbogast questions Norman about Marion, he replies that nobody has come into his motel for a couple of weeks, and he adds that he does not even ask the customers to register anymore. Yet, he still changes the linen and affirms that: “Old habits die hard.” [1:06:03]. This may be another clue given by Hitchcock. Indeed, when uttering such a sentence, Norman does not only talk about the linen, he possibly also refers, consciously or not, to the fact that he is a serial killer and that he cannot help but murder people.

At the end of the film, when Lila investigates in the house, the decoration of the second room she enters is double-sided. There are elements belonging both to the bedroom of a child and that of an adult at the same time. Here, Hitchcock gives us clues concerning Norman’s personality. Indeed, even if he is a grown-up, he still sleeps in the bedroom of his childhood and needs his mother as much as a little child does. He needs to speak to her and to have her consent. To a certain extent Norman has remained the little boy he used to be.

The importance of costumes, sets and props

At the beginning of the film, we penetrate into Marion Crane’s intimacy. She is shown in a hotel room with her lover Sam Loomis. The character is half-dressed and wears white underwear. On the contrary, when she is in her bedroom, after the theft of the forty thousand dollars, she wears black underwear.

Fig. 18: Before the theft Fig. 19: After the theft

The use of the black and white colours is probably another clue given by Hitchcock since white is traditionally associated with heaven and what is good, whereas black represents evil. Consequently the director may have wanted to show that there are two sides in everyone’s personality. Besides, the scene where Marion is seen in her black underwear happens just before she escapes with the money, which reinforces what has just been said. In her book, Amanda Wells writes about the use of black underwear as Marion’s “descent into evil²⁰.”

Birds are a recurrent theme in Psycho, which is quite appropriate for the future director of The Birds (1963). A lot of critics, such as Donald Spoto and Amanda Wells, have dealt with this theme. When Marion and Norman enter the latter’s parlour, several close-ups are used to show stuffed birds. One of them is a bird of prey and it can be seen as symbolic of Norman’s state of mind [34:44] (Fig. 20). Indeed, he is about to kill Marion. Moreover, just before she leaves the parlour, a low-angle medium close-up shows her standing with a stuffed crow next to her [42:33] (Fig. 21). The beak of the animal is directed to her neck and it can be seen as a metaphor for the knife which will kill her. Besides, it can be said that the stuffed birds represent Mrs Bates in two ways: she has been stuffed by her son and she is about to kill Marion via Norman.

Fig. 20: Norman, the predator Fig. 21: Marion, the victim

Another important element of the set is the painting that is used to hide the hole in the wall between Norman’s parlour and Marion’s bedroom. Even if the spectators do not have time to see it properly, the painting has not been chosen at random. An explanation for this choice is given by Barbara Creed:

The painting (…) is that of Susanna and the Elders²¹, a fictional story set during the Jewish Exile in Babylon; it is particularly interesting in relation to voyeurism. Two elders conceive a passion for Susanna whom they spy on when she bathes in the garden. (…) The painting depicts the moment where they apprehend her, trying to hold her semi-naked struggling body. Susanna and the Elders points to man’s voyeurism and desire to punish woman for her supposed sexual sins. Before removing it from the wall, Norman stares for a moment at this painting, as if the scene it portrayed matched his own private fantasy²².

In his film Psycho, directed in 1998, Gus Van Sant makes explicit the sexual fantasies Hitchcock merely hinted at: in the second film, indeed, Norman does not only peep at Marion, he masturbates at the same time.

The stairs, as well as the insistent opposition between what is up and what is down (hence the themes of verticality and horizontality), also have a lot of importance. In L’Escalier dans le cinéma d’Alfred Hitchcock: Une dynamique de l’effroi, Lydie Decobert explains that the scene in which Norman goes down the stairs with his mother to place her in the cellar means that he has decided to take control of his own mind and wants his late mother to stop controlling him:

Mais cette mère n’est pas morte pour lui, elle l’habite et dans la seconde scène préparant “la descente au tombeau”, Norman décide de ne plus être l’instrument d’actes criminels qu’il réprouve et dont il a honte, adoptant pour la première fois une attitude d’homme vis-à-vis de cette femme possessive au-delà de la mort! Il s’agit de la maîtriser et de punir ses forfaits.²³

Besides, the basement may be seen as a metaphor for Hell whereas the attic is a reassuring place where Norman has kept all the souvenirs of his childhood. Decobert goes on explaining the difference between what is upstairs and what is downstairs: « En haut, la mère “parait” vivante (on la croit vivante) tandis qu’en bas, elle “apparait” morte (on la voit morte). »²⁴ The basement can thus be analysed as the place where the truth is to be revealed. Besides, if Lila had not decided to go downstairs, she would not have discovered the truth about Mrs Bates, and therefore about Norman.

The window shots are really important and they tell a lot about the compulsive voyeuristic nature of Norman. For instance, the series of shots/reverse shots starting [1:28:13] is interesting because it is not only made up of the usual succession of two or three shots that make the spectators understand that they are dealing with a POV shot. In his book Point of View in the Cinema²⁵, Edward Branigan calls the three-shot structure a "closed structure". Here (Fig. 22 to Fig. 26), shots 1, 3 and 5 repeatedly show Norman at his window, and this pattern is even more than a closed structure. The repetition of the shots stresses Norman’s urge to gaze. Also, the lace curtains possibly connote the character's feminine side. Thirdly, the presence of the curtains themselves, as props, introduces the metaphor of the theatre once again.

Fig. 22: First shot [1:28:14] Fig. 24: Third shot [1:28:19]

Fig. 23: Second shot [1:28:16] Fig. 25: Fourth shot [1:28:20]

Fig. 26: Fifth shot [1:28:23]

Another prop plays an essential role. When Lila goes into the cellar and sees Mrs Bates from the back, there is a light bulb in the foreground [1:40:34]. The director did not use the light bulb at random. Indeed it symbolises the light of knowledge and reinforces the idea that Lila is about to discover the truth. This scene ends with a close-up of Mrs Bates [1:41:22]. The use of the light is very interesting because, as Lila has hit the bulb, light and shadow are to be seen on Mrs Bates as the light swings. It may therefore suggest that, even if the truth has been revealed, there is more to discover.