Capital Celluloid - Day 91: Saturday Apr 2, 2011

Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960): ICA Cinema, 12.30pm

Told you the ICA were putting on some superb films in April. Later at 6.30pm as part of their Great Directors season they are showing Ken Loach's Kes, but the screening of Alfred Hitchcock's seminal shocker gets the nod because the movie is introduced by film composer David Arnold.

Arnold has worked on a hugely diverse range of titles, including most famously the last five Bond films (for which he was nominated for a BAFTA for Casino Royale). I heard him on Jarvis Cocker's BBC 6 Music show recently and his is sure to be an excellent introduction to a cinema masterpiece.

One of the most impressive aspects of Psycho is the score by Hitchcock's long-time collaborator Bernard Herrmann and it will be fascinating to hear Arnold's take on a soundtrack which wonderfully complements what is surely the director's most famous work.

For anyone interested in looking in more depth at the film (and this is truly in-depth) the BFI book by celebrated British film critic Raymond Durgnat called A Long Hard Look At Psycho is a must by the way.

Here as a taster are the opening titles.

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