Photo reblogged from Absurd Theater of Desire with 3,063 notes
absurdtheaterofdesire, waltdisneywithblood:
Alfred Hitchcock directing John Gavin and Janet Leigh during the filming of Psycho (1960).
Source: waltdisneywithblood
Photo with 18 notes
Alfred Hitchcock and Ina Balke photographed by Jeanloup Sieff on the set of Psycho for Harper’s Bazaar, January 1962
(More from the same series here and here)
Via Le Clown Lyrique
Photo with 41 notes
Alfred Hitchcock and Ina Balke photographed by Jeanloup Sieff on the set of Psycho for Harper’s Bazaar, January 1962
(From the same series)
Via Le Clown Lyrique
Jeanloup Sieff - Alfred Hitchcock and model Ina Balke on the set of Psycho for the January 1962 edition of Harper’s Bazaar
(via flngs)
Audio post reblogged from Old Hollywood with 110 notes - Played 1,989 times
Psycho (A Narrative for Orchestra) - composed & conducted by Bernard Herrmann (for this 1969 London Philharmonic recording, Herrmann arranged highlights from his score for Psycho, including the iconic main theme & shower scene music, into this shorter suite)
“Going far beyond the temporary shock effects of conventional scary-movie scores, the composer summons what Edmund Burke defined as terror—something deeper than horror, the sense that the world is infinitely treacherous, that no place is safe, even a comfort zone like a shower. That Herrmann used only strings, normally a Hollywood marker for schmaltzy romance, is even more startling.
Herrmann’s music did more than just enhance Psycho; it probably saved it. A story of illicit love that morphs into a crime thriller and finally a lurid horror shocker, Psycho was a sensation with audiences. But during shooting, Hitchcock became convinced it was a dud, that something fundamental was missing, and was on the verge of cutting it up and putting it on television—until he heard the music. Herrmann passionately believed in the project and was convinced it needed only his score. He composed the shower cue in secret, against Hitchcock’s explicit directive, and boldly played it for him after Hitchcock returned to the set from a Christmas break.
Hitchcock openly praised Herrmann for the Psycho score, something he rarely did with his collaborators, but Herrmann worried that Hitchcock resented his pivotal role in the film’s success. Psycho was the beginning of a tragic rift that culminated in Hitchcock publicly firing Herrmann in 1966 for disobeying his directives for Torn Curtain…According to John Williams, Hitchcock’s final composer, ‘Hitchcock may have felt that his style was too dependent on Herrmann’s music, and that may have wounded his pride. They ended up being two matadors opposing one other.’
Photo reblogged from Old Hollywood with 61 notes
Lila Crane (Vera Miles) makes the acquaintance of Mrs. Bates in Psycho (1960, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
Photo reblogged from Old Hollywood with 83 notes
Janet Leigh in Psycho (1960, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
“I think he’s a very good technician. And he has something in Psycho, he had some moments. Psycho is one of his most interesting pictures because he had to make the picture very fast, with very primitive means. He had little money, and this picture tells very much about him. Not very good things.”
“He is completely infantile, and I would like to know more - no, I don’t want to know - about his behaviour with, or, rather, against women. But this picture is very interesting.”
-Ingmar Bergman on Alfred Hitchcock (1971)