On Friday at Sundance, it was announced that IFC Midnight had picked up distribution rights to the documentary 78/52, a film that examines Alfred Hitchcock’s famous shower scene from his iconic thriller Psycho. The film premiered at Sundance last Monday.
The name of the documentary comes from the 78 setups and 52 cuts that were required to create the two- minute scene.
Directed and written by Alexandre O. Philippe. a Colorado-based writer/director, the documentary focuses on the famous scene’s effect on international film, interviewing film professionals from all over the world, and breaks down the scene shot by shot. The film includes interviews with at least 40 directors, writers, historians, etc, from people such as Guillermo del Toro, Elijah Woods, Walter Murch, Eli Roth, Bret Easton Ellis, Karyn Kusama, Mick Harris, and Jamie Lee Curtis.
IFC Midnight is a subsidiary of AMC Networks. IFC Midnight has also acquired Killing Ground at this year’s Sundance Festival.
According to an article in Deadline, IFC co-presidents Jonathan Sehring and Lisa Schwartz had the following to say of the film:
[The documentary is] a thrilling piece of work about one of the greatest films ever made. Alexandre Philippe has made a film that captures why all of us have become obsessed not only with Psycho but cinema itself. We are excited to work with the entire team to get this film out to the world.