78/52

PAST FILM SCREENING

November 15 – 2PM + 7:30 PM

USA, 2017 – Rated 14A – 91 minutes
Directed by Alexandre O. Philippe
Cast: Alfred Hitchcock, Peter Bogdanovich, Marli Renfro

In the new documentary from director Alexandre O. Phillippe (George Lucas vs The People, Doc of the Dead), film historians, directors, and actors deconstruct the iconic shower scene in Hitchcock’s monumental Psycho to reveal its historical significance in pop culture.

With the 1960 release of Psycho, Hitchcock pushed cultural and visual boundaries that defied audience expectations with the onscreen murder of star Janet Leigh in the first act of the film. Familiar faces like Leigh’s daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis (True Lies; The Tailor of Panama), actor Elijah Wood (Paris je t’aime; The Lord of The Rings), sound edi­tor Walter Murch (The English Patient; The Godfather), and Marli Renfro, who played Leigh’s body double for the original scene, provide their own personal insights, unpack­ing every angle of Hitchcock’s direction and revealing what made this moment such a pivotal point in American and world cinema. Through their collective insight, some fasci­nating truths emerge about the time and craft that went into filming, notably that Hitchcock used 78 camera setups and made 52 cuts across seven days to perfect the scene.

78/52 is an engrossing examination of this iconic moment in American film, and an insightful study of its lasting impact on cin­ema. Hitchcock’s fastidious attention to detail has inspired generations of filmmakers like Philippe, who has given the scene perhaps as much consideration as the “Master of Suspense” himself.

“An up-close analysis of the shower scene that’s at once delirious and definitive; the movie is also a cinematic meditation that features a wealth of terrific anecdotes about the creation of Hitchcock’s masterpiece.” – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

“Director Alexandre O. Philippe unpacks an entire semester’s worth of cinema studies, coming to a unified theory of how one act of on-screen murder became the perfect “image of the uncaring universe.” – Barry Hertz, The Globe and Mail