Film Friday is designed to actually compel me to go and see movies at the cinema. I very rarely, if ever actually, go to the movies. I blame my parents.
As kids, we hardly ever went to the movies ("Why pay $13pp to go to the movies now, when you can hire it out on DVD for $2 later?"), and when we did, it was never the "experience" that other kids talked about. There was no popcorn, slushies, Jaffas, chocolates. "You're here to watch, not to eat" was an oft repeated mantra for my parents. Of course, I went to the movies more often during high school when attending the movies was the social thing to do on weekends and my parents weren't there to stop me from wasting money on overpriced wares from the Candy Bar.
However once high school ended and the parental pockets seemed to run dry, spending $15 to go the movies became far less appealing. Their logic, which seemed so unfair to me as a child, became far more reasonable. It also became such a hassle to organise people to go with, a time that everyone's free to go to, and a cinema that is reasonable convenient for all parties. Also, I'm massively stingy.
What I've done recently is making a note of movies that I want to see, and then hiring them out at my convenience. But doing this means that I never go to the movies anymore, and particularly in the age of 3D movies, I think I am increasingly missing out on the full spectacle of movies and don't really "get" them. For example, I never saw Avatar in 3D, which I think was a massive mistake, because without presumably incredible 3D effects, all that's left is a cliched plot with characters who are all thoroughly detestable. Everyone had been raving about Avatar for months, but when I saw it, I was comprehensively disappointed.
Which gets me back to film Friday. There are actually a heap of movies I want to see at the moment. The Iron Lady, War Horse, Tower Heist, Tin Tin and Happy Feet 2 have all made it onto my "to watch" list.
However as Friday is here, and I had every intention of going to see The Iron Lady (by myself, because I'm all independent woman like that) but the movie I've actually been thinking about all week is Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho".
I watched Psycho on New Years Eve (because I'm pretty cool like that) and it has stuck with me for the entire week. I suppose it's because it is recognised as such an iconic film, that I was really curious to see what all the fuss was about.
Naturally, Psycho has to be understood within the time that it was released. And clearly, cinema-goers of the 1960s were a much more delicate breed than the audiences of today. The story line, by today's standards, was so simple (but with the iconic twist) and the "horror" was practically non-existent.
What sets Psycho apart is suspense. From start to finish, Bernard Hermann's score sets your hair on end and teeth on edge in a way that just doesn't seem to happen in today's films.
I think it's because film makers had to work harder to build atmosphere and fear in the early days. Before there was CGI to make the impossible, possible, and before "stunt technology" became so realistic, it was actually better for directors to leave the worst of the "gore" to the human imagination. I can't help but think that maybe horror movie enthusiasts in the 60s might be a little disappointed by the modern children of the genre (after, of course, they recovered from the shock). After all, even CGI is limited in how much gore it can convey.
Sometimes, when watching a horror-ish movie (something, which I do not do very often), I actually forget to be scared or repulsed by the action on screen simply because there is something entrancing about actually seeing the severing of limbs or burning skin. You wonder how things are done, rather than reflecting on the horror that is intended. In Psycho, there is none of that. All the gore is created in the mind (and perhaps I have an overactive imagination) and I think it's more horrible for that.
So that's what I've been thinking about this week.
I promise next Film Friday I'll pull my finger out and have a proper movie to reflect on. I'm thinking about "We Need to Talk About Kevin", if I can find somewhere what will show it. I read the book mid-way through 2010 and I still think about it fairly often. All the reviews say that it's a spectacular adaptation.
So until next time,
Lucy out.
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