Capital Celluloid 2012 - Day 298: Thu Oct 25

PSYCHO v PSYCHO: Leicester Square Theatre, 9pm

So that's Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960) and Psycho (Van Sant, 1998) AT THE SAME TIME!

This is a wonderful idea from Cigarette Burns Cinema and here's all you need to know about the evening:

'Director Gus Van Sant was met with howls of derision upon the release of 1998’s PSYCHO, his shot-for-shot remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s legendary 1960 thriller PSYCHO. With only a couple of minor changes to the original, to make some scenes more explicit and to bring some of the topical references up-to-date, many critics were left asking – why?

Roger Ebert dismissed Van Sant’s film as “an attempt to re-create remembered passion…it demonstrates that a shot-by-shot remake is pointless; genius apparently resides between or beneath the shots, or in chemistry that cannot be timed or counted”. However, other critics argued that the film’s basics were so strong that the remake remains a powerful work in and of itself, with the New York Times claiming the 1998 film“remains the most structurally elegant and sneakily playful of thrillers…at least some things never change”.

Taking advantage of the unique screening arrangements of the Leicester Square Theatre, for the first time ever Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 classic PSYCHO will be shown simultaneously with Van Sant’s 1998 remake. This fascinating experiment provides a unique insight into the nature of directorial technique and the role of actors’ interpretation, while asking the question: can a story be told exactly the same way twice? Find out with us in October, while watching one of the best thrillers ever made on the big screen!'


Anton Bitel has written an essay for Little White Lies magazine exploring this seminal film ahead of tonight's special presentation.

Here is the trailer.

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