How come Psycho fans don't hate The Apartment?
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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.
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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.