1. The four ways in which Leitch argues that Van Sant's Psycho is unusual are: 1) Van Sant's decision not to update, readapt, or rethink the original's source material in any way, 2) the audience would lose the sense of surprise gained when the film's heroine dies almost exactly halfway through the film because of the original film, 3) the remake's textual closeness to the original, and 4) Van Sant sticking to the same filming conditions, including the same shooting schedule, that Hitchcock used with the original film.
Logistically, Van Sant had to deal with the artistic status of a remake. Due to having to make the film in the 1990s, Van Sant took advantage of the color film available to him and was forced to update the cast with current stars. The time period changes forced the differences from the original to be totally noticeable to the public, so any homage/aspects of the original film was marred by the unique touches that Van Sant placed upon it.
2. The key difference between the two shower scenes is that the Van Sant shower scene in which the heroine is killed is totally expected by the audience. This is different from general genre expectations and conventions inspired by Hitchcock’s Psycho because it completely eliminates the element of suspense and surprise that Hitchcock prided himself in being a master of.
3. James Naremore has many objections to Van Sant's take on Psycho from the casting of Robert Forester as the psychologist and the effect that has on how Norman's diagnosis is perceived to how the close-up of Marion Crane's dead eye "spoils the mood of one of the most famous dissolves in movie history." In the areas of casting and performance, Naremore had objections to Vince Vaughn not being able to make the character of Norman Bates into his own character. Instead, Vaughn is forced to copy the performance of Perkins to mimic the original performance and, in this way, gives the audience no more than a "stale" performance with none of the payoffs (pathos, boyish humor, etc.) that the original performance provided. However, he disapproves of Anne Heche's take on Marion Crane because she loses almost everything that could be construed as the essence of Janet Leigh.
The Royal Cook is about about a cook who is fated to die due to his inability to recreate the exact taste of a mulberry omelet at the orders of his dying king. The explanation states that, even with a close examination of all of the same ingredients involved in the recipe, the royal cook cannot recreate the moment in which the previous omelets were eaten because the experience is entirely subject. In reference to Van Sant's Psycho, this means that no matter how hard he tried to make an exact duplicate of Hitchcock's film, he would have been entirely unable to do so because the audience for the film is entirely different. Psycho, and any other films like it, is no longer "cutting-edge." Modern audiences expect different things from their horror films.
4. According to William Rothman, Alfred Hitchcock was a master of choosing a camera angle or a specific shot in order to convey a certain meaning within his films. By copying Hitchcock, Van Sant was unable to replicate those meanings. Instead, Van Sant's subtle changes to the shots completely. They no longer have the power of Hitchcock's shot, and it does little to do the originator justice. The audience no longer feels trapped by Van Sant's camera angles and shots. The original meaning no longer exists.
Leitch raises the question of why. He wants to understand why Van Sant's shots lost the "force of gesture" that Alfred Hitchcock's had if they were, in fact, the same shots. Basically, the fact that Van Sant is not, in fact, Hitchcock himself should not alter the meaning if the film is an exact duplicate, however, the intertextual markers and other audience aspects change the film. Timothy Gould disagrees with Rothman because he states that the average moviegoer must be able to rise above the simple act of "commonplace viewing" and be able to acknowledge "Hitchcock's authorship." The audience should be able to make observations, regardless.
5. Alfred Hitchcock was Hollywood's first auteur filmmaker. While he was not the first to make some of his films, he was the first to make a film, put his filmmaking thumbprint on it, and make the film into something easily recognized as one of his works. Leitch even claims that Hitchcock might be the "last auteur." In Naremore's recollection of his first viewing of Psycho, he was genuinely horrified by the film. Van Sant's version of the film was more of an academic study then a genuine "film going" experience. However, for students watching Psycho in an academic setting, the film lost the original scare factor. The setting in which a film is viewed can have a tremendous effect on the way it impacts the audience.
6. Leitch suggests that maybe Van Sant "out-Hitchcocks Hitchcock" because Hitchcock was considered the master of suspense. He felt that making the audience feel suspense was always greater than merely surprising them. In this way, Van Sant's shot-by-shot remake of one of the most horrifying scenes in Psycho, the shower scene where Marion Crane dies, is not scary in the same sense, as the audience knows the death is coming. However, the level of suspense is elevated because the audience knows the murder is coming and are on the edges of their seats as they wait to see how Van Sant plays the scene out.
7. The thematic concerns that Schneider associates with Van Sant films are: his character types as examples of dysfunction (hustlers, junkies, troubled geniuses, etc.) and his ability to explore subjectivity at the level of the narrative and on a visual level, which helps to explore the dysfunction of the previously stated character types. He also romanticizes the idea of leaving home and then heading out on the open road in order to escape repression.
In Psycho, the two main characters are incredibly dysfunctional and fit right in with Van Sant's ideas of dysfunctional, troubled individuals. Norman Bates suffers from mental illness as a result of living with, and his subsequent murder of, his overbearing, repressive mother. Marion Crane is desperate to leave her repressive life in the city and wishes to start her own life with Sam, so she steals money, leaves home, and heads out on the road in order to try to start this new life, a sentiment that works very well with Van Sant's romanticism of the road and the journey it represents.
8. Van Sant likes to insert images within important moments of his films, and Psycho is no different. While he tries to keep the film identical in a sense of a shot-for-shot remake, his own stylistic markers slip into the film. For instance, images of blue skies and clouds are cut in with Marion Crane's murder scene, and the same happens when Arbogast is being murdered in the Bates house. The use of time-lapse sky and other intercuts happens often in Van Sant films when characters are undergoing "altered states of consciousness." This is visible in scenes of orgasms, narcoleptic seizures, and drug-induced hallucinations in other Van Sant films.
9. Marion: By casting an openly homosexual woman, or so Anne Heche was at the time of the film, Van Sant altered the expectations of the character. Janet Leigh, the original Marion Crane, was heterosexual. Instead of committing a crime, such as theft, to get out of her trapped lifestyle in the city, the casting of Heche could lead the audience to believe, as Schneider puts it, that a "radical change in lifestyle" could be exactly what she needs.
Norman: The original character of Norman Bates, played by Anthony Perkins, was incredibly effeminate. Perkins himself was a gay man, so the character's ticks and his leaning towards being more feminine than masculine were far more easier for the audience to accept. Casting Vince Vaughn gave the character a much more masculine, macho build, and it became more difficult for the audience to accept any signs of femininity from such a "man's man." By choosing to have Vaughn's character masturbate to Marion Crane's image through a peep hole, Van Sant cements his heterosexuality and eliminates the homosexual character type that Hitchcock had once played up in his own film. It also changes the meaning of her murder from one of his mother's jealousy to Norman's own jealousy in Marion not showing any interest in him.
Lila: Julianne Moore's portrayal of Lila Crane is one that comes across as more "butch" and independent than her sister, Marion. She also comes across as more "butch" and independent than the woman who had played her previously, Vera Miles. Schneider equates her to the same level of liberation as the lesbian cowgirls in Even Cowgirls Get the Blues because she actively participates in the capture of her sister's murderer.
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