Film Narratives and Their Adaptation, Psycho: A Case of Study

Abstract

In 1878, even though there wasn’t a definition for it yet, the concept of cinema appeared for the first time with the motion picture entitled The Horse in Motion. Ten years later, in 1888, the Roundhay Garden Scene was released and in 1895 the Arrival of a Train was published and became one of the most popular footage ever. In 1896 the first movie adapted from a novel was published. It’s surprising and very significative the fact that adaptation appeared so early in the history of cinema, and from that year on adaptation was not only a chance to find a story as a plot for the new movies, but it actually became subject of study. The focus of this dissertation is to understand what is an adaptation, even though it is impossible to give a clear definition but we can only try to shed some light on it; it will also focus on why and how novel adaptation became such a popular thing, what are the theories in regard to this process, and what are and what were the thoughts of cinema enthusiastic and literary critics about novel adapted into films. In the second part of this work the focus will be on Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho as case of study, with the aim of understanding why the director made such a choice for its movie, what was his opinion on adaptation and how he did not only adapt the novel Psycho by Robert Bloch, but how he also gave it its own identity making it look like almost as an original work without losing all the characteristics of an adaptation.