Sundance 2017 – 78/52

78/52 is an hour and a half film class.  This is an in-depth look at the infamous ‘Shower Scene’ from the Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece Psycho (1960).  The film interviews dozens of people and looks at cinema before Psycho came out, Alfred Hitchcock’s filmmaking style, and a thorough breakdown of the iconic scene and what it, and the movie, meant for cinema.

Psycho is one of my favorite movies ever.  It is one of the most expertly crafted and thrilling movies of all-time, so going into this movie, I was already excited.  But what this movie accomplished is far more than I could have imagined.

Maybe it is my love for the film or my love for film history and learning the craft, but this movie blew my mind.  The movie talks to a number of filmmakers, actors, writers, editors, and sound guys, including Elijah Wood, Guillermo Del Toro, Eli Roth, Peter Bogdanovich, and Danny Elfman, all talking about certain aspects of how the scene was constructed, symbolism throughout the film, and what the movie meant to them personally.  Some of the things about the film I knew from watching the film and studying it thoroughly over the years, like classic Hitchcock tropes like voyeurism in his films and some of the shots and edits of the scene.  But I learned so much more, like ‘The Hitchcock Bomb’ and new ways to look at specific shots, and more Hitchcock history and consistent tropes and themes that I hadn’t noticed.  My favorite part of the film was when my favorite director of all-time, Martin Scorsese, talks about how he did a shot-for-shot recreation of the scene in his masterpiece, Raging Bull (1980).  I’ve seen both films, Psycho and Raging Bull, countless times and never noticed it.  This rocked my cinematic brain and made me immediately want to watch both films again.

78/52 is an entertaining, fascinating, brilliant look at a sliver of film history.  This thorough breakdown will teach you about film history, film craft, and emotionality in film.  I loved this movie and you will too.

MY RATING – 4/4

Continue to follow my coverage of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival on Twitter and Instagram, @kevflix, or on Facebook by searching Kevflix.