A boy’s best friend may be his mother, but Variety has named Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal proto-slasher Psycho as the best film ever made.
In the opening of their write-up for Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, Variety writes, “There’s hardly a frame of Alfred Hitchcock’s cataclysmic slasher masterpiece that isn’t iconic. If you don’t believe us, consider the following: Eyes. Holes. Birds. Drains. Windshield wipers. A shower. A torso. A knife. “Blood, blood!” A Victorian stairway. Mother in her rocking chair.”
Summing it up, Variety wrote, “More than perhaps any movie ever made, Psycho is a film you can watch again and again and again. It’s a movie that speaks to us now more than ever, because it shows us, in every teasingly sinister moment, how life itself came to feel like a fun house poised over an abyss.”
That should give a clear idea of the impact Psycho has had—not to mention that the American Film Institute also ranked it as the most thrilling movie ever made.
Psycho was also ranked in Sight and Sound’s Top 100, although it tied at #31 with Andrei Tarkovsky’s Mirror and Federico Fellini’s 8 ½. The publication noted that Psycho “combines suspense, Gothic horror, dark humour and rich ironies to dazzling effect.” Sight and Sound’s #1 pick, Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, was summarized with: “Maddening at times yet never less than mesmerizing, it’s the very best film of its kind. But hardly the best film of all time.”
This is a clear (but friendly enough?) jab at the British Film Institute’s list, which cited the French film as the greatest film ever made. In their 2012 poll, they named it #36, marking a significant jump. Yet, as far as Variety goes, Psycho is #1.
The rest of the top 10 of Variety’s list: The Wizard of Oz, The Godfather, Citizen Kane, Pulp Fiction, Seven Samurai, 2001: A Space Odyssey, It’s a Wonderful Life, All About Eve, and Saving Private Ryan.
What do you think of Psycho being named the greatest film ever made, at least according to the Variety? Let us know below!