How come Psycho fans don't hate The Apartment?
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ecarle — 9 years ago(August 25, 2016 06:03 PM)
What's to hate? As swanstep suggests, there exists what might be called a commonality of tastes among admirers of Hitchcock that seems logically to extend to the work of Wilder (or vice versa),
Indeed, though Hitchcock had more "cinematic flair," both men seemed to share insights about the mix of good AND bad in the human psyche, and both men knew how to communicate the pain of everyday human life within their larger visions.
I like to note that "The Apartment" uses Hitchcock's classic suspense technique: the audience is given information that the characters don't have. At least not for a long time. Lemmon doesn't know that MacLaine is MacMurray's lover(oh the pain when he finds out via the broken mirror); MacLaine doesn't realize what a swine MacMurray really is and how good Lemmon is(oh the joy when she disappears on New Year's Eve from MacMurry and into Lemmon's armswell, not his arms, really. They don't even kiss! "Shut up and deal!") But also: the Doctor next door doesn't know that Lemmon IS NOT a playboy sex machine, and MacLaine doesn't know that the apartment where she trysts with MacMurray is Lemmon.s'
Oh the suspense!!
and indeed the two directors shared mutual admiration for each other.
Less so on Wilder's part, I might add, which is odd. Usually Hitchcock was light on praising other directors. But Hitchcock strongly praised both Double Indemnity and Sunset Boulevard (you can understand why) while Wilder dissed Hitchcock for all his "wild camera angles" and said, "if people say its a great shot, it isn't they noticed it." Once Hitchcock died, Wilder said, "Oh to be out of competition with him, finally. Always the supermystery, always the corpse." Wilder dissed Rope for its no cutting strategy but then, so did Hitchcock himself to Truffaut, later. So? It was an EXPERIMENT.
Both were emigrant artists who immersed themselves in American culture, often offering sharply humorous observations thereof - Hitchcock's from a more psychological viewpoint; Wilder's from a sociological one - that were filtered through their sardonic yet individual prisms.
True. They are probably my Number One/Number Two from their era, if one takes them on into the sixties and seventies. Hitchcock has more in common with Wilder than with Ford, say, or Capra.
In the cases of Psycho and The Apartment in particular, arguably the two best-remembered B&W classics of 1960,
I'll say..inarguably! Who remembers "Sons and Lovers"?
there are kinships in numerous aspects: frankness and maturity unusual for the day in matters of sexuality and the dynamics thereof; story arcs set in motion through the actions of "drones" in the world of business (small or large) that take dramatically unexpected turns in both trajectory and tone; stark monochromatic visuals; even the male protagonists of both are initially motivated by unrequited attraction, and reside within dwellings that are faded ghosts of modest, turn-of-the-century Victorian detail and ornamentation. And each film involves in varying degrees elements of suspense and dark humor.
All agreed. I like the Lemmon/Perkins Victorian home comparison. Never really thought of that! I doubt that Jack Lemmon could have played Norman Bates, but Perkins might have handled CC Baxterand Perkins later lamented that Psycho ruined him for comedy roles.
The yearning of Lemmon for MacLaine rather mirrors that of Perkins for Leigh, and we relate to the male the same way, roughly. Poor nice guyshe should be with HIM, not MacMurray/Gavin. But then Psycho blows that analysis all to hell.
As far as Oscar noms, the only categories in which they competed directly were Director, Art Direction (in both of which The Apartment prevailed) and B&W Cinematography (in which neither did).
I'd say Psycho should have won all the b/w categories and, of course, Hitchcock over Wilder that year (Wilder already had some statues, yes?)
I mean art direction. OK, OKThe Apartment has THE APARTMENT and that office drone anthill where Lemmon works butthe House (the greatest special effect in history) both OUTSIDE(absolutely, for the ages) and inside(good enough in there; great staircase, foyer, and bedrooms.)
In total, Psycho competed in four categories, winning in none; The Apartment in ten, winning in five.
That's how it goes, Oscar-wise. Billy Wilder had a lot of Hollywood poker playing pals in the Rat Pack and elsewhere in town.
For all its cynicism and bitterness, Wilder's is ultimately a "warm" film with "a good heart," and didn't upset audiences - either in 1960 or later - as Psycho did
Very true. One ends in great happiness, and the other in something beyond sadnessbeyond horror evensomething perhaps too profound for Hollywood to handle.
which, in spite of the gratifying thrills and shocks it delivered, may have been regarded at awards time as something of a "guilty pleasure" (admittedly, nothing more than retroactive armchair psychoanalysis on my part).
Its all we can do here. I think that Psycho got four no -
ecarle — 9 years ago(August 25, 2016 06:08 PM)
And one more thing.
Had The Apartment been nominated one year earlier in 1959the year of the epic Biblical "Ben-Hur," or one year later in 1961..the year of the epic musical "West Side Story" it would have lost. That's the great "luck of the Oscar draw."
I sometimes applaud The Apartment for winning Best Picture even with Psycho not in the race because "something small and near-perfect" won, the kind of movie that DOES sometimes make it (Marty, Tom Jones, In the Heat of the Night, The French Connection) , but not often.
Ben-Hur and West Side Story would have wiped out Psycho had it been nominated in those years, too. Hitchcock was lucky to be considered competitive for Best Director in 1960, thanks to the lack of a blockbuster.
The epics of 1960? Spartacus and Exodus were hated by the right because Dalton Trumbo wrote them; The Alamo was hated by the left because John Wayne directed it. This left the field clear for a Wilder/Hitchcock competition. Except Psycho(the movie) wasn't nominated.
Oy vey! -
swanstep — 9 years ago(August 25, 2016 06:54 PM)
and indeed the two directors shared mutual admiration for each other.
Less so on Wilder's part, I might add, which is odd. Usually Hitchcock was light on praising other directors. But Hitchcock strongly praised both Double Indemnity and Sunset Boulevard (you can understand why) while Wilder dissed Hitchcock for all his "wild camera angles" and said, "if people say its a great shot, it isn't they noticed it." Once Hitchcock died, Wilder said, "Oh to be out of competition with him, finally. Always the supermystery, always the corpse."
Part of Wilder's more grudging attitude towards Hitch isn't personal at all, it's just that a big part of Wilder's character was his John-Lennon-ish way with a vicious quip. Hitch was droll and witty and naughty in conversation, indeed, as he himself often put it, Hitchcock was a ham. But he did not have the Lennon/Wilder/Dorothy Parker gift for the cutting remark or put-down. [Note, however, that Wilder was capable of being much more patient than Hitchcock: Wilder spent many weeks on Some Like It Hot coaxing a performance out of Monroe, whereas it's a dead certainty that Hitch wouldn't have, and would have fired her after the first few days of her antics.]
Beyond Wilder-being-Wilder though, I think it's clear that by around the time of Psycho, Wilder (like Welles) is jealous of Hitchcock's celebrity with casual movie and TV fans and also of his growing reputation among film scholars and critics, especially in France and Europe more generally. Some of Wilder's comments about Psycho in particular see him giving all the credit for the shower scene to Bass, and the basic tone from Wilder is one of carping and insecurity. It's as if Wilder wants to say that it's unfair that Hitch should have developed these mighty collaborators in Herrmann and Bass (The Apartment for all its virtues has undistinguished titles and score - it's not total cinema the way that Psycho and NbNW and Vertigo are.). Probably, Wilder also just felt a little bad that Hitch who was 7 years older than him was nonetheless more 'hip with the kids' than him. Rivalries are weird - sometimes it's the most childish thing that really irks people! -
ecarle — 9 years ago(August 26, 2016 05:46 PM)
Part of Wilder's more grudging attitude towards Hitch isn't personal at all, it's just that a big part of Wilder's character was his John-Lennon-ish way with a vicious quip.
Yes, he made a few of those. A lot of those.
Famous if true exchange with his wife, over breakfast:
Mrs. Wilder: Billy, today is our anniversary!
Billy: Please, not while I'm eating.
Hitch was droll and witty and naughty in conversation, indeed, as he himself often put it, Hitchcock was a ham. But he did not have the Lennon/Wilder/Dorothy Parker gift for the cutting remark or put-down.
Different types of men, different types of humor. I suppose we can put some of Hitchocck's humor over to the British tradition. THAT saidboy did Hitchcock have somebody writing great lines for his "Hitchcock character" on the TV show, the Psycho trailer, and assorted other speeches.
[Note, however, that Wilder was capable of being much more patient than Hitchcock: Wilder spent many weeks on Some Like It Hot coaxing a performance out of Monroe, whereas it's a dead certainty that Hitch wouldn't have, and would have fired her after the first few days of her antics.]
Yes. Hitchcock seemed careful to avoid MM, and he said he would never direct Marlon Brando or Frank Sinatra, "because those two men direct themselves."
Hitchcock famously had every scene pre-prepared and every line in concrete except, he didn't, really. His scripts were very much changed in the lines(notably by Cary Grant for NXNW) and his scenes on film don't always match what one reads on the script.
Still, I doubt that Hitchcock would have EVER stood still for the Monroe experience. Hitchcock fired some lesser performers(Roy Thinnes on Family Plot) I expect he might have done it with MM.
But this with Wilderhe HAD directed her in "Seven Year Itch," and then he had the horrific (but gold in the results ) experience on "Some Like It Hot" but Wilder eventually said he would work with Monroe againspecifically on "Irma La Douce." Which went from MM to Liz Taylor(upon MM's death) to lucky Shirley MacLaine.
Meanwhile: because he had a long-term contract at Universal in the 60's, Marlon Brando WAS considered for a Hitchcock movie: Marnie. By whom, I don't know. Hitchcock? Uncle Lew? No deal and Brando went on to act in a terrible movie directed by Charlie Chaplin(Countess from Hong Kong) with Sophia Lorenand Tippi Hedren.
Beyond Wilder-being-Wilder though, I think it's clear that by around the time of Psycho, Wilder (like Welles) is jealous of Hitchcock's celebrity with casual movie and TV fans and also of his growing reputation among film scholars and critics, especially in France and Europe more generally.
It hit so huge for Hitchcock in the years 1958-1963 pretty much everywhere BUT Oscar (and even there, Psycho got more respect than usual.) And here's Billy Wilder doing some of his greatest work in those same years, winning big Oscars and getting a bit ignored.
That said, "One, Two Three" (1961) was sold with Billy Wilder's image in the ads, and he had to admit that he had finally become a "bankable director name." Only Hitchcock and DeMille had been such for many years, Wilder noted.
Some of Wilder's comments about Psycho in particular see him giving all the credit for the shower scene to Bass,
No kidding. Well, any old anchor in a storm.
and the basic tone from Wilder is one of carping and insecurity. It's as if Wilder wants to say that it's unfair that Hitch should have developed these mighty collaborators in Herrmann and Bass (The Apartment for all its virtues has undistinguished titles and score - it's not total cinema the way that Psycho and NbNW and Vertigo are.).
Fully agreed. When Psycho begins with Herrmann and Bass, its "the sixties." When The Apartment begins with who? its 1944. The movie itself is better, however. That said, "Marnie" has credits that look like 1944, too with Herrmann playing music that sounds that way. But I think those credits were "counterpoint" to the perversity and sex stuff ahead much as Frenzy opens with a Ye Olde London sunny orchestra fanfare.
And, well, why didn't WILDER seek Bass(as Otto Preminger had) and Herrmann? The latter would be a problem; Herrmann was a thriller/fantasy(Seventh Voyage of Sinbad) heavy-music guy by then. Oh, Wilder DID use Bass for the print ad logos of one or all of these: One, Two Three; Irma La Douce; Kiss Me Stupid.
I think. At least one of them.
Probably, Wilder also just felt a little bad that Hitch who was 7 years older than him was nonetheless more 'hip with the kids' than him.
Yes. Hitchcock was the "compleat producer-director." All that cinematic style and narrative power but also the ability, as a producer-showman to "suck it up" and look around at what the younger directors were making(in America and abroad) and to try to work with Sean Connery and Julie Andrews and Paul Newman and all those European New Wave actors(Topaz) .
And Hitchcock cut loose BOTH DP Robert Burks and Herrmann when they s -
swanstep — 9 years ago(August 26, 2016 09:22 PM)
It's worth mentioning that although Psycho was ultimately much more in tune with the '60s than The Apartment was, as Mad Men reminded us, the '60s was a broader church than it's sometimes depicted as, and once you take an appropriately broad view of the '60s then The Apartment looks plenty important
Lots of people even in their 20s in the 1960s were a little old for surging youth culture of the Beatles, Stones, Dylan, etc.. and for most of those people, I believe, The Apartment is a core '60s experience.
The point is that alongside the true youth culture there was a slightly older-pitched sophisticated pop music and cocktails culture, associated with Sinatra and Mancini and Neil Simon and Nichols and May(and Fellini movies like La Dolce Vita and 81/2 and their music if you mixed in the right circles) but also with with Bacharach and David and Dionne Warwick, Petula Clark, Peggy Lee and Streisand and later Jimmy Webb and 5th Dimension and so on.
Post Breakfast at Tiffs and Barefoot in the Park and 'Downtown' it might have been possible to forget that The Apartment had kind of started all the portraits of a certain sort of swinging urban life, but in 1968 Bacharach made his bid for Broadway greatness (and Newsweek and Time covers) with Promises Promises (book by Neil Simon), a musical version of The Apartment. It was a big hit, played for years, spun off a bunch of radio staples, and generally features some of the most musically sophisticated pop music ever written. Promises Promises made explicit what you previously needed the right kind of memory and background to see, that The Apartment was indeed a kind of core text for the too-old-for-The-Beatles '60s culture.
The Apartment wasn't Psycho in terms of its cultural influence, almost nothing is, but it still had enough ripples so that you can't really decode the '60s properly without it. And, of course, you don't get Mad Men without it!
Thinking now about The Apartment's profile after the '60s, my sense is that it really did fall out of popular consciousness (whereas Psycho with all its imitators and the Anobile book and the rest of it just grew in importance) for a couple of decades. I recall it really starting to impinge on my consciouness in the late '90s. That's when Cameron Crowe was talking it up in every interview he gaver. I think that The Apartment must have been given a solid dvd release around then too. That's when I saw it, and I don't remember it being around on vhs much if at all (Sweet Smell of Success was the same way - I don't ever remember having a chance to see it before the late '90s and then suddenly every video store had a copy on dvd, and often cheap copies of it for sale as well, which I bought). These films were revelations at the time. Now I think about it, that mid-to-late '90s period was a good one for building film appreciation: Rear Window and Vertigo went through restorations and re-releases in major cities, and so did key French films from the '60s that most people had never had the chance to see before esp. on the big screen: Belle de Jour, Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Rififi, La Jetee, and so on. It was a little mind-blowing to repeatedly have your mind blown by these masterpieces from 30+ years before. -
ecarle — 9 years ago(August 27, 2016 08:23 AM)
It's worth mentioning that although Psycho was ultimately much more in tune with the '60s than The Apartment was, as Mad Men reminded us, the '60s was a broader church than it's sometimes depicted as, and once you take an appropriately broad view of the '60s then The Apartment looks plenty important
Absolutely. You know, the Academy gets certain things right, and of the five movies nominated for Best Picture in 1960(of which Psycho was not one), The Apartment made all kinds of sense as the one to win. The film spoke to where America WAS in 1960with the fifties starting to close down(they'd go with JFK in 1960), with Eisenhower ending his reign, with a burgeoning sense of sexuality (likely driven by Playboy in America and sexy films from Europe), with Sinatra, Dino, and the Rat Pack creating a certain alpha male fantasy driven by drink, dames and camaraderie. (I would like to assume that burgeoning female sexuality was served as much by the fantasies of the Rat Pack and Elvis as MM fed male fantasiesliberation was coming in the workplace, but the Pill gave it to ladies with sex, first.)
But The Apartment ALSO spoke to something that was being talked about a lot in the press: the corporatization of America, the loss of individuality, the mundane pain of the Man(and Woman) in the Crowd(here, Jack and Shirley). CC Baxter in his sea of desks (not even partitions) with different groups getting off work every ten minutes so as now to overload the elevators. The rat race to the top of the pyramid where MacMurray's Sheldrake dwells many men(and then, it was only men) wouldn't make it to the 27th floor, and getting there, as we saw, was hell.
While some of the rebellion against "the establishment" in the sixties was against military servitude and political oppression, a fair amount was against the very nature of corporate life. The Apartment led the way on that it ends with CC quitting the corporation and without a job, but we feel he will make it somewhere(an accountant back in his Ohio home town?) Well, we HOPE he will make it somewhere. In 1960, his chances were good for employment again.
The rebellion against corporatism led to the counter culture and the hippie culture and(at the fringes) the Commune.
Butdecades and decades laterI'm afraid the corporate structure looks more powerful than ever. Its global, it has overtaken politics at the source, and its EVERYWHERE: Sports stadiums with corporate names; movie studios co-owned with TV networks(NBC/Universal); and music. (Someone once wrote about how MTV represented the takeover of the jungle-business world of 70's music by corporations.)
You could probably make The Apartment today without too many changes. A few 80's movies tried it Working Girl with Melanie Griffith and Secret of My Success with Michael J. Fox but THOSE movies rather trumpeted corporate success as the "way out for the little guy or gal."Lots of people even in their 20s in the 1960s were a little old for surging youth culture of the Beatles, Stones, Dylan, etc.. and for most of those people, I believe, The Apartment is a core '60s experience.
I think so. I was very aware of The Apartment and Some LIke It Hot being talked about by the adults. And I got to be a kid at a few "swinging parties" where the adults drank their martinis, the mother/wives dressed sexy, and the father/husbands acted cool. Cigarettes a few of those people died from lung cancer.The point is that alongside the true youth culture there was a slightly older-pitched sophisticated pop music and cocktails culture, associated with Sinatra and Mancini and Neil Simon and Nichols and May(and Fellini movies like La Dolce Vita and 81/2 and their music if you mixed in the right circles) but also with with Bacharach and David and Dionne Warwick, Petula Clark, Peggy Lee and Streisand and later Jimmy Webb and 5th Dimension and so on.
Absolutely. A difference of maybe 25 years between the two generations, with some "in between" but it was there. On the other hand, on pop AM radio, songs by The Beatles were played on the same channels as songs by Dionne Warwick and Petulia Clark. And Bacharach was everywhere.
I vividly remember listening to hour after hour of radio in late 1968 that was dominated by the cut-by-cut release of songs off The Beatles "White Album" but during that same hour, Burt Bacharach's "Promises, Promises"(by Dionne Warwick) and The Fifth Dimension's "Sweet Blindness" were hits of the time, too. And Glen Campbell("Witchita Lineman.")
Now that was probably a "pop" channel that let the Beatles in. You could get your Doors and your Blind Faith and your Cream elsewhere on the dial, or on the burgeoning FM channels that sounded quiet and lonely back then.
Post Breakfast at Tiffs and Barefoot in the Park and 'Downtown' it might have been possible to forget that The Apartment had kind of started all the portraits of a certain sort of swinging urban life, but in 1968 Bacharach made his bid for Broadway great -
ecarle — 9 years ago(August 27, 2016 08:45 AM)
The Apartment wasn't Psycho in terms of its cultural influence, almost nothing is,
I think so. Psycho and The Apartment were on the "same wavelength" with regard to risqu aspects and the struggling lower middle class characters, but Psycho went that extra distance with violence and shock and perversity and paved the way for everything from the slasher movie to Bonnie and Clyde, The Wild Bunch, and The Godfather. And MASH, the movie, for that matter.
Bigger still perhaps, was how wildly CINEMATIC Psycho was what with all the fast-edit montage, sinous camera movements and special effects-y shots of the Bates Mansion. The Apartment didn't go THERE at all. Wilder wasn't interested.
but it still had enough ripples so that you can't really decode the '60s properly without it. And, of course, you don't get Mad Men without it!
Agreed. The thinking person's hit that Mad Men was (without the powerhouse ratings of The Sopranos or The Walking Dead for that matter) reflected several generations and their yearning , I think, for the era that Mad Men represented. I ran into so many younger fans of "Mad Men" who would tell me how lucky I was to be old enough to remember that period. I'd tell them, "But I was Sally Draper's age" and they'd say "but you were THERE." The show makes the point that the proponents of women's rights and racial rights had big battles to fight in the 60's,but it also makes the point that there was, perhaps, more style back then, more things kept "bubbling under the surface" with regard to race and gender.
"The Apartment" is about race and gender a little bit though it didn't really know it. There are two blacks that we see in the filmone shines Fred MacMurray's shoes, and the other is a janitor upon whose head Lemmon just tosses his bowler hat(its a gag at the janitor's expense, though warmly so.) So that's race in The Apartment. I can't help thinking that even 1960 audiences squimred a bit at those moments.
As for gender..womenwell, the film hardly takes up women's rights but shows us what they had to do and where they would need to take things. The movie postulates married middle-aged men with their wealthy wives staying home while they "play in the city" generally with women identified as working class through their tough accents, or "floozies." Idea being: the working class dames will give men the hot sheets excitement their matronly wives will notbut the dames don't get to move to the suburbs.
"Mad Men" gets to play it more sophisticated than "The Apartment" did. The matronly wives still stay home, but one of them is beautiful Betty Draper. And the "girls" downtown who are giving the married men action? They are pretty and sophisticated, some steps up from the dames that Wilder gave us(Shawlee, Ray Walston's MM clone "date"; and the jockey's wife who picks up CC in the bar.)
Still, both The Apartment (without knowing it) and Mad Men(very MUCH knowing it, from a 2010's perspective) tell us that women had to make some changes. And they did. There are still affairs, but they are on equal terms. A lot of women are bringing in paychecks. They don't NEED men so much as the ladies did in 1960.
Thinking now about The Apartment's profile after the '60s, my sense is that it really did fall out of popular consciousness (whereas Psycho with all its imitators and the Anobile book and the rest of it just grew in importance) for a couple of decades.
True. As we saw, the quickest way for a low budget producer to make money was to "grab the knife and the bottle of blood" and Psycho knockoffs ran rampant for decades, plus high-profile successors like The Exorcist, Jaws, and Carrie, none of which was really like Psycho, but all of which continued its superthriller tradition(Well, Carrie took place at Bates High School sothe homage was there.)
The Apartment seemed to become a "period piece" rather rapidly because of its fifties look and attitudes, and I would note this: Psycho REALLY feels like The Apartment and as DATED as The Apartment in its opening scenes, with Cassidy and Lowery and California Charlie. Those are 1960 archetypes, very good ones, but THEY didn't travel with "Psycho" into the 70's and beyond.
As for the Anobile book: one thing that shocked me in the author's introduction was this line(paraphrased): "Psycho is the first modern film in my shot-by-shot book series. I feel that it is enough of a classic that it didn't have to wait to become old before I covered it." A modern film? But this was 1974 and given my age, 1960 seemed like The Stone Age"Way Back There." But not in Richard Anobile's eyes. That said, his other shot-by-shot books were of Frankenstein, Stagecoach, The Maltese Falcon, and Casablanca..so I guess he had a point.
I recall it really starting to impinge on my consciouness in the late '90s. That's when Cameron Crowe was talking it up in every interview he gave.
It is Crowe's favorite film, I believe. And Wilder his favorite director. And Crowe tried a Wild -
Robbmonster — 9 years ago(October 16, 2016 07:04 AM)
Let me answer your question with another question
Why WOULD Psycho fans hate The Apartment???
They are films, not sporting teams with some cross-town rivalry. These films were done 50 years before the ridiculous DC vs Marvel rivalries of today.
They are both great films, not reason at all why fans of one should hate the other. And awards - or lack of them - don't make any film better or more respected than any other.
Never defend crap with 'It's just a movie'
http://www.youtube.com/user/BigGreenProds -
kbp-25959 — 9 years ago(October 16, 2016 07:10 AM)
Taxi Driver fans hate Rocky, Apocalypse Now fans hate Kramer vs. Kramer, Raging Bull fans hate Ordinary People, GoodFellas fans hate Dances with Wolves, Pulp Fiction fans hate Forrest Gump, Fargo fans hate The English Patient, Saving Private Ryan fans hate Shakespeare in Love, Brokeback Mountain fans hate Crash, There Will Be Blood fans are moderately jealous of No Country for Old Men, and fans of The Social Network hate The King's Speech. I notice a pattern of winners being bashed for beating nominees. I know Psycho doesn't fit this category but it makes me wonder if the winning film were not nominated, would there be a Gump Pulp feud today.
-
Robbmonster — 9 years ago(October 16, 2016 08:08 AM)
Rarely before have I ever seen such massive, grossly uninformed generalizations.
If people DO hate them based on the pattern I definitely see there, it's purely because of their own arrogance and belief their opinion is the only one that could possibly be 'correct'.
If people think winning Oscars somehow makes a film better or worse than it already is, well, nothing I say will change that.
Or part of it could simply be that all those pairing are so different to each other that it's like arguing which is better - McDonalds or Pizza Hut, trying to compare 2 things that have no right being compared in the first place. I mean who would seriously compare Apocalypse Now to Kramer vs Kramer??? I can scarcely think of two films that are more different to each other. The only - I repeat - ONLY reason they get compared is because one won a Best Picture Oscar, and many people - those mentioned before who think their own opinion is the 'correct' one - believe it should have been Apocalypse Now. Some people like human dramas with character development, some people like vague 'epics' with lots of pretty things to look at. No problem, but comparing the two is silly.
And the same could be said for any of those duos you listed.
Some people prefer conventional films with stories, plots, character development and resolutions, some people like stuff that is more 'edgy'. Neither is any better or worse than they other, just different. Sadly there is no scientific formula to divine what makes one film better than another. It's all individual.
Never defend crap with 'It's just a movie'
http://www.youtube.com/user/BigGreenProds -
ecarle — 9 years ago(October 17, 2016 02:06 PM)
Psycho and The APartment don't fit into these pairs. Both films were considered very cutting edge in 1960 and appealed to a lot of the same audience.
I think that is very true. Hitchocck and Wilder were both, in very different ways, interested in pushing the Hays Code envelope, and I think they saw the bellweather year of 1960 as the year in which to do it.
For his part, Wilder said he had the basic idea for "The Apartment" around 1950, after he had seen "Brief Encounter" (1948? 1949?) and decided he wanted to do a movie about "the guy who gets into the warm sheets where the lovers just were."
But, said Wilder, he knew he could not make that movie in 1950. So he bided his time, worked on other projects in the fifties, and sensed that the movies were changing in the late 50's. His cross-dressing and very sexual "Some Like It Hot" came first in 1959, and The Apartment was good to go a year later.
Hitchcock was watching big budget, punches-pulling Hollywood get undercut by foreign shockers like Diabolique and cheapie horror movies from William Castle and Roger Corman. I'd say Hitchcock saw the breakthrough as being in how violence could be presented for ever more blood-thirsty American audiences especially teenage audiences. When "Psycho" was published in 1959, he had his vehicle. And screenwriter Joe Stefano gave Psycho its "French movie sex scene"(the opening.) -
Seto012 — 9 years ago(November 10, 2016 03:56 AM)
I think that if Psycho had been nominated the fans would have more of a beef with Apartment.
I'll use myself as an example. I am a massive fan of the original Star Wars movies. In 1977 Annie Hall won best picture and Star Wars was only nominated, and I've kinda always had a grudge against Annie Hall since. The Academy is basically saying "we acknowledge both films are great, but Hall is undoubtably better." This riles me up a bit, because I disagree wholeheartedly.
Now three years later, Empire Strikes Back comes along, and it isn't even nominated for anything! Completely ignored by the oscars. Likely it was all political, (Lucas was at war with the directors guild). So that time around my beef is squarely at the academy. They are basically saying "Empire doesn't even deserve consideration". Which again riles me up. So instead of merely comparing it to another film (ala Star Wars vs Annie Hall), Empire needs to be defended as being a good film in its own right.
I reckon same thing goes for Psycho fans. They simply can't believe Psycho wasn't even recognised. -
ecarle — 9 years ago(November 11, 2016 09:52 AM)
I think that if Psycho had been nominated the fans would have more of a beef with Apartment.
Or perhaps, less of a beef. At least when a movie is nominated, the Academy acknowledges it as ONE of the best of the year.
Eventually, Oscar got with the program and at least nominated thrillers for Best Picture: The Exorcist in 1973, Jaws in 1975. Arguably, The Towering Inferno in 1974. Raiders of the Lost Ark got a Best Picture nomination in 1981..though its sequels did not.
But that took some younger voters than were available in 1960 when Psycho came out.
For research projects, I've read a lot of 1960 entertainment columns and Psycho was certainly written aboutthough nowhere near the massive press such a film would get today. Anthony Perkins gave that famous interview where he said he thought that Janet Leigh AND he would be nominated. Hedda Hopper wrote "Outrage if Hitchcock doesn't get the Oscar for Psycho."
Well, as it turned out, the Academy voters just weren't impressed. They knew Psycho was a megahit, but they had no respect for it. It was just a little horror movie, and (wrote some critics) rather beneath Hitchcock and the kind of films that were SUPPOSED to get Oscars.
Had Psycho come out 15 years later, I'm sure it would have gotten a lot of nominations. But I doubt if it would have gotten any wins.
It took until 1991 and a weak crop of competitors for a thriller to sweep the Oscars. Silence of the Lambs. (One year after Kathy BATES won the Best Actress Oscar for the psycho in "Misery.")
I'll use myself as an example. I am a massive fan of the original Star Wars movies. In 1977 Annie Hall won best picture and Star Wars was only nominated, and I've kinda always had a grudge against Annie Hall since. The Academy is basically saying "we acknowledge both films are great, but Hall is undoubtably better." This riles me up a bit, because I disagree wholeheartedly.
As did a number of critics and "young writers on film" IN 1977. To add insult to injury, Woody Allen famously didn't even show up for the Oscars to get his Picture/Director Oscarshe played clarinet with a Jazz Band in a New York club that night.
The debate in that 1977 year was probably no different than Psycho would have been in in 1960 had it gotten a Best Picture nom: one movie(Psycho, Star Wars) was a "mere genre movie aimed primarily at teenagers", and the other (Annie HallThe Apartment) took up "adult concerns."
But what was pointed out about Star Wars in 1977 as could be said of Psycho as well is that a TYPICALLY cheapjack and sometimes kid-based genre had been used to create great auteuristic art that adults could enjoy , too and to take the movies to a new level of accomplishment.
That said, I think that Psycho IS more adult than Star Warscertainly more savage and "adult-oriented" for 1960, with, I'd argue a somewhat better written group of characters. (Luke and Han and Leia have some pretty corny lines..written that way on purpose, though.)
I would also like to say that some articles about Star Wars said "it is the biggest nation-wide audience movie since Psycho." Not since The Exorcist(which was too sickening for wide-spread enjoyment. Not since Jaws(which, in the years after it came out, always seemed a little LESS than it seemed on release.)
Now three years later, Empire Strikes Back comes along, and it isn't even nominated for anything! Completely ignored by the oscars. Likely it was all political, (Lucas was at war with the directors guild). So that time around my beef is squarely at the academy. They are basically saying "Empire doesn't even deserve consideration". Which again riles me up. So instead of merely comparing it to another film (ala Star Wars vs Annie Hall), Empire needs to be defended as being a good film in its own right.
Ironically, I saw "The Empire Strikes Back" AT the Motion Picture Academy theater. And, three years after I saw "Star Wars" on the Fox lot with a theater full of cheering, yelling, applauding fans"The Empire Strikes Back" got NO applause from the jaded Academy members at all. Total silence. I remember thinking: "They're jealous. And hey, most of them are old guys."
Time, critical writings, and "Best Movie Lists" have given "The Empire Strikes Back" the nod as the best of the Star Wars movies the "deep one," the "Godfather II," and it has the great Psycho-ish twist("I AM your father.") Me, I think it is a good film, but a rather unfinished one its the "middle part of the story" starting late and ending without a real ending. I much prefer the surprise and uplift and excitment of the original "Star Wars" to "Empire." Stillmine is a minority report.
In any event, the Academy couldn't see its way clear to nominate a sequel to Star Wars..even as it had done so for Godfather II. But that one had "art film" pretensions, "period epic" production values and a meaningful script.
And I like Godfather I (ahem"The Godfather") better than II.
I reckon same thing goes for Psycho fans. They simply -
CalibMcBolts — 9 years ago(November 16, 2016 01:37 PM)
Why would anyone hate The Apartment if they love Psycho, people who watch Psycho are clearly the more diehard film mans, so they would easily also love The Apartment. Both are masterpieces and either film couldve won Best Picture and Best Director in my eyes, and i wouldve been happy.
Psycho is #9 on my favorite films of all time list, and The Apartment is #11. Both are flawless masterpieces. No reason for anyone to hate either of them
Favorite films of all time list
http://www.imdb.com/list/ls031708001 -
JJdaPK — 9 years ago(January 30, 2017 08:05 AM)
A few years ago, I was mad that Psycho lost to the Apartment until I actually saw the Apartment and discovered what a fantastic movie it is.
I like Psycho better, but the Apartment is still one of the better "Best Picture" winners and it's hard to get upset about it winning. I love both movies.
Same thing with "Rear Window" losing to "On the Waterfront" or "North By Northwest" losing to "Ben Hur." I don't think they lost to better movies, but they lost to pretty damn good movies!
The only Hitchcock snub that really frustrates me is Vertigo not winning (or being nominated) Best Picture, and losing to Gigi. -
ecarle — 9 years ago(February 02, 2017 08:52 PM)
agreed on all points, but there is irony here:
Neither Rear Window nor Vertigo nor North by Northwest nor Psycho even got a Best Picture NOMINATION. So On the Waterfront, Gigi, Ben-Hur, and The Apartment had no competition from Hitchcock on the Best Picture front.
What Hitchcock WAS nominated for but for Rear Window and Psycho only of the group above was Best Director.
And he lost both times. To the director of the Best Picture.