Intertextuality

Intertextuality is a term to describe the visual referencing between films. Quite literally. films 'borrow' from each other, and you, the audience, may recognize certain camera angles, aspects of mise en scene, snippets of sound or methods of editing in some films that you have seen in others.

For example, Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho has been referenced numerous times through out the years, with the classical shower scene featuring in multiple films in a variety of executions.

We can tell that Fatal attraction is referencing Psycho based on numerous features they both share, examples include:

Mise en scene: 
Set of the scene being a clinically white bathroom
Use of knife as the murder weapon
Shower curtains
Bathrobes
Bloody water

Camera Angles:

Close up on ladies eyes after the murder
Close up on victims face during the struggle
Close up on knife during the attack

Editing:

Both scenes feature numerous amounts of jump cuts during the struggle between the attacker and victim, after which the editing slows down, increasing the time the camera focuses on a single shot.




                                                                   PSYCHO

                                                           FATAL ATTRACTION

                                                                 PSYCHO

                                                          FATAL ATTRACTION