Psycho with Live Orchestra @ NCH, Oct 31st

00112984

There are two screenings of Hitchcock's classic Psycho in the National Concert Hall on Hallowe'en (3pm and 8pm) if anyone's interested. Details are here.

For a film that turned 50 this year it has aged remarkably well and has one of the most recognisable scores in film.

For me, the scene where Marion (Leigh) is fleeing the city and the music mingles with her thoughts and stream of consciousness (and conscience!) is one of my all-time favourite film scenes.

Just wanted to post in case anyone's interested.

Phony Scott

I'll have to check this out, one of my fav horror films. Nice to see the ticket prices are cheap too.

00112984

Phony Scott wrote: »

Nice to see the ticket prices are cheap too.

Yeah but the price includes a 20oz blue Slushee and unlimited popcorn refills :pac:

Mr.Crinklewood

Bump

Renn

Bit underwhelmed by all of this last night tbh. Considering the price you pay for the ticket you'd think that they wouldn't mess up on the sound but they did on a couple of occasions - granted it was for just ten to twenty seconds or so but I still shouldn't be talking about this after watching it.

Another thing was the bizarreness of 90% of the audience - I was sure I was going to a horror but the amount of laughter during some particular scenes was ridiculous. Maybe it hasn't aged that well at all if people are now laughing at the scenes others were terrified of in 1960?

jaykhunter

I really enjoyed it. Was pricey but since it has a ~30-person orchestra, fair enough. The audio quality from the 1960 film was pretty bad, it crackled when it got too loud; which starkly contrasted to the fantastic score. Really great to have performed live. Sounded brilliant.

Took a while to get used to hearing a live score and a pre-taped film, but I'm very happy to see it. I guess since the film has maccabre overtones, any comic relief is welcomed. There were some very cheesy moments, or things that -- exactly Renn -- would've been scary in the 60s, but since we've all seen the film (i'd imagine) and have been far desensitized after 50 years of cinema, become hilarious.

I imagine anyone posting in this thread now has seen Psycho, so SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't it's your own fault!

The end scene with the corpse reveal and Normal "I've got my psycho killer face and mother outfit" Bates became a bit comical.

That cop at the end, what was his name - Mr Exposition? Hitchcock left nothing up to discussion, he laid out exactly what happened. I don't mind that as much but it's basically Mr. E talking to the audience. They could've conveyed the information a little more subtlely.

It was great to have an emphysis on the score, I really listened to it, which I wouldn't normally do during a film. I'd love to see more films done like this. I imagine this isn't most people's cup of tea though.

I was a bit disappointed that they didn't play the end credits; which would be a medley of the score i'd imagine. They did so for the Star Wars in Concert i went to, and even did an encore of the Imperial March. Oh well. Still thumbs up

00112984

I enjoyed it. The orchestra was great and it's suh a good film that it was easy to just sit back and enjoy for two hours. The issues with the sound was a bit of a pain but these things happen. Ironic that the live orchestra's performance was spot-on and the issue was with the actual film soundtrack

Renn wrote: »

Another thing was the bizarreness of 90% of the audience - I was sure I was going to a horror but the amount of laughter during some particular scenes was ridiculous. Maybe it hasn't aged that well at all if people are now laughing at the scenes others were terrified of in 1960?

I don't think I've seen a single horror film (and I've seen an awful lot of them!) that didn't have the audience titter at some stage- either from anticipation or funny (whether intentionally or not) dialogue.

I think with Pyscho in a setting where the people at the NCH were fans of the film and 99% had probably seen it before, a lot of the laughter was from the dialogue. Lines like

But -I-I don't really know anything about birds. My hobby is stuffing things. You know - taxidermy

Uh-uh, Mother-m-mother, uh, what is the phrase? She isn't quite herself today.

She might have fooled me, but she didn't fool my mother.

probably didn't have the same resonance when seeing the film for the first time but when you know the ending, there's definitely a tinge of humour in how those lines are uttered when we know the outcome.

Renn

Oh I'm not talking about the actual humour in the movie, I'm talking about when the PI has his face slashed and is fallin down the stairs etc.

00112984

Renn wrote: »

Oh I'm not talking about the actual humour in the movie, I'm talking about when the PI has his face slashed and is fallin down the stairs etc.

Well yeah, proof that people are thick.

Renn

That's about 90% of last night's audience so. Proof too that it hasn't really aged well at all.

00112984

Renn wrote: »

Proof too that it hasn't really aged well at all.

I disagree! While there's no chance it'd be mistaken for anything relatively recent, it has aged much less in the past 50 years than the likes of Nightmare on Elm Street has in the past 26. Or even the Dam Busters which was 55 years ago.

I think it's still a very relevant and enjoyable film.

Renn

Well I'm talking more in terms of people laughing at scenes that they 'shouldn't' have been laughing at.

00112984

Renn wrote: »

Well I'm talking more in terms of people laughing at scenes that they 'shouldn't' have been laughing at.

I'm not a laugher. Even in comedies at the cinema I tend to just quietly chuckle instead of out-right guffawing but really, is it that big of a deal what others find humourous? It was a light-hearted event on Halloween designed to be something different, which it was.

Did it genuinely annoy you that much that it really detracted from your enjoyment of the film?

Renn

Not at all, the guy screwing up the audio a couple of times was annoying. It's more of an observation regarding the laughter etc and how it hasn't aged particularly well.

jaykhunter

Renn wrote: »

Oh I'm not talking about the actual humour in the movie, I'm talking about when the PI has his face slashed and is fallin down the stairs etc.

People (including myself) laughed at the awful composite effect of the guy falling down the stairs. It was basically a guy waving his hands up and down as the background moved downstairs. By today's special effects standards (and those of even the last 40 years) it looks awfully fake, absolutely ridiculous, hence the laughter.

00112984 wrote: »

Well yeah, proof that people are thick.

More accurately proof that people have seen the film already. Maybe it's offensive that others were laughing at the film, but it was (as already mentioned) already knowing how the film ends (changing the relevance/supposed poignancy of the dialogue) or the use of certain effects that if were used today, would be deemed a laughable disgrace.

I'm glad the film was so well received. I hope to see another film in this fashion again.

Renn

People (including myself) laughed at the awful composite effect of the guy falling down the stairs. It was basically a guy waving his hands up and down as the background moved downstairs. By today's special effects standards (and those of even the last 40 years) it looks awfully fake, absolutely ridiculous, hence the laughter.

So, like I said already, it hasn't aged well.