A Parallax View of 'Psycho'

Parallax is the change visible when an object is seen from two different points of view. In The Parallax View (2006), Slavoj Zizek uses parallax as a metaphor for the gap that opens up whenever there co-exist two irreconcilable perspectives. The book looks at examples of parallax in philosophy, science, and politics. Despite the multiplicity of parallaxes on view, there is one object onto which Zizek does not project his metaphor: cinema. This article extends the metaphor of parallax to include Zizek’s favourite extra-curricular obsession. Inspired by Zizek’s prior writings on Psycho, the article juxtaposes Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film and Gus Van Sant’s 1998 remake, focusing specifically on how the two films play out the cinematographic parallax gap between black-and-white and colour. Onto this stylistic parallax gap, the article superimposes the theoretical parallax gap between Zizek’s psychoanalytic approach to film and the approach of Zizek’s academic antithesis, post-theorist David Bordwell. By exploring one version of Psycho from a Zizekian perspective and the other from a Bordwellian perspective, the artice suggests that Zizek and Bordwell’s seemingly irreconcilable perspectives can productively interact to provide a binocular view of Hitchcock’s film.