In this detailed analysis of "Psycho", the author explores all the elements that make up this film. In addition he develops various lines of argument about spectatorship, Hollywood narrative codes, psychoanalysis and editing and shot-composition, amongst other themes.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Durgnat's final work -- as much performance art or perilous high-wire act as textual explication -- goes a long way towards transforming Hitchcock's masterpiece into a fundamentally new film."--"Cinema Scope"
About the Author
The author of one of the seminal works of Hitchcock criticism, The Strange Case of Alfred Hitchcock (1974), Raymond Durgnat (1932-2002) was one of Britain's pre-eminent writers on cinema. Among his writings are books on Buñuel, Franju, Renoir, sexual alienation in the cinema, and a study of WR - Mysteries of the Organism for the BFI Modern Classics series (1999). He is Visiting Professor at the University of East London.
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3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Long Hard Look at Psycho is a detailed examinatiion of a Hitchcock classic,
By C. M Mills "Michael Mills" (Knoxville Tennessee) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
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This review is from: A Long Hard Look at "Psycho" (BFI Film Classics) (Hardcover)
British film scholar Raymond Durgnat has written a detailed
guidebook to the wonders of Hitchcock's classic thriller Psycho. Durgnat examines each of the key scenes with insights he has gleaned from filming techniques; psychological insights and keen observation of what is going on up on the big screen. Many readers will find the work to be enlighting. However, the book does tend to delve into psychobabble forgetting Hitch's own dictum "It's only a movie." The book would be best used in film study classes or with the study of Hitchcock and his films in an academic setting.
7 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A Long Hard Slog Through Psycho Babble,
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This review is from: A Long Hard Look at Psycho (BFI Film Classics) (Paperback)
Worth no more than a glance.
Which I actually regret to say, considering the amount of time, attention and determination to explain every single damn frame of this fascinating movie the good Professor obviously devoted to his project. Nonetheless, any serious attempt to make sense of his every profundity is absolutely guaranteed to turn off all but the most tiresomely nerdish cineaste. It took me two years to build up the desire to make it all the way through - and I am a fanatic about Psycho. Thus the scholars continue their age-old campaign to ruin enjoyment of art. Enough of this sort of psuedo-intellectual compulsive-obsessive navel gazing is certain to result in blinding students to an honest appreciation of film just as successfully as a few decades of it has soured most of us on reading literature for pleasure. They say that those who cannot do,teach. But what exactly is it that they do try to teach? (And just wait until the PhDs get around to videogames!) Anyway, what is saddening and maddening about Mr. Durgnat's effort is that there are indeed numerous excellent and fascinating insights about Psycho to be discovered amidst its many pages of self congratulation. Had these pages been briskly edited down into a concise and readable essay - say one quarter the book's length - I am certain that it would have earned and deserved a much wider and truly appreciative audience. Unfortunately, as it stands, an honest admirer of this marvelous and historic film can only be obligated to shout out - in true horror-mode fashion - to the curious reader thinking of taking a peek deep down inside: Don't go in there! Or, if you must, just borrow a copy for a quick "diegetic" browse. Or read Mr. Rebello's excellent "The Making of Psycho" instead.
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