Salon.com > Alfred Hitchcock

“Bates Motel”: We need to talk about Norman

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 14:55:00 +0000

The central question of “Bates Motel,” the 10-episode prequel to “Psycho” that premiered on A&E last night, is just how a teenage Norman Bates became that Norman Bates, the infamous killer. But the series, or the first three episodes anyway, are on a sort of mission of sympathy: a collection of the mitigating circumstances that turned a slightly freaky teenager into something much more dangerous. Monsters may be born, but they’re also raised: The most mitigating circumstance of all in young Norman Bates’ life is, as you might expect, his mother.

Freddie Highmore, Charlie in Tim Burton's “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” but now looking something like a long, stretched-out Mike Teavee, stars as Norman. After the suspicious death of his father, he and his mother, Norma (Vera Farmiga), move to California and into the infamous Bates Motel, which they plan to fix up. Norman is a bright and sensitive boy who physicalizes his stress: worried, he vomits; turned on, he passes out; angered, he blacks out and gets violent. Though Norman is mostly shy and soft-spoken, presenting as a sweet, mild-mannered nerd — the show is set in the present, but Norman and Norma dress in something like period clothes: Norman’s always wearing '50s-ish sweaters — he has a temper, a tendency to tantrum in uncomfortable situations. And he also has a passionate devotion to his mother, such that not only can no one else say anything bad about her, and if they do, he might go after them with a meat tenderizer.

Alfred Hitchcock, real-life “Psycho”

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Despite being dead for almost 33 years, Alfred Hitchcock still managed to have a fairly interesting year in 2012. In addition to Vertigo’s toppling of Citizen Kane as the greatest film of all time in Sight & Sound’s decennial critics poll, the Master of Suspense also turned up on-screen as the subject of not one, but two films about his later life. I’ve personally been a fan since seeing To Catch a Thief on television at age 9, but I put off watching both of these movies until recently, mainly because I feared their unsavory portrayals of the acclaimed director might dampen my appreciation for his work. You see, both Sacha Gervasi’s Hitchcock and the HBO/BBC co-production, The Girl, shine light on what author Donald Spoto refers to as “the dark side of genius,” or in plainer language, Hitchcock’s tendencies toward voyeurism, sadism, and misogyny.

Hollywood hates marriage!

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 19:00:00 +0000

Once upon a time, I decided to write a book about marriage in the movies, and I had no idea that might prove to be a problem. Both Molly Haskell and David Thomson told me it would, but I didn’t listen. I had even been warned about it by filmmakers. (Frank Capra said, “Embrace happy marriage in real life, but keep away from it onscreen.”) I had read research in which executives such as Sam Briskin, RKO’s production chief, complained about the married couple in John Ford’s "The Plough and the Stars": “Why make a picture where a man and woman are married? The main thing about pictures is love or sex. Here you’ve got a man and woman married at the start — who’s interested in that?” I didn’t pay any attention. I just wanted to write a book about marriage in the movies.

Alfred Hitchcock is rolling in his grave

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 19:00:00 +0000

SPOILER ALERT! The movie Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, does not have a happy ending. The movie Hitchcock, directed by Sacha Gervasi — the story, purportedly, of the making of Psycho — does. Unlike Psycho, Hitchcock is a pleasant motion picture which provides all of the comforts of the classical Hollywood narrative: shot and edited to achieve the illusion of the continuity of time and space and to clarify psychological motivation, propelled by a deadline, and featuring a heterosexual couple whose marriage, though troubled by temptations and mistrust, is ultimately saved by a re-affirmation of mutual affection and respect.

The strange case of Alfred Hitchcock

Sat, 24 Nov 2012 19:00:00 +0000

“Hitchcock” is less a bad film than a middling, minor one, but it fails the standard I once heard applied to books about Proust: They have to be good enough that you wouldn’t be better off reading Proust instead. The contrast, in this case, is ridiculous. On one side, you’ve got a tepid inside-Hollywood comedy, featuring a pretty good Helen Mirren performance, Anthony Hopkins lumbering around in a fat suit, some late-‘50s Los Angeles atmosphere and a few intriguing tidbits of movie history. On the other side, you’ve got “Rebecca” and “Strangers on a Train” and “North by Northwest” and “Vertigo” and countless other pictures we could name, without even getting to “Psycho,” the groundbreaking horror film that serves as background to the domestic plot of “Hitchcock.” It’s not close.

“The Girl”: Hitchcock’s off-camera creep factor

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 18:41:00 +0000

One of the joys of watching an Alfred Hitchcock film was awaiting his fleeting cameo. It set the tone for unease and tension. His thoroughly creepy demeanor was one of his most celebrated qualities — it was an integral part of the filmmaker’s image. The full extent of his predatory creepiness, though, was something he kept to himself.

Donald Spoto, who wrote so glowingly of Hitchcock’s films and life while he was alive, told the darker tales once the director died in 1980 in books like “The Dark Side of Genius” and “Spellbound by Beauty.” Those are source materials for the new HBO film “The Girl,” about his menacing of Tippi Hedren on the set of “The Birds” and “Marnie.” But Hedren is also around to advise on recounting the shameful tale.

An unknown model at the time, Hedren was selected from a TV commercial appearance because she fit the mold of icy blondes Hitchcock had been using in his suspense films, from Grace Kelley to Kim Novak to Janet Leigh, who had just appeared in his biggest hit, “Psycho.” To follow that with an unknown in “The Birds” meant mentoring the single mother, teaching her film acting and her way around a major Hollywood set. Then he pounced.