Very well executed

Best movie ever!

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Blistering performances.

The shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho is considered one of greatest, definitive and most ground-breaking in both horror and in cinema, this documentary look at its enduring legacy, and how it was achieved. Basically the scene in the film, where Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is murdered by Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), took a week to film, requiring 78 set-ups and 52 cuts (hence the title of this film). This film really examines and deconstructs all aspects about the film, leading up to the murder, including things the audience would never have noticed or thought about before. This includes feeling empathy towards Bates rather than perhaps Crane, a painting specifically chosen to feature in the study scene, the iconic violin music score by Edward Herrmann, the audience using their imagination (the knife is never seen puncturing the body, only the noise (a knife piercing an apple), blood (chocolate sauce) and the stabbing), and the voyeurism (the shower being like a witness, and the plughole becoming Marion's eye). It references to Hitchcock's other works that led up to and followed Psycho, how this pivotal scene has inspired other works in horror and cinema (including homages and spoofs), and how early and continuing cinema has terrified audiences. With contributions from Peter Bogdanovich, Jamie Lee Curtis (who paid homage to her mother, Janet Leigh, recreating the shower scene in the TV show Scream Queens), Guillermo del Toro, Danny Elfman (who recreated Herrmann's score for the crap Gus van Sant remake), Sir Alfred Hitchcock (archive footage), Janet Leigh (archive footage), Eli Roth, Leigh Whannell and Elijah Wood. If you have always wanted to know how the famous scene of Psycho was achieved, what filmmakers and experts think of it, how it has maintained its legendary status, and how it has become so important in terms of how it arguably changed the course of cinema, then this is definitely a worthwhile documentary. Very good!

Considering that "Psycho" has long been a "top movie of all-time" in my book, I knew I would be watching this documentary when I first saw the trailer. Considering how many times I've seen the movie and how many stories I've already heard from it, perhaps the most impressive thing I gleaned from "78/52" was how it was able to approach the topic from such a new, fresh perspective.Basically, this documentary looks at "Psycho" from the perspective of its now-infamous "shower scene". While other topics are discussed and other stories are told, the narrative always shifts back to the construction of that sequence, which was truly momentous both in its time and even today. It completely changed the game of American cinema forever.I really liked how this documentary was basically just a whole bunch of film geeks and/or industry insiders sitting around watching/talking about certain scenes. I mean, that's what it's all about, right? As movie fans, a large part of the fun of the experience is to discuss it with others after the fact, and that is the tone that "78/52" hits on. I felt like I was sitting around discussing the shower scene and everything that springs forth from it with family or friends.So, I highly recommend "78/52" to any fans of "Psycho", obviously, but also for those who just love to discuss movies! It's technical enough to be enlightening, but not technical enough to keep it from being a great discussion/history of certain aspects of the scene, "Psycho" as a whole, & Hitchcock (and Co.) in general.

An unprecedented look at the iconic shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" (1960), the "man behind the curtain", and the screen murder that profoundly changed the course of world cinema.While it might seem like quite a feat to devote 90 minutes of coverage to a one-minute segment of a film, this documentary pulls it off. By exploring every possible angle -- the sounds, the editing, the casting -- we see just how much went into getting the notorious shower scene just right. Most interesting is how many clues are in the film leading up to this moment that may not be obvious, but were sprinkled there by Hitchcock with a knowing wink."78/52" is playing on July 20, 2017 at the Fantasia International Film Festival. In this golden age of documentaries, this film still stands out as the cream of the crop.

He says Donat and Mr. Memory appear "at the same theater" in the opening and concluding scenes. I don't think so. The first is a raucous music hall with a lively bar crowd. The last is the more-sober London Palladium. It is now incumbent upon me to provide a full five lines as the site requires.