78/52
*** ½ / *****
Directed
by: Alexandre
O. Philippe.
You could probably count the
number of 45 second movie scenes that could support a feature length
documentary on one hand, and have multiple fingers left over. The good news
about the documentary 78/52 by Alexandre O. Phillippe, is that he picked one of
the few that actually can – the shower scene in Hitchcock’s Psycho (the title
refers to the number of camera setups/number of edits in the scene). The bad
news is that for a while anyway – the first 30 minutes or so of the doc – you
wonder exactly what the approach to the doc is going to be, and especially
wonder how and why Phillipe chose his interview subjects to speak about the
scene in question. It really does seem like he was willing to talk too just
about anyone who wanted to (sure, come on in, Elijah Wood and a couple of your
film geek pals, Illena Douglas, why not?, the director of From Dusk to Dawn 2,
sure!). It doesn’t much help that in that first 30 minutes, the doc is going
over some very well-trod upon ground
– talking about the importance of the scene historically, and how
groundbreaking it was, and how daring Hitchcock was for doing it. We saw this
(recently) in films like last year’s documentary Hitchcock/Truffaut, and we saw
this – dramatically – in the disappointing film Hitchcock with Anthony Hopkins
– and those two are just the tip of the iceberg.
Luckily for those of us who
already know all of that, the last hour of this 90 minute doc is something that
really is fascinating – and really is worth your time. As the doc moves away
from those talking about the importance of the scenes, and starts to break down
the various elements of it – the different setups, and what they mean, the
various cuts, Bernard Hermann’s score, etc. – the film gets into the nitty,
gritty film geek stuff that you really do want to see in a doc like this. Sure,
there is still a lot of fawning over Hitchcock and his genius here – but,
whatever, it is kind of deserved.
The film takes the various
stories and theories about the scene – and who is responsible for its greatness
– and at the very least, addresses them. There is a vocal contingent who
believes that the legendary title designer Saul Bass deserves more credit than
he gets, because of the storyboards for it he drew – and the movie does show
the various ways Hitchcock both followed them, and deviated from them to make
the scene work more. The doc is perhaps even more fawning in its praise of
Hermann and his score than it is even of Hitchcock – the composers he
interviews seem to be in awe of him.
I do think there are various
missed opportunities here. There is a fascinating moment where the film puts on
a side-by-side comparison between the shower scene and a boxing scene in
Scorsese’s Raging Bull the director has admitted to having inspired by in the
editing of by the scene – but that flashes by too quickly. The doc interviews
various people associated with the making of Gus Van Sant’s 1998 shot-for-shot
remake of the film – but I would have loved it had it delved deeper into why
that film didn’t work the same way (I believe the editor of the film
essentially admits it doesn’t – but I would have loved a little more insight).
I also think that the film could have stood with a little bit of questioning of
the official narrative of Hitchcock as a genius – and delved past that a
little. After all, there is a lot of talk in the doc about how modern Psycho is
– and how with the melding of sex and violence, it was a precursor of much of
what came after. But, surely someone thinks that may not be entirely good –
especially considering what we know of Hitchcock and his relationships with
actresses.
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