last night was the final class lecture and we watched "psycho". again it was partially ruined by the class laughing at inappropriate moments. what the fuck is their problem? i was completely wrapped up in the genius of the film. i had forgotten a lot of it, which surprised me. at one point i even jumped in my seat a bit--that is how much i had forgotten of the film! it starts brilliantly with titles by saul bass and music by bernard herrmann. the use of music really set the standard for horror films to come and marketing towards youth. it was just fantastic to see it on a big screen with the audio engulfing you. while watching "psycho", i kept drawing parallels to a favorite horror film of mine, "the texas chainsaw massacre": the interior of the house, the problem of a psycho family, dressing in drag, an elderly woman's corpse kept 'alive', the use of heat in narrative context...

while researching materials for the paper i wrote on "vertigo", i came across some information on "psycho". i know some things about hitchcock and "psycho" in particular thanks to growing up close to universal studio and watching their little hitchcock moviemaking exhibit. that knowledge coupled with what we learned in class, i tried to pay attention to the technical elements in the film. all i can say is wow, filmmakers like hitchcock are so inspiring.

when reading the credits in the beginning of the film, i saw hitchcock's daughter's name. after seeing her in "strangers on a train", i was eager to see what role she had in "psycho" because i could not remember. as soon as she appeared on screen, i wanted to bust out laughing (in joy) and point at her in class screaming that it's patricia! when she spoke it was hard to suppress the laughter because i find her voice to be very unique and amusing. she delivered the lines perfectly. her acting overall was brilliant in it. she was just so right for the part. instead of watching hitchcock films searching for alfred's cameo, i now want to search for patricia's cameos!

of course, anthony perkins cannot be denied due credit. amazing, brilliant, those words aren't good enough to describe his performance. flawless. a superficial thing that surprised me about perkins: he looked really cute in some of his profile shots. his shy quality and acting style heavily reminded me of james duval. i know that duval has already been in a horror film, and his psycho bunny did look a bit disturbing in "donnie darko", but now i'm thinking that i would really like to see him in some sort of dark, slightly horror film. i guess i better start writing screenplays!