Psycho

I want to talk about the camera’s “looking” and following Norman walking the stairs to his mother’s room at 1:26, and specifically on how the camera’s looking works with the architecture to creates the uncanniness in home, and structurally echos with two other interactions between characters and the staircase. At the beginning of the sequence, Norman leaves the motel, runs up the hill and walks into the house. The camera at the start faces the door, and centers Norman with a still medium shot. (Side note: the translucent blinds covering the glass door also creates an interesting shadow of Norman, similar to a screen or the bathroom curtains). Then the camera follows Norman as he walks toward the left of the scene, rotating counterclockwise as Norman walks towards the stairs. The camera rotation stops at an extremely angle, where the ornate newel is directly at the 1/3 line of the frame, and the dark wood newel almost entirely blocked Norman. This shot certainly reminds me of the blocking shots in Notorious and Vertigo. I think the newel here characterizes the house, and to a degree its ornateness and verticality is in direct contrast with the modernity and horizontality represented by the motel. Then the camera cuts to a still back medium shot, stopping at the foot of the stairs and waiting for Norman to go up the stairs. This shot could create suspense as a long take already, as the audience patiently waits for some action to happen with or without seeing it, like in Suspicion. But as Norman is blocked by the stair railing (again), the camera here started to pan up, approaching the mother’s room. This ghosting movement seems to defy the gravity. The camera’s focus is on the door, and when it gets really close to the stair railing, the stair railing almost blocks the lower frame. This stair sequence echos with Lila’s interaction with the stairs at 1:36. The camera then frames the newel (now out of focus) on the right side of the screen, and Lila also blocked behind the stair railings. The camera then passes the barrier, keeps going closer to the door, and most importantly keeping getting higher and higher. The camera at the tallest point could only frame the top of the door frame. At the tallest point the camera I almost thought the camera would be able to penetrate through the ceiling or the wall and peek into the mother’s room, if this film was shot in an interior set with no ceiling. As if it realizes the room is impregnable, the camera turns and resets to a topdown birdie view and witness Norman carrying his mother downstairs. And this neutral “omniscient” (yet hides the important information of Norman’s identity) shot occurred between at 1:17, when Arbogast climbs up the stairs and gets murdered. I also wonder if the ghostly camera movement has a connection with the birds and taxidermy, as it reminds me of the earlier shot in Norman’s taxidermy room 40 mins into the film, where the stuffed bird is at the upper corner of the room, and the camera specifically frames Norman on the lower right with the bird almost overlooking at the room.