Steven Soderbergh Cuts Together Both Versions Of 'Psycho' In Editing Experiment

Steven Soderbergh's site Extension 765 hosts a handful of items for sale, from photos to shirts and other ephemera. Occasionally Soderbergh will also deliver some other unusual items, and today's post is a video called Psychos, which cuts together footage from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho and Gus Van Sant's much-maligned remake.

The result is a feature-length film that bounces between the two sources, sometimes in the same scene, with Van Sant's footage rendered in black and white to better cut with Hitchcock's. (Some of the soundtracks may even be cross-cut.) Climactic moments flip the Van Sant footage back to color, however, with one version superimposed upon the other.

All that is said on the site is "This post comes from a place of 'total affection, openness, and honey bought directly from a beekeeper.'" What's the purpose? It's a fair question; Soderbergh recently channeled Hitchcock for the film Side Effects, and this seems like an exercise to further explore the director's method. Will it change your mind about Van Sant's film? Probably not, though the fractured reconsideration may allow you to look at some of the pieces in a more objective light.

Psychos is not embeddable, but you can find it at this link.