“Then we return to the motif of the shower head,
the impassive eye which has just watched this horrible thing happen.
This shot of the shower head at the beginning of the scene was
one of joy, she was going to get a new start and now that same
water is washing away the evidence of her existence and the murder.
The Water keeps running
and The Blood flows,
but The Heart is stopping.
It's just such an amazing image
to see Her Life flowing
down The Drain.
What a metaphor that is!”
Elijah Wood :
And it switches to The Eye, right?
Oh, come on.
That's so good.
Eli Roth :
“I wonder how long this shot is, how long she had to hold —
To get her eye to stay open?
Just to make sure her eye didn't twitch even a tiny bit.
Oh, my God, that's incredible.
Eli Roth :
The Pointless Spiralling
of The Universe
and the way that
Everything is ultimately
drawn down The Plughole
towards Oblivion,
towards Meaningless Death.
I think to some extent
we are looking at
Hitchcock's fears
as well as his obsessions.”
“You see it in Barton Fink, you see it
in so many movies and you're like,
"Why is he going inside the drain?
Are we going to go inside?"
That is the moment of Psycho where
Everything Changes.
This was made by an auteur film-maker and that is a very personal stamp.
It's a rupture in the movie
but the movie never achieves this
kind of poetry again and you begin
to realise that,
"Oh, this was what really mattered
most to Hitchcock."
Tomasini has done a clockwise turn optically which then, right about here, hooks back up to the freeze-frame footage.
I'm just amazed they were able to get that clean.
Usually when you do an optical it's pretty grainy but it looks
so smooth and so beautiful.
It's surprising and seamless where they go from live action,
it's like one of the greatest opticals in the history of movies.
It's also kind of like what the title sequence is doing
in Vertigo, it's a theme that runs through this film
and then later on, of course.
It's not style just for style's sake,
it's got content.
The cameras were huge and very difficult to manipulate.
You can actually see pictures of Hitchcock behind a Mitchell
and you get a sense of what it was like riding on that
carriage behind that huge locomotive of a camera.
Whereas today it's a snap, you just do it like Gus Van Sant.
In the remake he did it all live action.
The pull-back from her eye was
a whole robotic camera move.
Gus Van Sant's Editor :
I seriously followed the original
film shot by shot.
I was able to cut it exactly like The Original,
and we watched it,
and it was weird and
it didn't work.
I said, "Well, Gus, come over, watch the scene. I have a few reservations of how it's playing right now
and it doesn't feel like The Shower Scene yet."
We went in and tried to make it
a little more Gus Van Sant-y.
To duplicate something as iconic
as The Shower Scene,
:: ::
I really think it wasn't going to work.
:: ::
And it just didn't.
:: ::
I always loved the placement of those drops of water cos
:: ::
they're like tears.
:: ::
Right at the end it was a little flicker in her eye,
:: ::
a little highlight in her eye.
:: ::
And you can see her eye move.
:: ::
There's a tight, slight flick of the eye, there.
:: ::
Hitchcock almost fetishistically lingers in this postmortem moment.
:: ::
This is what happens after you die and no-one turns off the water.
:: ::
Hitch had a little snap of the finger to let Janet know
when the camera had past and was going to pan into the room.
It took a lot of takes.
I can feel the moleskin pulling away from my top part and so I could feel this, it was just of going...
SHE SQUEAKS
..and I thought, "You know what?
I don't want to do this damn thing again.
I really don't want to."
And there are all the guys on the scaffolding and I said,
"I'm not going to be modest.
Let 'em look."
Q: Why would you cut to the shower there?
A. : I don't think The Reason has anything
to do with artistic decision.
It's The Solution to some
technical problem that he had.
Hitchcock's Granddaughter :
After my grandfather filmed Psycho
and it had been shown to all the executives,
the last person he showed it
to was my grandmother
and they were sitting in the screening screen,
and he's panning out and she looks
at my grandfather and says,
"Hitch, you can't release this."
And he said, "Why not?"
She goes, "Janet Leigh took a breath."
They couldn't reshoot it.
Janet was gone, they didn't have the budget,
so they simply cut back to
the shower head spewing water."
And then that cynical camera move —
She made her moral decision
and this is what it got her.
There's an image of
The Uncaring Universe,
if you want one.
You see the headline there - "OKAY"
it is not OK. Nothing is OK.
He always comes back to his MacGuffin which is the —
He throws the newspaper into the quagmire,
it goes down with the car.
And The Audience says,
"That's The Money that we thought
was important in This Story,
it's totally unimportant."
“This is the thing in the movie that always tortured me —
The greatest scene in movie history ends
on a sour note with a bad ADR line —
That has been the doom of so many movies.
Here comes Norman.
Just wondering What Happened
and oh, my, he can't believe it —
‘Another murder at the motel.
How did that happen?’
It's an extraordinary aftermath,
it's a crucial piece of the film-making to sort of let the consequence of it actually land —
It's not about getting the blood stains out of the tub,
it's about this incredibly laborious process
that this unbearably damaged soul needs to work through.
It demands not just that we watch
as we've watched The Murder of Marion Crane,
we're also voyeurs to
The Horror of Norman's World.
For me, the clean up represents
Alfred Hitchcock's Sense of Orderliness,
sense of
"I wasn't sexually aroused by this woman, and I'm just going to pretend that this unhappy episode just didn't even occur."
I think that cleaning always represents sexual guilt.
You care about this guy.
And I know it sounds crazy
but you do.
You want to know
what's going to happen to him,
you want to know
is he going to be free of this
or is it going to consume him?
The fact that he is able
to get you to care is one of
the miracles of the movie.”
(The Doctor runs back for The Screwdriver.)
Perfect-10 :
Why? Why would I give her
My Screwdriver? Why would I do that?
Thing is, Future-Me had years
to think about it, all those years
to think of A Way to Save Her,
and What He Did was
Give Her a Screwdriver.
WHY Would I DO That?
(Because it also contains a neural relay,
which has Two Green Lights on it.)
Perfect-10 :
Oh! OH! Oh, look at that.
I'm VERY Good!
DONNA :
What have you done?
Perfect-10 :
Saved Her.
[Stacks]
(The Doctor is running as one green light goes out.)
Perfect-10 :
Stay with me!
You can do it, stay with me!
Come on, You and Me,
one last run!
[Reading room]
Perfect-10 :
Sorry, River, shortcut!
COMPUTER:
Platform Disabled.
(The Doctor dives into the gravity well. The last light is blinking.)
[Data core]
RIVER [OC]:
Everybody knows that Everybody Dies.
But not every day.
(The Doctor plugs the screwdriver into the core, and her neural energy is transferred.)
RIVER [OC]:
Not Today.
(Charlotte Node smiles.)
[Hospital grounds]
(River is wearing a loose white robe. Charlotte and Doctor Moon walk up to her.)
GIRL:
It's okay, you're safe.
You'll always be safe here.
The Doctor fixed the data core.
This is a good place now.
But I was worried you might be lonely,
so I brought you some friends.
Aren't I a clever girl?
Miss EVANGELISTA:
Aren't we all?
(Anita, the two Daves and Miss Evangelista with her normal face are walking towards her.)
RIVER:
Oh, for Heaven's Sake.
He just can't do it, can he? That Man.
That Impossible Man.
He just can't give in.
RIVER [OC]:
Some Days are Special.
Some Days are so, so Blessed.
Some Days, nobody dies at all.
(The Doctor returns to the Reception and stares at the Tardis. He snaps his fingers, and the door opens. Donna is waiting inside.)
RIVER [OC]:
Now and Then, every once
in a very long while,
every day in a million days,
when The Wind stands Fair,
and The Doctor comes to call --
(He snaps his fingers again and the door closes.)
[Children's bedroom]
(River closes her diary.)
RIVER:
Everybody Lives.
(She kisses Charlotte goodnight and looks at Ella and Joshua.)
RIVER:
Sweet Dreams, everyone.
In the Steve Gerber miniseries The Phantom Zone #1-4 (January–April 1982), it is revealed that the Zone not only has a breach through which other inmates had escaped, but that they were never heard from again. The imprisoned Superman and Quex-Ul use this method and travel through several dimensional “layers” seeking the exit into the physical universe. They finally encounter a Kryptonian wizard named Thul-Kar, who tells them that he believed Jor-El’s prophecy of Krypton’s doom and entered the Phantom Zone through magic. Using the same breach, he discovered the truth about the Phantom Zone: all its levels are manifestations of the consciousness of a sentient, malevolent entity called Aethyr, The Oversoul.
As explained by Thul-Kar, Aethyr itself came into being uncounted millennia ago when two spiral galaxies collided at an almost primordial stage after the physical universe’s creation. Countless worlds were simultaneously destroyed and the deaths of so many beings merged somehow to form a single, evil consciousness that called itself Aethyr The Oversoul. This supremely powerful entity enclosed itself into a dimension outside the physical universe within itself, forming the Phantom Zone.
The Zone itself is an interface between the Earth-One dimension (the physical universe) and Aethyr’s mind, the outer layer (where zone criminals are housed) representing its ability for abstract thought; the Zone is basically Aethyr’s capacity to imagine other possibilities of existence, and is the outermost template of its consciousness. Only by entering Aethyr’s core realm can a zone prisoner escape back to the physical universe, but this process is dangerous since any being who tries risks being destroyed in numerous ways as well as by forever having their souls merged with Aethyr’s essence while within Aethyr’s core realm. This is because as you enter deeper into Aethyr’s consciousness, you no longer exist as an abstract entity and your existence becomes subject to Aethyr’s whims. When attacking Superman and Quex-Ul, Aethyr personified itself as an aggressive, purple-skinned dog’s head that breathed flames capable of destroying and absorbing the souls of those that it wishes to conquer. While Quex-Ul is killed by Aethyr in this fashion, Superman manages to make his way out of the Phantom Zone by avoiding those flames and flying directly through Aethyr’s skull and its mind, returning to Earth through a tear in the fabric of Aethyr’s mind and the physical universe, but not without encountering the horrific remains of all of the souls entrapped within Aethyr over the millennia.
Mister Mxyzptlk is later possessed by Aethyr. During the process while Myyzptlk is imprisoned on his own home dimension, Thul-Kar communicates with Mxyzptlk and offers him an escape in exchange for the merger. This merger, however, empties the Phantom Zone of its criminal inhabitants. As the Phantom Zone villains head to Earth to conquer it, Thul-Kar and Nam-Ek are re-absorbed into Aethyr. Superman awakes and sees that the Phantom Zone villains are wreaking havoc on Earth, causing destruction to the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. and demanding Superman come out and fight them. Superman battles the Phantom Zone villains in Washington D.C. While fighting Faora Hu-Ul, he witnesses her disappearing as she is absorbed into Aethyr. Mister Mxyzpltk reveals that his strong personality has taken over Aethyr and he absorbs all the rest of the Phantom Zone inhabitants back into himself, determined to torture them endlessly and wreak havoc as he sees fit. Mxyzpltk-Aethyr leaves, intending to next take over the Fifth Dimension, and Superman is left to put out the fires in Washington and then rid Metropolis of the Kryptonite remains of Argo City.
Main LOKI :
[SHOUTING]
No! This way!
Come and get me!
[DRAGON ROARING]
CLASSIC, UGLY LOKI :
No! No!
[UPLIFTING MUSIC PLAYING]
RIDE OF THE VALKYRIES
[GRUNTING]
He resurrects [An Image of]
Lost and Fabled Asgard,
in The Heart of The Phantom Zone
using only His Magicks
LADY LOKI :
How is he doing that?
Main LOKI :
I think we're Stronger than we realise.
CLASSIC, UGLY LOKI :
[GRUNTING]
Go!
[ECHOING]
What are you doing?
SYLVIE:
We're gonna enchant it.
Main LOKI:
I don't know how.
SYLVIE:
You do. Because We're The Same!
[ROARS]
[BOTH GRUNT]
[GRUNTING]
[DRAMATIC MUSIC CONTINUES]
CLASSIC, UGLY LOKI :
[GRUNTS WEAKLY]
Glorious Purpose!
[LAUGHING]
[EXHALES]
Open your eyes.
"Once Denny enters Room 237, like, that's... that kind of is, like, the activation of the rest of the movie.
Like, that's what causes Jack to go insane finally.
That's what brings Hallorann to The Hotel.
Like, The Room 237 is, like, is sort of this...
I mean, I compare it to the mysterious hotel room at the end of 2001,
where there's...
It's this strange, strange place that somehow, like, transforms the rest of the narrative.
The Shining takes place on the top of a mountain in kind of like a, you know, magical shape-shifting environment.
And, like, travel is... traveling out of it is...
You know, instead of 2001, where you're Traveling to Something,
The Point of The Shining is to Escape,
is to travel out.
And Room 237 is, like... it's kind of like
The Escape Pod of The Hotel.
You're, like, in this LOOP.
But, you know, there ARE escape routes,
like the... like,
I think he puts escape routes into it,
into This Maze, into This Trap.
I mean, there are ways out of it.
And Danny finds a way out of it, you know,
by retracing his steps, by going backwards and forwards.
And once you start, you know, studying, you know, synchronicity and symbolism, then, like, suddenly, like, you're noticing in Your Own Life, like, things start popping out.
Things that you hadn't noticed before,
Your Point of View is being altered
by Your Study.
It's Quantum Physics, you know, like,
The Act of Observing,
affects The Thing Observed.
And, of course, Vice-Versa.
