78/52 (2017)

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho is considered one of greatest, definitive and most ground-breaking in both horror and in cinema, this documentary look at its enduring legacy, and how it was achieved. Basically the scene in the film, where Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is murdered by Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), took a week to film, requiring 78 set-ups and 52 cuts (hence the title of this film). This film really examines and deconstructs all aspects about the film, leading up to the murder, including things the audience would never have noticed or thought about before. This includes feeling empathy towards Bates rather than perhaps Crane, a painting specifically chosen to feature in the study scene, the iconic violin music score by Edward Herrmann, the audience using their imagination (the knife is never seen puncturing the body, only the noise (a knife piercing an apple), blood (chocolate sauce) and the stabbing), and the voyeurism (the shower being like a witness, and the plughole becoming Marion's eye). It references to Hitchcock's other works that led up to and followed Psycho, how this pivotal scene has inspired other works in horror and cinema (including homages and spoofs), and how early and continuing cinema has terrified audiences. With contributions from Peter Bogdanovich, Jamie Lee Curtis (who paid homage to her mother, Janet Leigh, recreating the shower scene in the TV show Scream Queens), Guillermo del Toro, Danny Elfman (who recreated Herrmann's score for the crap Gus van Sant remake), Sir Alfred Hitchcock (archive footage), Janet Leigh (archive footage), Eli Roth, Leigh Whannell and Elijah Wood. If you have always wanted to know how the famous scene of Psycho was achieved, what filmmakers and experts think of it, how it has maintained its legendary status, and how it has become so important in terms of how it arguably changed the course of cinema, then this is definitely a worthwhile documentary. Very good!

78/52 (2017) **** In depth and informative doc on the making of the infamous/notorious shower sequence of Alfred Hitchcock's classic horror film "Psycho" (the title refers to the 78 camera set ups and 52 edit/cuts for the scene) and its forever influence on filmmaking and pop culture. Talking heads include filmmakers Peter Bogdanovich, Guillermo del Toro, Mick Garris and actors Jamie Lee Curtis and Oz Perkins (her mom Janet Leigh and his dad Anthony were the stars of the film), Elijah Wood and composer Danny Elfman (who forever was in debt to the film's composer Bernard Herrmann's indelible and iconic shrieking score). For film hounds a valentine to an epic film and to the newbies and scholars quintessential viewing of how to create a true cinematic moment forever. (Dir: Alexandre O. Philippe)

An unprecedented look at the iconic shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" (1960), the "man behind the curtain", and the screen murder that profoundly changed the course of world cinema.While it might seem like quite a feat to devote 90 minutes of coverage to a one-minute segment of a film, this documentary pulls it off. By exploring every possible angle -- the sounds, the editing, the casting -- we see just how much went into getting the notorious shower scene just right. Most interesting is how many clues are in the film leading up to this moment that may not be obvious, but were sprinkled there by Hitchcock with a knowing wink."78/52" is playing on July 20, 2017 at the Fantasia International Film Festival. In this golden age of documentaries, this film still stands out as the cream of the crop.

A 91-minute analysis of the famous shower scene from Hitchcock's 'Psycho' and how it changed the course of cinema. The first of its kind, a feature length documentary on one scene. The film gets its name '78/52' from 52 shots in a 78 second sequence. It's very entertaining and incredibly rich with goodies you never considered went into the making of the famous scene. I loved the archival Hitchcock commentary they recovered. Though, as I personally feel the movie horror scene has drastically changed (you can decide for the better or for worse), to have young horror film makers (of some damn awful films) and irrelevant actors interviewed to share their thoughts in quite enthusiastic ways suggests that Hitchcock's achievement is less pioneering than the film makes it seem. That aside, I'm surprised they pulled it off, you can tell the director (who is obviously a massive Hitchcock nerd) adores the content and it really shows.