Film Language and Representation Post

Film Language and Representation

Using your choosen 5 minute extract, tie the particular details of the scene back to your broader research.

My extract takes place at 1:30:32. So far, the audience has come to see Marion be killed in the shower by Norman Bates, a, well, psycho, and subsequently having an inspector then Marion's sister Lila and boyfriend Sam investigate what happened to the previous person. In the extract itself, Lila sneaks into Norman's house while Sam distracts him with small talk in the lobby of the motel. The intensity increases, and suddenly Norman ca't take it anymore, these insults to his mother, and hits Sam in the head, running after Lila. Lila is exploring the house during these events, first examining the mothers room and its intricacies, and  then later looking at Norman's room and its simplicity. As Norman enter she house, she goes down into the cellar,  unknowing of the truth. My extract ends with her seeing the mummified remains of the  mother and her screaming horridly as Norman descends on her. The characters and issues are represented in my extract through Norman's fight with Sam, well as Lila's meeting with the corpse. The issues here are that Norman is now for sure having some kind of identity crisis over his mother, becoming overtly suspicious when he becomes offended by Sam's every remark. Another issues is what Lila finds in general. Firstly, she finds a bed with a deep imprint, meaning someone has slept there very recently (throwing off the viewer). Secondly, Lila is in Normans room and it appears as a kids room despite the fact Norman is a grown man. This mystery and suspense culminates as we reach the final issues, the fruit cellar, where Norman's mother turns out be be nothing but a taxedermised corpse.  And  the Norman appears in drag.

The performance of Janet Leigh, Anthony Perkins, and John Navid Gavin very dramatic.
From the screams, to the more subtle insinuation of Sam (Gavin), to the stuttered talking of Norman, all the characters interpretation of the dialogue is appropriate and complementary to the scene. It is interesting to note that the dialogue between Sam and Norman (Perkins) is under different subtexts for the both. Norman thinks that Sam is trying to blame his mother for something  but the fact of that matter is that Sam is only wondering where the money is and hasn't even thought that Marion could have been murdered. Both Sam and Lila are obvious to the truth, as Lila even tries to nudge Norman's mother  and address's her. Its also interesting to note that Anthony Perkins also changes his facial expression drastically depended what character eh is playing. For example in teh photo above he has a huge grin on his face, whereas Norman is usually always in a  slight sorrow.  

Speaking of this shot above, this shot uses cinematography and proxemics to create meaning. Lila is situated lowest and the cameras is at an low angle, looking up to Norman (as his mother). This creates an inferiority of both Lila and th audience and we feel threatened.  Similarly, Sam comes up from behind Norman and again repeats this same usage of proxemics: he is then the most dominant in scene and therefore overpowers Norman.  Another example of this proxemics and cinematography meaning,  is when Sam and Norman are talking, they discuss  the fate of Marion. Again, when Norman is lower in frame  he seems to be defensive. Similarly when Norman becomes more aggressive  he shirfts to a higher plane of eye axis than Sam asserting his superiority. And finally, camera moves are used to emphasize certain things in frame. For example, A slight dolly in to Norman being restrained by Sam and the knife in his hand suggests there inherent importance in the scene. Lighting plays a small role in creating more creepiness to the mother, as overhead eighth sources are usually so. 



The editing style used is one of a combination of realistic and classic styles of editing; present in the dialogue scenes is realism, and present in the more action intense scenes is cutting that adds to teh pace of the film, quick cuts, and there fore, classicism. The use of realism in the scene with Norman and Sam reveals the Norman nature of the scene.
The film uses setting very much so in this extract  The film uses set design to create entire characterizations of the characters for example, the mothers room is full of archaic and old funriture, giving it the creepy haunted house feeling. Light is obscured byt eh stain glass windows, and black angel statues fill the halls. The film makes use of emptiness in the cellar to suggest just that: emptiness and alone... -ness. Just the very fact that it is ins a cellar really does make it that much creepy-er.