Synopsis: 'Psycho' is a black and white mystery thriller by Alfred Hitchcock, following the life of a young woman who has committed a crime and been punished for it by an individual who has issues of his own under mental health, having a split personality.
The structured storyline in Psycho is intriguingly complex, it breaks some traditional rules, though they'be been broken appropriately and give the story even more thrill / suspense for the audience. An example being who the protagonist is. At equilibrium and upto the point of her death, the protagonist is Marion. Until Norman comes along. where the protagonist role is split in two between his split between character of his mother and himself. Psycho also follows the 5 act structure clearer than A Heroes Journey, for example, at 'New equilibrium' conflicts are labelled as resolved, though it seems in this specific film we have just been given a perspective of a character who mentally struggles and is a murderer, which is the new normality, but does not resolve any issues. With the structure into context, we still see that the story begins at a balance -
Equilibrium - The Protagonist at the beginning of the film is Marion, a female that lives life crime free.
The structured storyline in Psycho is intriguingly complex, it breaks some traditional rules, though they'be been broken appropriately and give the story even more thrill / suspense for the audience. An example being who the protagonist is. At equilibrium and upto the point of her death, the protagonist is Marion. Until Norman comes along. where the protagonist role is split in two between his split between character of his mother and himself. Psycho also follows the 5 act structure clearer than A Heroes Journey, for example, at 'New equilibrium' conflicts are labelled as resolved, though it seems in this specific film we have just been given a perspective of a character who mentally struggles and is a murderer, which is the new normality, but does not resolve any issues. With the structure into context, we still see that the story begins at a balance -
Equilibrium - The Protagonist at the beginning of the film is Marion, a female that lives life crime free.
Disequilibrium - The balance is shaken, Marion robs a bank and soon after, Marion is killed.
New equilibrium - The new 'normal,' the killer of Marion is found out and all about his physiological state has been revealed.
Binary oppositions in 'Psycho'
The more binary oppositions within a movie, the more possible conflict there is. Within Psycho, opposites include women vs male, asexual vs sexual, rich vs poor, etc:
Women vs male:
The female protagonist seems to have control over her sexual life in comparison to the time period where women possibly would not.
Rich vs poor:
Marian is poor, leading her to the decision of robbing the bank. Being poor had placed her in the position to steal in the first place, creating that background depth into the character and on screen conflict.
The more binary oppositions within a movie, the more possible conflict there is. Within Psycho, opposites include women vs male, asexual vs sexual, rich vs poor, etc:
Women vs male:
The female protagonist seems to have control over her sexual life in comparison to the time period where women possibly would not.
Rich vs poor:
Marian is poor, leading her to the decision of robbing the bank. Being poor had placed her in the position to steal in the first place, creating that background depth into the character and on screen conflict.
Freytag's 5 act structure:
Exposition: Marian sees her boss after robbing the bank and realises she's done wrong.
Rising action - Characters such as the Policeman are suspicious of Marian.
Climax - Shortest point of the story where Marian is killed and we're wondering by who.
Falling - Realise Norman is the killer, due to the suspicions we had of the way he thinks and thoughts between himself.
Denamount - Norman's identities are found out by officers. Audience now know he killed Marian, and has split personalities of him and his mother who passed away. Binary opposition in his mind - life and death.
Exposition: Marian sees her boss after robbing the bank and realises she's done wrong.
Rising action - Characters such as the Policeman are suspicious of Marian.
Climax - Shortest point of the story where Marian is killed and we're wondering by who.
Falling - Realise Norman is the killer, due to the suspicions we had of the way he thinks and thoughts between himself.
Denamount - Norman's identities are found out by officers. Audience now know he killed Marian, and has split personalities of him and his mother who passed away. Binary opposition in his mind - life and death.
Synopsis - 'Curfew' is a short film by Shawn Christensen following a distressed, middle aged man struggling with drug addiction and the connection this has with the affection he wishes to provide to his divorced sister's child. The story has conflicted themes such as drug and domestic abuse, and if we follow Levi Strauss' theory, we as an audience can tell these are caused by binary oppositions in the storyline.
Equilibrium - The protagonist is Richie, a male who struggles with mental health issues causing further addiction problems. The protagonist wants a relationship with his niece.
Disequilibrium - Tension builds as we find Richie take his niece Sophie to a place in which we think he's about to buy more drugs, but ends up getting something for his daughter. Tension further builds at this point of the story where we think he's about to kill himself in the bath, when the phone rings.
New equilibrium - Not as clear, but Richie ends up not killing himself and daughter returns home safely.
Binary oppositions in 'Curfew'
Young vs old:
Binary oppositions and points of conflicted are mostly caused by the fact that there is n age and generation gap. It seems that Sophie, the younger individual, acts older than whos actually in his mid 30-40's, being Richie.
Man vs woman:
Sophie's mum is a woman who is domestically abused, this being because she is a woman, and her husband takes dominance over her.
Life vs death:
Sophie is young, full of life but is associated with someone who frequently hurts himself and attempts to take his own life.
Dramatic questions:
Equilibrium - The protagonist is Richie, a male who struggles with mental health issues causing further addiction problems. The protagonist wants a relationship with his niece.
Disequilibrium - Tension builds as we find Richie take his niece Sophie to a place in which we think he's about to buy more drugs, but ends up getting something for his daughter. Tension further builds at this point of the story where we think he's about to kill himself in the bath, when the phone rings.
New equilibrium - Not as clear, but Richie ends up not killing himself and daughter returns home safely.
Binary oppositions in 'Curfew'
Young vs old:
Binary oppositions and points of conflicted are mostly caused by the fact that there is n age and generation gap. It seems that Sophie, the younger individual, acts older than whos actually in his mid 30-40's, being Richie.
Man vs woman:
Sophie's mum is a woman who is domestically abused, this being because she is a woman, and her husband takes dominance over her.
Life vs death:
Sophie is young, full of life but is associated with someone who frequently hurts himself and attempts to take his own life.
Dramatic questions:
- Will he kill himself/overdose?
- Will he buy more drugs?
- Will he hurt the girl?
will he buy more drugs /will he hurt the girl. questions caused by the opposition in their age
Freytag's 5 act structure:
Exposition - Richie cancels his plans to babysit his niece.
Rising action - Richie takes extra care of Sophie, making sure she does not see the drug abuse conflict in his life
Climax - Richie reveals that he dropped Sophie on the floor as a kid, and Sophie forgives him and a relationship is formed. We find marks on Richies arm from suicide attempts, and see Sophie's mum beaten and bruised.
Falling - Richie notices a restraining order when he gets home, and relapses into suicidal thoughts.
Denamount - Richie gets into a bathtub, and we have visuals of blood and the character cutting / harming himself.
- Will he buy more drugs?
- Will he hurt the girl?
will he buy more drugs /will he hurt the girl. questions caused by the opposition in their age
Freytag's 5 act structure:
Exposition - Richie cancels his plans to babysit his niece.
Rising action - Richie takes extra care of Sophie, making sure she does not see the drug abuse conflict in his life
Climax - Richie reveals that he dropped Sophie on the floor as a kid, and Sophie forgives him and a relationship is formed. We find marks on Richies arm from suicide attempts, and see Sophie's mum beaten and bruised.
Falling - Richie notices a restraining order when he gets home, and relapses into suicidal thoughts.
Denamount - Richie gets into a bathtub, and we have visuals of blood and the character cutting / harming himself.
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