would make such a contraption today in the era of computer-generated
imagery? And what would a behind-the-scenes photo of a contemporary
shark movie look like? Perhaps a portrait of a computer whizz-kid in an
office-like studio, poring over photographs and footage of real sharks in
an attempt to get the virtual one on the screen to look right. Photography
may have given way tocgi, but it still provides its realist aesthetic.
Gus van Sant’s ‘sixty-million-dollar art-movie’Psycho( 1998 ) is a
shot-for-shot remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s original of 1960. Van Sant
takes for granted the audience’s familiarity with the film to play all man-
ner of games with their cultural memory (what happens when a film’s 121
105 John Swope, ‘Cities flourish for the
duration of production; a few brush-
strokes wipe them out forever’,from
Camera Over Hollywood(New York, 1939).