Psycho

Thursday August 21, 2003 – 7:30pm
USA 1960. Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam

Phoenix office worker Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), desperate to find a way to be with her lover, Sam Loomis (John Gavin), embezzles $40,000 from her boss and heads for California in search of Sam. She’s not an apt criminal, however, and her obvious anxiety draws attention. A used car salesman assesses her nervous mood and uses it to bilk her out of some extra cash. And a somewhat ominous policeman shadows her, almost to the point of stalking. Caught in a storm, and exhausted after a long day on the road, Marion gets off the main highway and pulls into the secluded Bates Motel (“12 cabins, 12 vacancies”). The motel is managed by the shy-but-kind Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), who cheerfully mentions that she’s the first guest in weeks before regaling her with curious stories about his overbearing mother. Soon after, Marion retires to her room – but Norman and his domineering old mother have other plans for the evening . . . Still terrifying after all these years, Psycho is Hitchcock’s most notorious movie, and features quite possibly the most celebrated sequence in all of film – that infamous shower scene with its strident, discordant score that has been used in countless other movies to denote the appearance of a “psycho.”
B&W, 35mm, 115 mins.

The program will include:

Special lecture presentation by:
Mark Harris, a former programming director of the Pacific Cinémathèque and a frequent contributor to The Georgia Straight and other periodicals. Mark has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and a M.A. in Film Studies, and at present teaches in both the Film and Creative Writing departments at UBC.

Evening moderated by:
Dr. Harry Karlinsky Director of Continuing Medical Education and Professional Development, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia.

Frames of Mind Series programmed by Ms. Caroline Coutts