Psycho

 Psycho has to be one of my all time favorite movies. Not only does it have a
 great twist to it in the end, but it has some really great symbolism and film techniques.
The symbolism in the film consists mainly of references to birds. There is Marion "Crane", who is from "Phoenix", Arizona for starters.
In the famous shower scene when Marion is being stabbed, the choppy sticatto sound of the
violins resembles that of shrieking birds being attacked. Then, when Norman discovers what
"mother" has done several minutes later, he backs into a wall a knocks a bird painting off
the wall, symbolizing a dead bird, or Marion, falling to the ground. The casting choice of
Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates was also a pretty good move, because with his lankiness
and awkward and shy demeanor, he actually resembles a bird. There is one partivular scene
when Norman is chewing on candy corn and the camera does an extreme low angle to show to
his jaw and neck moving, resembling a chicken's gullet when it is eating. His hobby is also
taxidermy so there are a lot of shots of his stuffed birds in several scenes throughout
the film. In one scene in Norman's office, he claimas his mother is "as harmless as one of
those stuffed birds", which is very true in one way. One scene that makes great use of lighting is toward the end when Marion's sister discovers Mrs. Bates in the fruit cellar. When she turns her around, she jumps back and knocks into an overhead light, which swings back and forth to cast large shadows in the room. This also helps to create a sense of confusion,as it is also the same moment that Norman comes running down the stairs in his mother's clothes.