Be it memories of buttered popcorn, the anticipation built by the trailers, or the relief of re-entering the outside world to pour into discussion with family or friends, with every ritual we become more engaged in what stares back at us through the screen. In spite of this, the modern-day experience of the cinema is a conflicted one. Today, with rising costs and a seemingly never-ending chain of sequels, for many, a trip to the cinema comes with a price, particularly amongst students.
For their third year now, the student-led initiative Ballroom24 have made it not only their task, but their privilege, to attack this problem where it hurts by playing weekly films from across the globe on campus, all of which for free. Whilst I have attended many of these events for over a year now, from Monty Python to Get Carter, this week took the group in a new direction, impressively with their first ever screening of an American film: a Halloween special showing of Hitchcock’s 1960 classic, Psycho.
A curated list of era-accurate adverts further sets the mood.
These notions are fresh on my mind as I take my seat in a darkened makeshift cinema on campus. Ballroom24 have set the scene well: an ominous drone rings out across the room, inviting the seventy-plus attendees (all in black dress code of course) into the prospect of what’s to come. Before the film starts, a curated list of era-accurate adverts further sets the mood.
The forgotten transatlantic accents of old sell Henry Ford cars and other familiar cornerstones of the American Dream; each advert a snapshot of the world Hitchcock was bringing his film into, a world strikingly different from ours today. After a warm introduction from our host however, the seat-twitching excitement fades into a cold silence as Bernard Herrmann’s opening theme stabs through the speakers.
The film begins. Glorious nail-biting stress ensues. We watch as Marion Crane, unhappy in her work and relationship, flees to the hills with a stolen hunk of cash, pursued fiercely by a police officer whose eyes hide behind thick aviator sunglasses. The black-and-white visuals drape the film in a fitting perpetual darkness. As shadows cut sharp streaks across the California hills, your mind is left to wonder what lingers within these unseen pockets. Driving at night, Marion stops at the Bates motel – to lie down, but most importantly, lie low. It is here we meet the shy but deliciously charming owner, Norman Bates.
Despite its age, Psycho still holds up well today. With no need for CGI, Hitchcock leans on the power of a good cast alone. Played brilliantly by a young Anthony Perkins, Bates' initial impression is one of shyness. Yet through the eyes of Marion, the longer we spend with Norman, the more the cracks begin to show. His demeanour darkens in discussion of his mother. His office? Lined with personally crafted taxidermies. Then, shy of the hour mark, Marion steps into the shower, a scene which anyone who doesn’t live under a rock will instantly recognise. Bates kills our protagonist Marion in cold blood and buries her in a nearby swamp.
Psycho’s legacy continues to be championed.
Hitchcock himself described Psycho as a film for the ‘new generation’. Throughout the runtime, a captivated audience laughed, even gasped in unison. As our host for the evening highlighted himself, there is something comforting in the fact that even today Psycho’s legacy continues to be championed – still captivating the emerging generations.
With rising prices on tickets, and endless strings of sequel-sewage clogging the world of cinema today, Ballroom24 stands proudly in its opposition to this. It's inspiring that even after three years, this great team of young filmmakers continue to uphold the culture of accessible and entertaining cinema for students. As people made their way out, leaving the world of Hitchcock behind for the pub, suffice to say the evening was a profound success.
I will, of course, be back again for more.
Ballroom24 screens films at 6pm each Wednesday in the Culture Lab.