Thursday 24 January 2013

American Psycho.







 Psycho is about Patrick Batemen, a business man who fights to control his psychopathic alter ego. However he is not any ordinary psychopath. He is has completely lost the feeling of being a human person and has desensitised himself from the atrocities he is committing and puts a social 'mask' on so he seems like a normal upstanding member of society.  We are narrated by Patrick himself (Christian Bale) for portions of the film where he explains about his mask of sanity slipping as his nightly bloodlust starts to spill into his days.




Another interesting part of this film is the fascination of the business cards. Each of the men in the company has their own personalised business cards. Interestingly they all come out of the same silver carry case with a very crisp and sharp snap. This scene is incredibly well filmed because you start to want some really sexy business cards as well. Each individual with a card each has theirs slightly differently. Some have an 'egg shell' white finish or 'helvetica bold' type face, but all of the cards look almost identical. This is where i started to notice that all their hair cuts are the same.



After looking at the above buisness card Patrick starts to get really angry because someone has a better buisness card than him, or has a better typeface than him. This is where Bale really captures the psycho by getting really angry and obsessed over a trivial issue. You keep thinking he'll snap in a public place and go on a rampage but the beauty of this film is that it divides yet blends the two sides of his life that he leaves.

Bale really makes this character a believable nutcase but at the same time he could be any other normal businessman on a lunch date with some friends. I think the point the film tries to make here is that anyone could be a closet serial murdered. Anyone you see on the street may appear to be normal, have a normal life, family, house, 4 door car etc. but underneath it all lies an evil murdered. Society casts a veil over our eyes with social norms and etiquette which stop people openly acting insane. It is suggesting that this veil isnt real, this ruse isnt actually how people really feel. 



Buisness Man/Psychopathic Murderer.



One of the best parts of this film is how he gets his victims. So meticulously planned and thought out because hes a creature of habit and obsession he does the same thing every time  He brings them back to his place and puts on some 'Hewy Lewis' or 'Genesis' and starts talking in long and intricate depth about the sounds and textures the album conveys as well as their talent as a group etc. Now all the while he is busy preparing himself. The most unnerving thing about it is his smile while he does it, showing a complete lack of remorse or value of human life.


 Another fantastic film role perfect from Christian Bale and directed by Mary Harron, who ive never heard of but her directing capabilities must be excellent if she can pull of a film like this so well. Really well shot, and cast. The art direction was fantastic in the sense that the world he lives in normally is so horribly mundane but when hes a psycho its far more interesting.






9/10