Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho: A Casebook

by Robert Kolker

Overview

Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho: A Casebook collects some of the finest essays on this groundbreaking film—a film that is ideal for teaching the language of cinema and the ways in which strong filmmakers can break Hollywood conventions. Psycho is a film that can be used to present the structures of composition and cutting, narrative and genre building, and point of view. The film is also a highpoint of the horror genre and an instigator of all the slasher films to come in its wake. The essays in the casebook cover all of these elements and more. They also serve another purpose: presented chronologically, they represent the changes in the methodologies of film criticism, from the first journalist reviews and early auteurist approaches, through current psychoanalytic and gender criticism. Other selections include an analysis of Bernard Hermann's score and its close relationship to Hitchcock's visual construction; the famous Hitchcock interview by François Truffaut; and an essay by Robert Kolker that, through the use of stills taken directly from the film, closely reads its extraordinary cinematic structure. Contributors include Robert Kolker, Stephen Rebello, Bosley Crowther, Jean Douchet, Robin Wood, Raymond Durgnat, Royal S. Brown, George Toles, Robert Samuels, and Linda Williams.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195169195
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/19/2004
Series:	Casebooks in Criticism
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	8.30(w) x 5.60(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Robert Kolker is Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Table of Contents

1. "Good Evening...": Alfred Hitchcock Talks to Francois Truffaut about "Pure Cinema," Playing His Audience Like an Organ, and Psycho2. Introduction, Robert Kolker3. The Inception, Stephen RebelloFrom Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, Stephen Rebello4. Early ReceptionHitchcock's 'Psycho' Bows at 2 Houses, Bosley CrowtherPsycho Entry for "Ten Best Films"5. The Building of a ReputationHitch and His Audience, Jean DouchetPsycho, Robin WoodPsycho, Raymond Durgnat6. Psycho's MusicHerrmann, Hitchcock, and the Music of the Irrational, Royal S. Brown7. Psycho and the Gaze"If Thine Eyes Offend Thee...": Psycho and the Art of Infection, George Toles8. Psychoanalytical ApproachesEpilogue: Psycho and the Horror of the Bi-Textual Unconscious, Robert Samuels9. Gender, Reception, and the PostmodernDiscipline and Fun: Psycho and Postmodern Cinema, Linda Williams10. The Man Knew More Than Too MuchThe Form, Structure, and Influence of Psycho, Robert Kolker