It’s interesting finding out that the most recent film I watched is celebrating its fiftieth year since release. And it’s always a pleasure to read another’s take on the nature of that film in particular since it is one of Hitchcock’s greatest.
While not originally loved, it has gained in stature every year since it’s release. It’s great film to know and appreciate. If you have time, The Charles still has one more showing this week.
Marge and I caught the latest Hitchcock film at the Charles, Vertigo. After sitting in traffic and getting to the theatre just in time, we settle in for a really great film.
Jimmy Stewart’s character’s obsession is one of the loneliness and sad realizations in film. Novak’s Madeliene/Judy should’ve gotten out of there when she had the chance. She should’ve forgotten all about Scotty.
My reaction to the film was very different from the one I had when I saw it on DVD. I think that in private, at home, I was able to connect with Scotty’s obsession. It was more intimate and immediate. At the theatre, that feeling of obsession out in public was replaced with apprehension and I connected more with Judy. It is like I was acutely aware of my obsessiveness, and I was embarrassed by it so I chose to be appalled for my self like Judy was for Scotty’s choices. I don’t need her to wear a grey suit.
5 of 5 stars.
Once again I catch the matinee showing of a Hitchcock film at the Charles. This time it’s Suspicion with Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine. My original review still stands.
Waking up early for a Saturday then catching the noon matinee has been fun to do. One of these times we’ll have to make it a party. Eat a big breakfast. Drink lots of coffee. Then catch the showing completely wired and ready for some fun. The most likely film for this fun is North by Northwest. That silly film of mistaken identity would go well with chocolate chip pancakes, eggs and sausage links.
Mmm. I can’t wait.
Now I have to find the place that serves those pancakes.
It’s saturday, and the Seed and I sitting in the dinner having breakfast. It’s bacon, eggs, coffee, and corn beef hash. We wonder if this will upset our stomach or make us have to use the bathroom before seeing the Hitchcock flick, Rebecca, down at the Charles. It’s from 1940 with Joan Fontaine and Sir Lawrence Olivier, and it’s an early Hitchcock from his move to Hollywood.
Joan Fontaine plays the second Mrs. de Winter married to Olivier’s Maxim de Winter brooding over the recent death of his wife. She stops him from jumping to his death in Monte Carlo. They meet cute later on and begin a romance. She falls for him, because of his worldly airs. She was as meek as a librarian, and she desperately needs him. He accepts her love, brings her to Manderlay, and lets her run the house. At Manderlay, she meets the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers who adored Mrs. de Winters I and loathes the second Mrs. de Winters. They test their strength of wills until the second Mrs. de Winters, defeated, makes it known that she’s now boss of the house. She overcomes Mrs. Danvers, learns of the reason for the first Mrs. de Winters death, and lives to relieve her husband of the guilt he felt over her death.
Joan Fontaine is cute in this one. She’s always cute (I find her irresistable in her next Hitchcock role in Suscpicion). I feel that she’s the ur-Hitchcock blonde, the original that gives meaning to the rest. She’s unlike the rest of the blondes in Hitchock’s oevre. She’s somewhat different because of her mousiness. I describe her as a librarian more so in Suspicion with her glasses. It’s something to think about as she’s occupies the place of Hitchcock blondes like Buffalo Bill’s original victim close to giving an insight to the director.
I didn’t think too much of this film when I saw it on DVD. Good but not as awesome as the director’s best. I think the ambiance of the Charles makes a difference in the viewing experience. You see it with lots of people. It becomes fun. And the film becomes even more better. I want to see more Hitchcock at the Charles.
4 of 5 stars.
The Charles Theatre offers you a chance to catch some really good films. They’re doing a revival on Hitchcock. Twenty-five films from here to June.
The question becomes should I watch the ones I haven’t seen or watch the ones I have on the big screen?
I know for a fact that I want to catch Grace Kelly and Ingrid Bergman on 35mm so I don’t want to miss Notorious or Rear Window. The rest? We’ll see.
Lisa: How’s your leg?
Jeff: Hurts a little.
Lisa: And your stomach?
Jeff: Empty as a football.
Lisa: And you’re love life?
Jeff: Not too active.
Lisa: Anything else bothering you?
Jeff: Mm-hm. Who are you?
Is there are more dramatic entrance than Grace Kelly in Rear Window? She’s beautiful.
Suspicion won Joan Fontaine an Academy Award for Best Actress. It is said that she received it because of missing out on it the year before for Rebecca. While I certainly liked the Rebecca, Suspicion was good. If flawed.
Flawed?
Yes. The ending didn’t particular suit the film. Everything leading up to it said, “Murder!” But we get some curt explanation, some hilarious mistaken motives, and a really fun, action at the end. All is wrapped us neat and tidy to fit in with the Hollywood production code. This was one movie where the original ending (see the extras) would have made this movie more satisfying.
This is also Cary Grant’s first movie with the master director. And he plays it like a cad with a dark and mysterious past. Yet, Grant seems to me too bright. For me, he doesn’t have the dark, rightening, murderous persona beneath his gentlemanly persona like I believe James Stewart to possess. Still he is one of Hitchcock’s iconic leading men. I still prefer Stewart, but Grant is good because he is playful and makes Hitchcock a more sly and sinister storyteller. Who believes these men to be all-star, all Americans knows not of the dark and ugly evil lurking in all men?
My Hitchcock obsession continues.
4 of 5 stars.
The second DVD that I had enqueued in my Netflix queue was Vertigo. I had previously seen it in fragments. The beginning here. The middle part I can’t recall when or when. The ending, the classic ending, there. My concept of it as a whole was somewhat disjointed. While many people see it as Hitchcock’s masterpiece, by only seeing it piecemeal, I was unable to make that call.
Tonight that was rectified.
It is his best. I have to rave about it. Previously, I had Rear Window as my favorite. Grace Kelly being the most prominent of reasons why it was my favorite.
Where Vertigo lacks the hottie blonde (I’m sorry Kim Novak). It more than makes up for it by the absolute performance of Jimmy Stewart as a man obsessed. When he to her to get some clothes, I knew that this character was unhinged. The man can want a woman with such obsessiveness that it was ridiculous. Then he changed her hair. And at that point it had me.
Damn. Grace Kelly is coming in second place.
And next on my Netflix queue is North by Northwest. Please, Eva Marie Saint, don’t knock out Grace Kelly.
