In Brief:
There's a delicious irony in screening Psycho the day after Thanksgiving, as if AFI wants to offer a post-holiday reminder that however bad our relationship with dear ol' mum might be, it couldn't possibly be more fractured than Norman and Mrs. Bates'. An undisputed hallmark of American cinema, Psycho is celebrating its 50th anniversary by touring the repertory circuit with a sharp new 35 mm print. After decades of analysis (not to mention technological advances), Alfred Hitchcock's classic tale of pseudo-psychoanalysis might not carry the same visceral charge for contemporary audiences (yes, the blood is chocolate sauce), but Psycho is hardly a stodgy relic to be perfunctorily trotted out.
