Unless you have encyclopedic knowledge about Alfred Hitchock and his work, the title of this documentary will not give you any idea what it is about. That’s bad marketing in my opinion and the only reason I knew about this film was because I read about it being shown at a film festival. Had I come across it another way I wouldn’t have even given it a look. The movie also doesn’t explain its title, but the numbers reference the infamous shower scene in Psycho. 78 different camera angles were used and there are 52 cuts to create an iconic and influential moment in movie history. It was a scene that took 7 days to shoot, which in the end resulted in only 45 seconds, which were very effective though. Is it possible to analyse that during an hour and a half in an interesting way?
The answer to that is simple: yes! This documentary doesn’t only look at the scene itself, but also paints a picture of the time this movie was made in and what influenced it. You learn a lot about editing and how imagery is shot and the impact of it. Everything is analyzed in detail, even down to the question why the walls have white tiles on them. Editor, directors, actors (also those involved in Psycho), an art expert and various other people talk about this classic Hitchcock scene which result in a very complete whole, making you appreciate the genius even more. An interesting documentary which teaches you new insights and is a must see for the serious movie fan.
[score7]
Even if you’re not a film historian, this is still pretty fun to watch. Nice review.
Exactly Dan!