Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho: A Casebook (2004) edited by Robert Kolker
Robert Kolker | |
Oxford University Press Inc (2004) | |
ISBN 0195169204 (paperback) | |
LibraryThing | |
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Synopsis
"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.
Reviews
Contents
- "Good Evening ...": Alfred Hitchcock Talks to Francois Truffaut about "Pure Cinema," Playing His Audience Like an Organ, and Psycho
- Introduction — Robert Kolker
- From Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho — Stephen Rebello
- Hitchcock's 'Psycho' Bows at 2 Houses — Bosley Crowther
- Psycho Entry for "Ten Best Films"
- Hitch and His Audience — Jean Douchet
- Psycho — Robin Wood
- Psycho — Raymond Durgnat
- Hermann, Hitchcock, and the Music of the Irrational — Royal S. Brown
- "If Thine Eye Offend Thee...": Psycho and the Art of Infection — George Toles
- Epilogue: Psycho and the Horror of the Bi-Textual Unconscious — Robert Samuels
- Discipline and Fun: Psycho and Postmodern Cinema — Linda Williams
- The Form, Structure, and Influence of Psycho — Robert Kolker