A Long Hard Look at Psycho (BFI Film Classics)
by Raymond Durgnat
List Price:
Our Price: $20.30
You Save: $7.65 (27%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $16.65 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Raymond DurgnatEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2002-04-26
ISBN: 0851709206
Number of pages: 256
Publisher: British Film Institute
Book Reviews of A Long Hard Look at Psycho (BFI Film Classics)
Book Review: A Long Hard Slog Through Psycho Babble
Summary: 2 Stars
Worth no more than a glance.
Which I actually regret to say, considering the amount of time, attention and determination to explain every single damn frame of this fascinating movie the good Professor obviously devoted to his project. Nonetheless, any serious attempt to make sense of his every profundity is absolutely guaranteed to turn off all but the most tiresomely nerdish cineaste. It took me two years to build up the desire to make it all the way through - and I am a fanatic about Psycho.
Thus the scholars continue their age-old campaign to ruin enjoyment of art. Enough of this sort of psuedo-intellectual compulsive-obsessive navel gazing is certain to result in blinding students to an honest appreciation of film just as successfully as a few decades of it has soured most of us on reading literature for pleasure.
They say that those who cannot do,teach. But what exactly is it that they do try to teach? (And just wait until the PhDs get around to videogames!)
Anyway, what is saddening and maddening about Mr. Durgnat's effort is that there are indeed numerous excellent and fascinating insights about Psycho to be discovered amidst its many pages of self congratulation. Had these pages been briskly edited down into a concise and readable essay - say one quarter the book's length - I am certain that it would have earned and deserved a much wider and truly appreciative audience.
Unfortunately, as it stands, an honest admirer of this marvelous and historic film can only be obligated to shout out - in true horror-mode fashion - to the curious reader thinking of taking a peek deep down inside: Don't go in there!
Or, if you must, just borrow a copy for a quick "diegetic" browse. Or read Mr. Rebello's excellent "The Making of Psycho" instead.
Arts & Photography Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in An Alfred Hitchcock Retrospective
A Long Hard Look at Psycho (BFI Film Classics)by Raymond Durgnat
British Film Institute; Published: 2002-04-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.17
Price in other shops:
Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (Cambridge Film Handbooks)Cambridge University Press; Published: 1999-09-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.40
Price in other shops:
North by Northwest (Faber Classic Screenplay Series.)by Ernest Lehman
Faber & Faber; Published: 2000-04-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $30.90
Vertigo (BFI Film Classics)by Charles Barr
British Film Institute; Published: 2002-04-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.45
Price in other shops:
Hitchcock (Revised Edition)by Helen G. Scott, Francois Truffaut
Simon & Schuster; Published: 1985-10-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.99
Price in other shops:
The Films of Alfred Hitchcock (Cambridge Film Classics)by David Sterritt
Cambridge University Press; Published: 1993-02-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.45
Price in other shops:
Hitchcock on Hitchcock: Selected Writings and Interviewsby Alfred Hitchcock
University of California Press; Published: 1997-11-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.08
Price in other shops:
Alma Hitchcock: The Woman Behind the Manby Pat Hitchcock O'Connell, Laurent Bouzereau
Berkley Trade; Published: 2004-07-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.82
Price in other shops:
Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classicby Dan Auiler
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 2000-08-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $60.12
The Encyclopedia of Alfred Hitchcock (Library of Great Filmmakers)by Thomas M. Leitch
Checkmark Books; Published: 2002-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $29.99
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Psycho (Special Edition) (Universal Legacy Series)UNI DIST CORP. (MCA); Release date: 2008-10-07; DVD
Best price: $14.89
Price in other shops:
Film Art: An Introduction with Tutorial CD-ROMby David Bordwell, Kristin Thompson
McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages; Published: 2006-11-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $40.00
The Film Experience: An Introductionby Timothy Corrigan, Patricia White
Bedford/St. Martin's; Published: 2004-03-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.49
Metropolis (BFI Film Classics)by Thomas Elsaesser
British Film Institute; Published: 2000-11-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.58
Price in other shops:
The Wizard of Oz (BFI Film Classics)by Salman Rushdie
British Film Institute; Published: 1992-05-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.89
Price in other shops:
Night of the Living Dead (BFI Film Classics)by Ben Harvey
Palgrave Macmillan; Published: 2008-07-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.71
Price in other shops:
Citizen Kane (BFI Film Classics)by Laura Mulvey
British Film Institute; Published: 1992-12-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.00
Price in other shops:
Vertigo (BFI Film Classics)by Charles Barr
British Film Institute; Published: 2002-04-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.59
Price in other shops:
Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psychoby Stephen Rebello
Marion Boyars; Published: 1999-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.18
Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho: A Casebook (Casebooks in Criticism)Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2004-08-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.69
Price in other shops: