Well - you can make a whole film about one scene... Does anyone else find fault in the notion that there were 78 camera set-ups but only 52 cuts? Surely the number of set-ups can't exceed the number of cuts?
With its Psycho recreation footage, it begins like an episode of a new Fargo series. Then all sorts of weird and wonderful people give their views, some more interesting than others. Who the hell is the guy in the hat, for example?
I think some of them tend to over-read Hitch. It reminds me of studying Shakespeare at school - the thought - 'How do you know that's what he intended / this subtext is all about?' etc. Did Shakespeare use subtext? Anyway, if you read Hitch's interviews or consult a thorough book like McGilligan's, it seems more likely that Hitch's first thoughts were about entertaining and manipulating audiences through story-telling and suspense, rather than having preoccupations about 'killing the American mom' or 'showing that the universe is random'. Also, all these people that dwell on Hitch's 'obsessions' should remember that he was brought up in a normal and loving family household and is no more obsessed than I am.
Only Bogdanovich seems to understand he studied the Russians and in that respect the editing in the shower scene wasn't 'something that had never been seen before'; nor is it fair to give too much credit to Tomasini, because Hitch was always all over every technical aspect of his films; nor can you claim the timing of when the music ends was 'all Herrmann - not Hitchcock' - how could you know that?
Still, there's no arguing that the film as a whole and the scene in particular did change films and film-making and become culturally ingrained, and it's interesting to hear especially voices of reason like Walter Murch take us through it shot by shot (which break all the rules) - a scene done 'in bits and pieces' - let's remind ourselves - to circumvent censorship problems - by suggesting explicit violence whilst actually showing none. And liked the sound effects melon bit... And the art guy talking about the painting on voyeurism!
P.S. I did later happen to see most of the scene with no sound - it maybe does work better...
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