IJS Vol 2.

1 - Graduate Special Issue

A Parallax View of Psycho

Richard Misek - University of Melbourne, Australia.

Introduction Parallax is the change visible when an object is seen fro "lavoj #i$ek%s The Parallax View &'(()* includes #i$ek uses !arallax as a !arallax in three two different !ers!ectives.

any !ers!ectives on !arallax. +n it, anifestations of

eta!hor for the ga! that o!ens u! whenever there co-exist

two irreconcilable !oints of view. ,he book is structured around

ain areas- !hiloso!hy, science, and !olitics. +n !hiloso!hy, !arallax is athe atical for ulae and our own ex!erience of

the ontological difference between subject and object. in science, it is the difference between the conce!tual Real of reality. in !olitics, it enco !asses all irreconcilable social antagonis s between individuals and grou!s, for exa !le /class struggle% &'(()- 00*. ,hough #i$ek%s conce!t of !arallax is clearly defined, his definition is wide, and so the conce!t is widely a!!licable. Accordingly, throughout the book, #i$ek layers !arallax onto !arallax, for exa !le suggesting that the co-existence of religious belief and doubt is itself caught u! in a !arallax, inas uch as it ins!ires in the believer both a feeling of anxiety and a consciousness of the ore /co ical% ele ents of religious belief &'(()- 123, 0(4*. 5ach exa !le of !arallax thus i !lies others, existing within a network of !arallax

relationshi!s infinitely extendable in 6es!ite this not extend his

ulti!le directions. references in The Parallax View can of exa !les used to

ulti!licity of !arallaxes, there is one direction in which #i$ek does ost of these take the for

eta!hor- that of cine a. ,he fil

be counted on two hands, and

de onstrate a !oint unrelated to cine a. 7or exa !le, #i$ek elaborates his scientific !arallax by referring to the rebels in The Matrix &Andy 8achowski 9 :arry 8achowski, 0;;;*, who ex!erience the /reality% of walking down a city street when in fact they inhabit the <desert of the Real=, i should !lay such a takes its title fro obili>ed on the chairs that connect the erely a to the Matrix &'(()044*.0 ?f course, as cine a is ode of re!resentation, it is not sur!rising that it

arginal role in #i$ek%s self-!roclai ed magnum opus. At the sa e

ti e, given the fact that !arallax is an o!tical !heno enon, and that The Parallax View a fil , this exclusion re ains slightly sur!rising. eta!hor of !arallax to cine a by looking at an +n this article, + extend #i$ek%s

exa !le of cine atic !arallax that #i$ek has hi self touched on, albeit without na ing it. +n Is There A Proper Way To Remake a Hitchcock Film?, #i$ek discusses @us Aan "ant%s 0;;2 re ake of Alfred Bitchcock%s Psycho &0;)(*. 7or #i$ek, Aan "ant%s fil !ro ises ore than it delivers- it is a /failed aster!iece%, neither different enough fro aster!iece, its difference-in-sa eness ore si ilarities there are between is the closest Bitchcock%s to elaborate its the es, nor si ilar enough to achieve /the uncanny effect of the double% &'((3* ,hough the re ake is no two objects, the co can still be !ut to critical work. As #i$ek notes, the

ore visible the differences beco e. Aan "ant%s fil

ercial cine a has yet co e to du!licating an existing fil . Carrative, dialogue, usic, mise!en!sc"ne, and editing are all al ost the sa e as in

!roduction design,

Bitchcock%s Psycho. ,he only significant stylistic difference is that Bitchcock%s Psycho is black-and-white and Aan "ant%s is color. Decause the two fil s are otherwise so si ilar, they for an ideal basis for an ex!loration of the cine atogra!hic !arallax between black-and-white and colour. ,here is another notable fil -related !arallax that #i$ek engaged with before /discovering% his guiding eta!hor.' +t is the !arallax between his !sychoanalytic a!!roach to cine a and that of /!ost-theorists% including #i$ek%s cine atic theoretical ne esis 6avid Dordwell. #i$ek has devoted his career to :acanian theory. Dordwell rejects outright that there can be any satisfactory /,heory of 5verything%. Dy extension, Dordwell%s ethodology ty!ically involves looking in detail at the various for al ele ents

of individual fil s &for exa !le, narrative, lighting, editing, design, etc.*, and then using inductive reasoning to establish / iddle-level% theories about how these ele ents function across grou!s of fil s E for exa !le, the grou! of fil s known as /classical Bollywood cine a% &Dordwelll 9 Farroll 0;;)- 1*. ,hough he is devoted to ,heory, #i$ek%s ethodology is far less syste atic than Dordwell%s- #i$ek develo!s his ideas by eta or!hoses. A further oving eans of juxta!ositions, associations, inversions, and

contradiction exists between Dordwell%s interest in our cognitive res!onses to the onto which we !roject our desires. ,here are any other contradictions besides.

i age &what the screen !laces in our heads*, and #i$ek%s interest in cine a as a screen +n short, these two irreconcilable a!!roaches to cine a !rovide a !erfect exa !le of #i$ek%s definition of !arallax as the co-existence of two !ers!ectives between which there is an /antinomy which can never be dialectically < ediatedGsublated= into a higher synthesis, since there is no co on language, no shared ground% &#i$ek '(()ore acute than in their res!onses to 4*. As ,odd Mc@owan re inds us in the recent I#$% issue on /#i$ek and Fine a%, the antino y between #i$ek and Dordwell is nowhere each other%s work &'((3*. +n The Fright o& Real Tears, #i$ek dis isses /!ost-theorists% by suggesting they attack /a co ically si !lified caricature of :acan, Althusser, et al.% &'((0- H*. Dordwell in turn, usually a !aragon of acade ic antino y by attacking #i$ek as /an insistent acade ic like least. +s there any way to reconcile the twoJ + believe there is, and that it involves engaging with the third constituent of !arallax. #i$ek%s eta!hor of !arallax focuses on the /!arallax ga!% between two irreconcilable !ers!ectives. the /object% of these !ers!ectives re ains i !licit. + wish to ada!t this view of !arallax, and suggest that when #i$ekian and Dordwellian critical !ers!ectives are focused outward on a cine atic /object%, we can gain a better view of it than by looking fro !ers!ectives.1 + one or other !ers!ective both alone. Accordingly, in this essay + ex!lore the cine atic /object% of Psycho fro e, still looking for anners, intensifies the onologist% &'((4*. Flearly there is no

chance of future dialectic discourse between #i$ek and Dordwell. 7or a beginning ethodologies to e ulate and worthwhile Iuestions to acade ia%s guiding lights is frustrating to say the ask, this antino y between two of fil

a! the theoretical !arallax ga! between #i$ek and Dordwell onto the

stylistic !arallax ga! between Bitchcock%s Psycho and Aan "ant%s. 7or reasons that + ho!e will beco e clear, + look at Bitchcock%s Psycho through a #i$ekian eye, and Aan

"ant%s Psycho through a Dordwellian eye.

iek- !e Psycho Bitchcock ade Psycho at a ti e when realist fil was ost often black-and-white, and

black-and-white

ost often signified realis . +talian Ceo-Realis , cin'ma ('rit', in Bollywood gradually shifted towards color ore narrowly the !reserve of certain ty!es beca e

television news, and the 7rench nou(elle (ague were al ost exclusively black-andwhite. 7urther ore, as the aesthetic nor of fil in the 0;4(s, black-and-white beca e ever

aking and certain s!ecific genres. Pro inent a ong these were social realis

and docu entary. "o, inevitably, black-and-white cine atogra!hy and realis day. At the sa e ti e, fil ing in black-and-white necessarily entails a visual transfor ation. + ages are inscribed onto the fil negative

associatively connected. ,his association continues, in a weakened for , to the !resent inus their hue and

saturation. Regardless of how a black-and-white fil and social realis

is lit, by si !le virtue of being

black-and-white it is a !artial abstraction of visual reality. +t was not only docu entaries that tended to be black-and-white in the 0;4(s, but also &ilms noirs ood often de!ended on heightened visuals. 7ro the and horror fil s, fil s whose

!ers!ective of the 0;4(s, black-and-white can thus be seen as both realistic and unrealistic.H +t connotes realis , but it also si !lifies and styli>es visual reality. Bitchcock ex!loits this connotative flexibility to create in Psycho a fil the horror genre, and of Cor an%s !syche. ,he fil of transitions between dayti e grays and the dee! shadows and high contrasts of night, of begins with a flat, gray, televisual aesthetic. +n the o!ening scene, set in a hotel roo , Marion Frane &Kanet :eigh* is having a lunchti e encounter with a lover. As Ka es Care ore observes, the Aenetian blinds in the bedroo do not cast ex!ressive noir-ish shadows on the walls &0;31- '2*. throughout the fil %s early Phoenix seIuences, &figs. 0a 9 'a*.4 ,he grayness of Dright, flat lighting re ains the nor

!roviding it with an initial visual connotation of realis

the i ages can also be regarded as a visual analogue to what #i$ek refers to as the /dreary, grey <leaden ti e=% of Marion%s daily routine &0;;'- '')*. ,his leaden ti e anifests itself ost obviously in her regular lunchti e trysts E an atte !t to break out

of her re!etitive life has beco e incor!orated into it. Flearly, Marion has not reached what Lierkegaard, via. #i$ek, refers to as the ethical stage of re!etition, a stage at which /the subject has learned to avoid the twin tra!s of i !atient ho!e in the Cew and of nostalgic e ory of the ?ld% &0;;'a- 32*. Marion fails to find satisfaction in the return of oney lands in her hands E she buys a new and styli>ation, but it also the "a e, and so E when an envelo!e of car and drives off into the desert. Cot only is black-and-white able to enco !ass realis allows for sea less transitions between the two. 7il ing in black-and-white si !lifies visual reality E the co !licating variable of color is re oved. Fhanges in lighting fro shot to shot cannot cause jarring color shifts, so one lighting style can give way to another al ost i !erce!tibly. Psycho includes several transitions between realis styli>ation, the night on the desert highway outside Phoenix, the cine atogra!hy contrast, flat grays of realis contrast black-and-white of ex!ressionis through the windscreen beco es ever oves fro and ost re arkable of which occurs during Marion%s journey. As day turns to the lowto the dee! shadows of the horror genre and the high &figs. )a-0(a*. "hot by shot, the scene ore iconic until all that can be seen is on-

co ing headlights and !ounding rain, and all that is left in Marion%s reaction shots is a face floating in darkness &figs. 00a-04a*. After a while, even the headlights disa!!ear, see ingly washed away by the rain, and Marion finds herself on a road to nowhere in a series of shots that looks forward to the de ented o!ening of 6avid :ynch%s )ost Highway &0;;3*. At last, out of the blackness, the Dates Motel a!!ears, and Marion%s world is usur!ed by the darker world of Cor an Dates &Anthony Perkins*. +n discussing the the fro i ove fro Psycho%s first !hase to its second !hase, #i$ek uses ove ent eta!hor of a Moebius stri!- /if we !rogress far enough on one surface, all of a one side of the stri! to the other takes !lace when Marion is ediately !rior to Marion%s urder, in #i$ek%s view, the fil urdered. s!ecifically,

sudden we find ourselves on its reverse% &0;;'- ''3*. #i$ek suggests that the

it occurs in Bitchcock%s fa ous close-u! shot of Marion%s dead eye &0;;'- ''2*. 5ven could still end conventionally. ,o extend his Lierkegaardian idea of re!etition- having reached a new level of aturity as a result of her conversation with Cor an and reali>ed that there is no orning. eta!hor of the Moebius stri! is s!ot on, in y view his choice of the /Cew% waiting for her out in the desert, she could return to work on Monday ,hough #i$ek%s eye shot as the fil %s key

o ent of transition is slightly off. + suggest instead that it is

in Marion%s journey fro

day to night that her everyday circuit is twisted. Decause the

fil %s grays gradually turn to black, the !recise !oint of transition E like the !recise !oint at which the front of a Moebius stri! beco es the back E is i !ossible to locate. ?ne thing see s clear to Dates e, however- cine atogra!hically, by the ti e Marion arrives at the realis to horror G ex!ressionis , fro Marion%s ain otel, the fil %s transition fro

neurosis to Cor an%s !sychosis, has already occurred. ,here is nothing es!ecially unrealistic about the Dates Motel E even the
th

house, though eerie, is ty!ical late 0; century A erican @othic. ?ver the following ten inutes, all that takes !lace is an obliIue series of exchanges between an insecure young an with a de anding !arent and a confused young wo an carrying a large oney. +t is u! to the cine atogra!hy to signal that Marion has oved to the a ount of

unlit side of the Moebius stri!. 5arly signals include large areas of darkness, such as the doorway to Cor an%s !arlor, and disconcerting shadows, such as those cast by the stuffed birds inside the !arlor &figs. 4a 9 0)a*. @iven the isolated location of the and the fact that it is night, the darkness is visually !lausible. Bowever, it is also ex!ressive. ,he dark areas on screen suggest !laces the ca era should not go, just as Marion%s conversation with Cor an throws u! !sychological locations u!on which it would be safer not to i !inge. Marion%s entry into Cor an%s !arlor is a hesitant and abortive entry into his ind. "he leaves !re aturely, having seen only this single &not Iuite innocuous* antecha ber, and so never discovers the truth about hi . +t re ains u! to her sister to co !lete the architectonic journey into Cor an%s !syche. +t is only in the fil %s cli ax, when :ila Frane &Aera Miles* enters the darkest recesses of the cellar that Cor an%s !sychosis is revealed. Another on-screen transition between day and night occurs while Arbogast &Martin Dalsa * Iuestions Cor an, following Marion%s disa!!earance. +t is dusk when the !rivate detective arrives at the Dates Motel. Arbogast and Cor an talk at length in the rece!tion area, and as they do so, the exterior light gradually fades. :ow contrast grays again bifurcate into high contrast blacks and whites. 8hen Cor an leans over to ins!ect the guest book, his face is shot fro al ost !arodic of horror below, with shadows so dee! as to be ovie lighting conventions &fig. 0;a*. ,he fil %s structural otel

tension between light and darkness takes !lace over ti e, but it is also !resent etony ically in the contrasting whites and blacks within individual shots. As Cor an leans over the desk, the fil %s two visual !olarities are a!!ed onto the contours of his

face, re inding us that the high contrast cine atogra!hy also articulates the fil %s do inant binary E Cor an%s s!lit-!ersonality. At the sa e ti e, Bitchcock delights in subverting the si !listic co ic book o!!osition of light and darkness, drawing attention to the fact that each is defined in relation to and so i !licit in the other. 7or exa !le, the fil %s narrative alternation between &safe* day and &dangerous* night is a fa iliar horror ovie convention. Met in the cellar, the safe G unsafe day G night dichoto y is inverted. :ila%s encounter with Mrs. Dates takes !lace during the day. ,he fil %s final night is a false night. Dlack and white are, of course, also sy bolically o!!osed. ,heir relation is not the culturally constructed, dialectic relation of black-and-white and color. rather, it is what 6eleu>e refers to as /an infinite o!!osition as it a!!eared to @oethe and the Ro antics% &0;2)- H;*. ,his o!!osition is nowhere !urest, ore a!!arent than in the bathroo where that the fil %s Marion dies, a site of !articular fascination for #i$ek. +t is in the bathroo ost brilliant whiteness &in the for

of the cera ic of the tiles, bathtub, sink, and

toilet* clashes infinitely with the absolute blackness that exists down the !lughole and beyond the u-tube. ,he whiteness of the cera ic surfaces can be seen as sy boli>ing cleanliness, !urity, civili>ation. Dy contrast, in the blackness of the bathroo bathroo !i!es lurks what #i$ek refers to as a /!ri ordial, !re-ontological Fhaos% &'((3*. ,he whiteness of furniture is an anal retentive whiteness, a re!ression of the un!alatable fact ixing with the faecal darkness of the bathroo the verisi ilar !i!es is the darkness of that our ho es are directly connected to the excre ental lake of a sewage far . ?bscenely Marion%s blood. 7reed fro enters the real ooring of redness, Marion%s black blood

of the sy bolic. +t looks nothing like real blood E it is darker, uglier,

dirtier &fig 02a*. Cor an%s understandable instinct is to re ove this dirt with a bucket and o!. Met for all his effort, the tension between blackness and whiteness re ains irreconcilable. Kust as the return of the bathroo whiteness of the bathroo o!!ing does not ake everything nor al again, so the anifested by the darkness that to its glea ing whiteness is only su!erficial. Deyond the walls it is still night, as

fra es the doorway in the wide shots of the bathroo . ,he bathroo %s fluorescent whiteness is a false daylight, just as the s!illed onto the bathroo o!!ing is a false erasure of the horror that has o! hi self u!. light floor. Cor an cannot

A reversed !olarity between darkness and light can be seen in the base ent of the Dates house. :ila%s descent into the cellar results in yet another transition fro

to dark, though this ti e the is not a literal ove ent fro

ove to darkness takes !lace in the afternoon &fig. '(a*. +t day to night but a figurative ove ent into the subjective is trans!osed into the false night of

night of Cor an%s id. ,he false day of the bathroo

the cellar. +n contrast to the intense, flat light of the bathroo , the only light in the cellar is a single bare light bulb, engulfed by darkness. +ts !resence serves to e !hasi>e rather than dis!erse the blacks. ,he darkness here is not so ething that see!s in fro the outside. +t originates in this roo . :ila has found herself i the excre ental Fhaos. Dathroo Psycho has ulti!le sources and ulti!le ersed in the source of and cellar together de onstrate that the blackness in eanings. +t is an incursion into the nor ality ixed together. +t is the without.

of #i$ek% !re-ontological Fhaos. +t is blood, bile, and excre ent darkness leaking out fro within us,

ixed with the e !tiness encroaching fro

Dlackness is all these things at once, and whatever else one%s i agination can transfor it into. #i$ek, for exa !le, concludes the first e!isode of The Per(ert*s +ui,e to -inema by extra!olating his co !arison of the toilets in Psycho and 7rancis 7ord Fo!!ola%s The -on(ersation &0;3H* to suggest that watching the blackness at the beginning of a fil like waiting for a toilet to flush. ,here is no li it to the extent that black can be inter!reted and ade to signify.) is

"ordwell- !e Psycho +f fil ing Psycho in black-and-white was a visually transfor ative act, then fil ing it in color was also transfor ative, but in reverse. +n @us Aan "ant%s re ake, the styli>ation achieved by the use of black-and-white is E in a sense E unma,e- Aan "ant%s fil a return for Psycho to its /original% !rofil ic existence in color. ?f course, as Peter 8ollen re inds us, /when a color fil Conetheless, ceteris pari.us, color fil is seen !rojected, the color is not in the Da>inian offers a ore accurate record of what is !resent atter what fil stocks, lighting gels sense a direct indexical registration of color in the natural world. it is a dye% &0;2(- 'H*. in front of the lens than does black-and-white. Co when a reel of fil co es back fro arks

and lens filters have been used during a shoot, or what digital !rocesses will follow, the lab, grass is al ost always a shade of green and sky a shade of blue. +t is this verisi ilitude that caused Aan "ant and his cine atogra!her Fhris 6oyle so e of their greatest !roble s.

,hroughout the !roduction, Aan "ant and 6oyle tried to du!licate the lighting techniIues of Kohn Russell, Bitchcock%s cine atogra!her, as closely as !ossible. Aan "ant recalls- /+n each shot, we%d go to the original 6A6 to try to
3

atch the lighting,

exce!t in colorN%. +n the fil %s early Phoenix seIuences, this is not too difficult. ,he lighting, as in Bitchcock%s Psycho, is bright and flat, largely without shadows. +n fact, when viewed on a television with the color turned down, the early scenes in the re ake translate into figures fro id-tone grays slightly grayer than those of the original. 5ven in low contrast black-and-white lighting, so e highlight and shadow is still necessary to !revent disa!!earing into the background. +n color fil , color itself se!arates objects each other, so less se!aration needs to be achieved through lighting. and figures fro !ro!s, and

Accordingly, Aan "ant and 6oyle allow the saturated colors of the costu es, sets, ake-u! to give !ro inence to individual objects and features. 7or exa !le, ost of the furniture is light gray, the walls are beige, and the !rints in the office scene,

on the walls are black-and-white &fig. 0b*. Marion &Anne Beche* is !ale and has blonde hair. Bowever, her eyes are dee! blue, and her dress is bright !ink, as is her li!stick and fingernail varnish. 5Iually !ro inent against the !ale background is the sun-dried orange face of slea>y tycoon ,o thus se!arated fro Fassidy &Fhad 5verett*. Fharacters and details are each other by eans of color. ,he sa e the background and fro

effect can be seen in Marion%s a!art ent E the !ale !ink of the walls is offset against Marion%s green bra and sli!, a red hat, a !ink flower, a blue sho!!ing bag, blue curtains, and a yellow envelo!e full of cash !erfectly co !le enting the blue bed sheets on which it has been de!osited. ,hough fro ost of the color in the first twenty inutes co es the costu es and !ro!s, occasionally a colored surface ins!ires 6oyle to use

colored lighting. 7or exa !le, when talking to the second-hand car dealer, Marion o!ens an orange !arasol. ,his !rovides 6oyle with an o!!ortunity to bathe her face in soft orange light. +n this way, a fla boyant use of color lighting is sacrifice in verisi ilitude &fig. 'b*. ,he colors in the Phoenix seIuences are an i aginative alternative to the gray id-tones of Bitchcock%s fil . Aan "ant%s !inks and oranges do !erha!s diverge a little fro the visual drabness of Bitchcock%s o!ening, but this in itself is no criticis diverges fro E bright the costu es often clothe bored, des!erate !eo!le. +ntense color often i !lies banality. After dark, however, when the cine atogra!hy in Bitchcock%s fil visual codes of realis , the cine atogra!hy in Aan "ant%s faces greater challenges. As ade !ossible without a

soon as Bitchcock and Russell%s lighting beco es low-key and directional, Aan "ant and 6oyle%s strategy of du!licating it in color beco es unfeasible. A recurrent !roble for cine atogra!hers is the Iuestion of light sources- how be ade to a!!ear internal to the aking !rocessJ Using obilisation of ele ents in a set in nineteenth-century otivated realistically% &Dordwell can the artificial light sources used to illu inate a fil

fil %s diegesis, so that they do not draw attention to the fil realistically fil otivatedJ Realistic otivation refers to the

Dordwell%s ter inology, the Iuestion beco es- how can artificial light sources be in order to increase the fil %s !lausibility, vi>.- /+n a fil

:ondon, the sets, !ro!s, costu es, etc. will ty!ically be ust a!!ear to e anate fro acco

et al. 0;24- 0;*. +f directional light is not to contradict a fictional fil %s reality effect, it diegetic sources- sunlight, streetlights, interior lights, and ode of re!resentation, it ore easily than color. +n black-and-white, a table does not so on. Decause black-and-white is an intrinsically styli>ed odates directional lighting

la ! can cast a long shadow on a wall without looking unrealistic, even though we know that table la !s usually give out soft light. Dy contrast, because color fil intrinsically styli>e, it is often ore i ediately a!!arent when a light source exceeds its oonlight.

otivation E one need only think of the countless after dark seIuences in bad thrillers that feature bright orange city streets and bedroo s bathed in electric blue ,he !roble of light sources is es!ecially significant when using directional lighting. +n

everyday life, directional light sources are relatively rare E they are generally restricted to desk la !s, s!otlights, torches, headlights, etc. +n the absence of the styli>ing effect of black-and-white, the a!!aratus of high contrast directional lighting beco es difficult to conceal. 5x!ressionis beco es irreconcilable with the de ands of realistic otivation. ,hough the dee! shadows cast by the stuffed birds in Cor an%s !arlor survive into Aan "ant%s fil , in color they raise the Iuestion of where the light is co ing fro - it is certainly not co ing fro roo
2

the soft glow of the table la !s that a!!ear to illu inate the is a!!arent in the scene with Arbogast

&figs. 4b 9 0)b*. ,he sa e !roble

&8illia

B. Macy*, when Cor an &Aince Aaughn* leans over the desk to ins!ect the i ic the original fil %s high contrast

otel register &fig. 0;b*. 8hy such darkness under Cor an%s chinJ Unsur!risingly, Aan "ant and 6oyle generally do not even atte !t to shots. 7or exa !le, when Marion is stabbed in the shower, Bitchcock%s first revelatory shot of Mrs. Dates is so intensely backlit that her figure is transfor ed into shadow &fig. 03a*. Paradoxically, the excessive lighting !ointed towards the ca era conceals her true

10

identity. +n color, such an extre e techniIue would again raise the Iuestion of where the light was co ing fro . "o the lighting is flattened and Mrs. Dates%s true identity is additionally concealed by the running water of the shower and so e subtle F@+ work re!lacing Aince Aaughn%s eyes with those of a fe ale &fig. 03b*. +nstead of using directional lighting to create at os!here, Aan "ant and 6oyle use saturated color. ?n Universal%s Psycho /0 website, 6oyle identifies the re!lace ent of high contrast with saturation as one of his guiding !rinci!les.; Cight &and false night* seIuences, which tend towards high contrast in Bitchcock%s fil , tend towards intense saturation in Aan "ant%s. Kust as the absence of daylight black-and-white, so it artificial, so colored lighting is akes !ossible high contrast akes !ossible saturated color lighting. At night, all light is ore easily justified than it is during the day. +n the otivate a shot

absence of the flattening white of daylight, all it takes to realistically

suffused in orange light is an orange la !shade. ,i e and again, as in the scene with Marion%s !arasol but to a greater extre e, 6oyle uses diegetic color to !rovide realistic otivation for his intensely colored lighting. 7or exa !le, the !ink and green neon of the otel sign turns Marion%s first inutes at the Dates Motel into a chro atic otel, the back window of her car is a cascade oves !ast a solid orange door, into the orange !hantas agoria. As she drives u! to the 7ro the green light of the car, Marion

of green, justified by the co bination of a green neon vacancy sign and !ouring rain. and white interior light of rece!tion &justified by an orange ceiling light and the !artially unshielded white light of two desk la !s*, then back out into the !ink light of the veranda &!resu ably justified by the red neon of the her cabin, his face is lit with a otel sign*. 8hen Cor an shows Marion ixture of &wall la !* orange and &bedside la !* white.

,he neon-infused colors of the Dates Motel are breathtaking. Unfortunately, they are also largely redundant. ,he heightened at os!here achieved through the high contrast blacks and whites of Bitchcock%s fil Cor an%s !arlor is !rofoundly cannot be achieved through saturation. rece!tion into the black s!ace of 7or exa !le, in Bitchcock%s Psycho, the view fro

enacing &fig. 1a*. +n Aan "ant%s fil , the sa e s!ace is inevitably akes the /night% scenes

affectively neutrali>ed by the surrounding oranges and !inks &fig. 1b*. +n addition, the sheer a ount of color lighting in Aan "ant%s fil uch brighter than in Bitchcock%s. +n The Analysis o& Film, Ray ond Dellour o!ens his cha!ter on Psycho by observing how unnervingly /obscure% the !hotogra!hy is &'((('12*. Co such clai could be ade for Aan "ant%s fil . +n black-and-white, when

11

Cor an a!!ears on the light clearly se!arates hi the

otel veranda with a tray of sandwiches, he re ains a !art of fro the black background &fig. Hb*. +nside Cor an%s !arlor, ore extre e

the darkness he has just ste!!ed out of &fig. Ha*. +n color, the increased a ount of fill ixture of orange and white light is al ost cheerful &fig. 4b*. An even

exa !le of sur!lus light can be seen when :ila Frane &Kulianne Moore* a!!roaches Mrs. Dates in the cellar. ,he e!icenter of the original fil %s darkness is transfor ed into a brightly lit aviary with a background wash of se i- otivated blue daylight &fig. '(b*. +n color, a single light bulb could not have !rovided enough realistic whole cellar. ,hough it is easy to !in so e of the lack of at os!here in the color Psycho on Fhris 6oyle%s decision to use colored lighting, it is rather the alternatives could have been. 7urther ore, there are failure of Aan "ant%s fil ore difficult to i agine what any occasions when the otivation to light a

to du!licate the workings of Bitchcock%s is due not to 6oyle%s

use of color but to the si !le !resence of color. 7or exa !le, in Aan "ant%s Psycho, Marion%s drive to the Dates Motel is a shot by shot du!licate of Bitchcock%s seIuence, even to the extent that Aan "ant used the sa e location for Marion%s encounter with a !olice an. Bowever, the !resence of color to night into a linear ove ent fro akes a gradual transition fro day to night day i !ossible. 8hile the absence of color in Bitchcock%s fil styli>es the transition fro

gray to black, the !resence of color in Aan "ant%s

ensures that we ex!erience the full chro atic variety of a desert sunset &figs. )b-0(b*. Pale blue sky and bright white sunlight give way to the !ink sky and golden light of sunset, followed by the dee! blue of twilight, before the final onset of darkness. ,he arrival of night is greeted with a visual fanfare. +t is also twilight when Arbogast first visits Cor an. +n Bitchcock%s Psycho, the light slowly fades over the length of their conversation. Russell gradually di s the /daylight% lighting through the windows until all that is left is the hard light of the la !s in rece!tion E another si !le as just seen, in color the di to this !roble is to ove ent fro ove ent fro gray to high contrast black-and-white. Dut, day to night involves a change of hues, so otivated. 6oyle%s solution

ing a set of lights to signify dusk cannot be realistically

ake it already dark when Arbogast and Cor an start talking. ,he uch of the blackness of Bitchcock%s fil , whose onochro e

result looks fine, but another leakage of night into day has been lost. Also lost is cine atogra!hy transfor s a variety of colors into black. Dy contrast, in Aan "ant%s fil ,

12

for black to exist on-screen it has to exist in front of the ca era. "o, for exa !le, the swa ! behind the bathroo
0(

otel /returns% to its original dark green, and the black blood in the i icked by chocolate syru! &fig. eaning, aking literal what in the closes down

beco es red- this ti e, blood cannot be

02b*. ,he verisi ilitude of color fil

original was o!en to sy bolic inter!retation. More broadly, the !resence of color brings about a disintegration of the visual and structural o!!ositions of the original fil . ,he narrative fluctuation between day and night is no longer !aralleled by a cine atogra!hic darkness, low contrast and high contrast, and realis atte !ts to differentiate the Dates Motel fro ove ent between light and and ex!ressionis . 6oyle

Phoenix through the use of white light

shone on !ig entary color in the for er and saturated color lighting in the latter. Dut in the end, the locations are both still color. ,he !astel !ro!s and costu es of the Phoenix seIuences survive into the Dates Motel seIuences. ,he li e green sheets of the otel bed co !le ent Marion%s green bra just as har oniously as did the !ink walls of her a!art ent. +n a cine atogra!hic sense, Marion has ended in the sa e !lace that she started. ,he whole extended driving seIuence has beco e su!erfluous. "o, by extension, the the atic o!!ositions between nor ality and abnor ality, sanity and insanity, reality and horror, and subjectivity and objectivity, are weakened. Aan "ant%s fil not only un akes the styli>ation of Bitchcock%s fil , it also un akes its visual eanings.

A Binocular View of Ps!c#o +n analy>ing the two versions of Psycho, + have looked at the /sa e% fil fro two critical

!ers!ectives. + have looked at Bitchcock%s Psycho through a #i$ekian eye, and Aan "ant%s Psycho through a Dordwellian eye. Dy re oving !rofil ic color and creating a !artially abstracted i age, the black-and-white cine atogra!hy of Bitchcock%s Psycho encourages an inter!retative critical res!onse that looks beyond the s!ecificity of the i age. 7or exa !le, in The Per(ert*s +ui,e to -inema &"o!hie 7iennes, '(()* #i$ek elaborates a glance by Cor an down the u-tube to suggest that watching a black cine a screen is like waiting for a toilet to flush. #i$ek%s conce!tual a alga ation of e !tiness, shadow, and shit is contingent on the chro atic abstraction of black-and-

13

white cine atogra!hy. Dy contrast, Aan "ant%s Psycho draws attention to its stylistic difference-in-sa eness, encouraging a Dordwellian res!onse that analy>es the visual nuances of Aan "ant and 6oyle%s i etic techniIues. ,hough y #i$ekian eye and y Dordwellian eye are of course unable to see fro the other%s !ers!ective, + ho!e that the

resulting view of Psycho has !rovided a kind of binocular vision, through which the cine atogra!hy of Bitchcock%s and Aan "ant%s fil s can be understood in greater de!th than if they were analy>ed inde!endently. +t should be noted that #i$ek%s and Dordwell%s !oints of view also interact beyond the o!tic chias , in the brain. Dordwell !erha!s has a !oint when he calls #i$ek an /insistent onologist%- if one were stranded on a desert island with only a book by #i$ek ight reasonably choose suicide in favor of a lifeti e of for co !any, then one

subjugation to his insistent acade ic voice &'((4*. Bowever, to assu e that #i$ek does not relate to other acade ics just because he does not engage with their work as ethodically as Dordwell is to overlook the fact that others% ideas and our own, and also interact with the heads, all ,heory beco es theory. All ideas redundant. Accordingly, + conclude by and #i$ek%s ideas with Dordwell%s. #i$ek views Aan "ant%s fil as inhabiting an awkward no an%s land between si ilarity and difference. ,his view can be re!licated with reference to its cine atogra!hy. Fhris 6oyle%s lighting is too close to the original but not close enough- it exists in tension both with the ainstrea Bollywood%s visual topoi of realis and with the ex!ressive lighting style of the original fil . Aan "ant and 6oyle%s ex!eri ent co !elled to i itate Bitchcock and Russell%s lighting. At the sa e ti e, they were not free to lighting style that drew attention ulti!lex audiences. ,he only way to du!licate the original du!licate it. 6oing so would have resulted in an art fil to its artifice and alienated ost acade ic debate takes !lace in unex!ected ways. +n our eta!hor of !arallax beco es not on !age or screen but in our heads. #i$ek%s ideas sti ulate internal dialogue, with ix, and the

ixing u! Bitchcock%s Psycho with Aan "ant%s,

fil %s visual style without breaking Bollywood%s taboo on realistically un otivated lighting would have been to re ake it in black-and-white. Dut, of course, the entire !roject was econo ically !re ised on the fact that Bitchcock%s fil !recisely its color that allowed Aan "ant to get his fil Aan "ant%s fil are thus a was to beco e color. +t was financed. ,he stylistic tensions of erce. ,o

anifestation of the tension between art and co

carry out his !erverse art !roject, Aan "ant reIuired a large budget. Perha!s he

14

believed that he could reconcile art and econo ics through color. +f so, he was wrongculturati !erceived the fil as having been co as an atte !t to re!ackage an ageing !roduct for a teen arket, while teens were baffled by the fil %s artfulness. 5ach grou! inter!reted the fil ade for the other- Aan "ant%s atte !ted to achieve both critical and erce* and ercial success &in a sense, to achieve a !arallax between art and co

as a result achieved neither.

$eferences
Anony ous. <Psycho.= The Hollywoo, Reporter. 0)(.1H &0;)(*- 1. Daker, Peter. <Psycho.= Films an, Filming. ).0' &0;)(*- '0. Dellour, Ray ond. '(((. The Analysis o& Film Dloo ington- +ndiana University Press. Dordwell, 6avid. '((4. <"lavoj #i$ek- "ay Anything.= htt!-GGwww.davidbordwell.netGessaysG#i$ek.!h!. Dordwell, 6avid 9 Farroll, CoOl &eds.*. 0;;). Post!theory1 reconstructing &ilm stu,ies. Madison- University of 8isconsin Press. Dordwell, 6avid, Kanet "taiger, 9 Lristin ,ho !son. 0;24. The -lassical Hollywoo, -inema1 Film %tyle 2 Mo,e o& Pro,uction to 3/45. Cew Mork- Folu bia University Press. 6eleu>e, @illes. 0;2). -inema 36 The Mo(ement!Image :ondon- ,he Athlone Press. Bolben, Kay. '((0. <,he Root&s* of all 5vil.= American -inematographer 2'.0(- H2-43. Mc@owan, ,odd. '((3. <+ntroduction- 5njoying the Fine a.= International #ournal o& 7i8ek %tu,ies 0.1. Care ore, Ka es. 0;31. Filmgui,e to Psycho Dloo ington- +ndiana University Press. ,ruffaut, 7ranPois. 0;2). Hitchcock :ondon- Paladin Dooks. 8ollen, Peter. 0;2(. <Fine a and ,echnology- A Bistorical ?verview.= +n The -inematic Apparatus "te!hen Beath and ,eresa de :auretis, eds. :ondon- ,he Mac illan Press :td. 0H-''.

15

#i$ek, "lavoj &ed.*. 0;;'. 9(erything :ou Always Wante, to ;now a.out )acan <=ut Were A&rai, to Ask Hitchcock>. 0;;'. :ondon, Cew Mork- Aerso. #i$ek, "lavoj. 0;;'a. 9n?oy :our %ympton@ #acAues )acan in Hollywoo, an, out. Cew Mork- Routledge. #i$ek, "lavoj. '((0. The Fright o& Real Tears1 ;rBysBto& ;ieslowski .etween Theory an, Post Theory. :ondon- D7+. #i$ek, "lavoj. Accessed 04 "e! '((3. <+s ,here A Pro!er 8ay ,o Re ake a Bitchcock 7il J= htt!-GGwww.lacan.co Ghitch.ht l.

ndnotes%

16

As is often the case, in The Parallax View, #i$ek uses exa !les fro fil s as if they were /real%. A!!earance is /reality%, and so fil exa !les ix with and beco e eIuivalent to exa !les fro history. 2 ,he eta!hor of !arallax has clearly been latent in #i$ek%s thought for a long ti e. +t could !erha!s even with hindsight be regarded as the guiding eta!hor of his life%s work. 3 Flearly, a cine atic /object% is not real in the sa e way as an object that has sha!e and ass. Deyond the ateriality of the ediu itself &a fil negative, a videota!e, a 6A6, etc.*, a fil is only a re!resentation- it exists as light. Accordingly, the /object% of y i agined !arallax between the two fil s does not exist. ,he /objective% Psycho that the two fil s !rovide different !ers!ectives on co !rises the two !ers!ectives the selves. An a!!ro!riate o!tical eta!hor for this conce!tual Psycho ight be that of a irror that allows one%s left eye and right eye to look directly into each other. 4 ,he fact that black-and-white can be seen as both realistic and unrealistic is not as !aradoxical as it ay sound. Realis is an exce!tionally sli!!ery conce!t. +t has been understood in any different ways at different !eriods in the history of art, and indeed often during the sa e !eriod. 7or the sake of clarity, in this article + used the ter /realis % to describe the style of fil aking that was !erceived in the late 0;4(s as /realistic%. Realis is grayness, handheld ca era, and location fil ing. ,o describe i ages whose /realis % is restricted to the close re!roduction of what is visible in front of the ca era, + use the ter /verisi ilar%. 5 A reviewer in Films an, Filming wrote- /+n his !resentation Bitchcock has co!ied the ca era styles of the Fontinental realists. Be has tried to achieve the casual looking-in on reality% &Daker 0;)(*. A reviewer for the Hollywoo, Reporter referred to the o!ening seIuence as a /torrid love scene ty!ical of the 7rench <new wave= school% &anony ous 0;)(*. 6 8hite too is sy bolically over-deter ined. 7or every eaning that has been ascribed to black, the o!!osite eaning has been ascribed to white. "y bolically, as well as cine atogra!hically, white and black are defined in relation to each other. Bowever, in all but the bathroo seIuences of Bitchcock%s Psycho, it is black that is the ore !ro inent of the two. 7 6irector%s co entary. 6A6 of Psycho, Universal "tudios '(('. Cote the oxy- oron of an /original 6A6%- the /original% the Aan "ant co!ies is itself a co!y. 8 ,his !roble is also a!!arent in the color version of The Man Who Wasn*t There &Koel Foen, '((0*. 8hen the fil ca e out on 6A6, it was released in !arts of Asia in color as well as blackand-white. :ogistically, releasing a color 6A6 version was not a !roble , as the fil had been shot on color negative, antici!ating the likelihood of a color 6A6 release &Bolben '((0- H;*. Bowever, on an aesthetic level the !rocess was not so straightforward. ,he color original was shot using hard light sources, in order to look good in black-and-white. ,ranslated into color, the lighting is often intrusive. ,he ore ex!ressive the lighting, the better the fil looks in black-and-white, but the worse it looks in color. Presu ably because of this, in the color version the higher contrast shots tend to be less saturated than lower contrast shots. the color version fluctuates fro strong color to near black-and-white. 9 /Bitchcock%s Presence.% Accessed '1 Aug '((3. htt!-GGwww.!sycho ovie.co G!roductionG!rodhitchcock.ht l 10 ,he chro atic verisi ilitude incidentally akes the seIuence uch ore visceral than in the original. ,he grueso e s ears of red on cera ic white lend credence to Bitchcock%s clai that the bathroo seIuence would never have ade it !ast the censors in color &,ruffaut 0;2)- 40H*.
1