‘78/52’ Review: The Shower Scene From ‘Psycho’ Gets Explored In Fascinating Detail [Fantasia Film Festival]
By Chris Evangelista/July 24, 2017 9:00 am EST
The background info on Hitchcock and Psycho make for informative fodder, but 78/52 truly springs to life when it begins to break-down the shower scene frame by frame (the doc’s title refers to the 78 camera setups and 52 cuts used to create the scene). This sequence is pure film nerd manna from heaven, analyzing every angle, every cut, every object in frame. Sometimes picking apart something and laying it bare can rob it of its power – after all, a good magician never reveals his or her secret. Yet that’s not the case here. The meticulous deconstruction of the shower scene ends up making it all the more potent, and you may find yourself picking up on things you never noticed before, even if you’ve already seen the scene in question a dozen times.
The only curious stumble in 78/52’s shower scene symposium is in how the film handles arguably the scene’s most effective element: the score by Bernard Herrmann. While there are many people on hand to wax poetically about Herrmann’s string-driven music, including Maniac composer Robin Coudert, 78/52 never plays the track in its entirety. Instead we only get snippets here and there of Herrmann’s masterful work. Whether this is a stylistic choice – Philippe reasoning we already know it so well so we didn’t need to hear it again, perhaps – or an issue with rights is unclear, but it’s a noticeable distraction to have multiple figures gushing about a musical piece we never get to hear.
Psycho is almost 60 years old, yet remains as remarkable now as it did when it first shocked unsuspecting audiences. Even now, after decades of films with far more extreme elements, Hitchcock’s masterful direction has the power to thrill. 78/52 is both a loving tribute to the work Hitchcock did as well as a sharp, enlightening lesson in what makes Psycho so special. This is the type of film that makes the viewer want to immediately watch a dozen more movies, the type of film that’ll drive a film fans nuts, in the best possible way./Film Rating: 8 out of 10
