#13 - NOTORIOUS
I've told you before, Mr. Devlin doesn't mean a thing to me.
I'd like to be convinced. Would you maybe care to convince me, Alicia, that Mr. Devlin means nothing to you? Sebastian to Alicia
Notorious
1946
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, Claude Rains
The top Hitchcock film in my list. My favorite Hitchcock film. He made this in between his early, admired British films (The 39 Steps, The Lodger) and his creative peak in Hollywood in the fifties/early sixties (Rear Window, Vertigo, Psycho, North by Northwest). But for me, this is his best movie.
It's rather unlike other Hitchcock films. Yes, the suspense element there makes it classic Hitchcock, but the relationship at the core of the film is such a damaged, dirty, unhealthy one, it relates to Vertigo, but that's about it.
Alicia Huberman's father is jailed for treason, for working with the Nazis after the end of WWII. She is practically pressed into servitude for the US government to atone for her father's actions. They take her to Rio to spy on some old friends of her father's. One of her pop's old friends (Sebastian, played by Claude Rains) takes quite an interest in her, which causes no end of grief to the agent in charge of the case, who has also fallen in love with Alicia (Devlin, played by Cary Grant).
The relationship, such as it is, between Alicia and Devlin is what sets this film apart for me. These are not very nice people. From the beginning of the film, they hurl insults at one another, venom and bitterness dripping from every word. They finally realize they, well, like one another ("love" might be a bit too strong), they are happy for the briefest of moments, but then everything goes wrong when Alicia's new job as spy has her marrying Sebastian. Devlin behaves like a petty schoolboy, angry and jealous, and lashing out at the one person who seems to mean most to him. He's basically forced to whore out his girlfriend, and he reacts terribly badly. Well, who wouldn't, but he just can't seem to rise above it.
I love this relationship. It's messed up, it's COMPLETELY messed up, but that's why it's so marvelous. It's almost a masochistic relationship, with each party deliberately causing the other one pain on more than one occasion. Each tries their darnedest to tear the relationship to shreds, and yet, they have an attraction to each other so the relationship is never entirely severed. Films from the 1940's - or 30's, or 50's, for that matter - DID NOT HAVE relationships like this. It's deliciously malevolent, and I just LOVE it.
Devlin and Alicia are two very broken, sick people. Cary Grant, as Devlin, actually acts in this film. I'm of the opinion that he built his career playing variations of himself - the debonair sophisticate. But here, Devlin is not just a smooth talking charmer. Devlin is spiteful and bitter and hard and petty. He's possibly the most immature character Grant ever played. It's incredibly ironic that Devlin, this, well, bad person is the hero of our film.
If spiteful, insult-hurling Devlin is our hero, then who is our villain? Ah, that would be mild-mannered mamma's boy Alexander Sebastian, played by Claude Rains - one of Hitchcock's first major mother-loving characters. Sebastian is kind and sincere and rather hopelessly in love with Alicia. Of course, he's also conspiring with the Nazis to bring their regime back, so he must be brought down, but as far as personality traits go, he's far less villain than hero.
I love how Hitchcock plays with the conventions of "hero" and "villain" here. Nothing is clear-cut in this film. Right and wrong are truly relative terms here, making this film fit nicely within the film noir cannon. Perhaps why this is my favorite Hitchcock film - it combines his trademark suspense with the moral quagmires that litter the film noir landscape.
If you can possibly get your hands on the discontinued Criterion edition, listen to the commentary by the film scholar Marian Keane. She brilliantly dissects, shot by shot, how Hitchcock uses composition and editing to underscore his points. For example, in the scene where Devlin returns from finding out he must whore out his girlfriend to Sebastian, but before he tells her, they embrace on the terrace, but there is a building in the background that creates a sharp vertical line in the background between the couple. Already, there is something dividing the couple. Then, immediately after that shot, Hitchcock shifts from a two-shot (two characters in the same shot) to back and forth one-shots. He takes both of his characters out of the same shot. They can no longer share the same film. They are divided because of her assignment. The rest of the commentary continues in this vein, and it's just fascinating!
Notorious is often forgotten in favor of either Hitch's earlier or later periods, but for me, it is his most perfect and most brilliant film.
I'd like to be convinced. Would you maybe care to convince me, Alicia, that Mr. Devlin means nothing to you? Sebastian to Alicia
Notorious
1946
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, Claude Rains
The top Hitchcock film in my list. My favorite Hitchcock film. He made this in between his early, admired British films (The 39 Steps, The Lodger) and his creative peak in Hollywood in the fifties/early sixties (Rear Window, Vertigo, Psycho, North by Northwest). But for me, this is his best movie.
It's rather unlike other Hitchcock films. Yes, the suspense element there makes it classic Hitchcock, but the relationship at the core of the film is such a damaged, dirty, unhealthy one, it relates to Vertigo, but that's about it.
Alicia Huberman's father is jailed for treason, for working with the Nazis after the end of WWII. She is practically pressed into servitude for the US government to atone for her father's actions. They take her to Rio to spy on some old friends of her father's. One of her pop's old friends (Sebastian, played by Claude Rains) takes quite an interest in her, which causes no end of grief to the agent in charge of the case, who has also fallen in love with Alicia (Devlin, played by Cary Grant).
The relationship, such as it is, between Alicia and Devlin is what sets this film apart for me. These are not very nice people. From the beginning of the film, they hurl insults at one another, venom and bitterness dripping from every word. They finally realize they, well, like one another ("love" might be a bit too strong), they are happy for the briefest of moments, but then everything goes wrong when Alicia's new job as spy has her marrying Sebastian. Devlin behaves like a petty schoolboy, angry and jealous, and lashing out at the one person who seems to mean most to him. He's basically forced to whore out his girlfriend, and he reacts terribly badly. Well, who wouldn't, but he just can't seem to rise above it.
I love this relationship. It's messed up, it's COMPLETELY messed up, but that's why it's so marvelous. It's almost a masochistic relationship, with each party deliberately causing the other one pain on more than one occasion. Each tries their darnedest to tear the relationship to shreds, and yet, they have an attraction to each other so the relationship is never entirely severed. Films from the 1940's - or 30's, or 50's, for that matter - DID NOT HAVE relationships like this. It's deliciously malevolent, and I just LOVE it.
Devlin and Alicia are two very broken, sick people. Cary Grant, as Devlin, actually acts in this film. I'm of the opinion that he built his career playing variations of himself - the debonair sophisticate. But here, Devlin is not just a smooth talking charmer. Devlin is spiteful and bitter and hard and petty. He's possibly the most immature character Grant ever played. It's incredibly ironic that Devlin, this, well, bad person is the hero of our film.
If spiteful, insult-hurling Devlin is our hero, then who is our villain? Ah, that would be mild-mannered mamma's boy Alexander Sebastian, played by Claude Rains - one of Hitchcock's first major mother-loving characters. Sebastian is kind and sincere and rather hopelessly in love with Alicia. Of course, he's also conspiring with the Nazis to bring their regime back, so he must be brought down, but as far as personality traits go, he's far less villain than hero.
I love how Hitchcock plays with the conventions of "hero" and "villain" here. Nothing is clear-cut in this film. Right and wrong are truly relative terms here, making this film fit nicely within the film noir cannon. Perhaps why this is my favorite Hitchcock film - it combines his trademark suspense with the moral quagmires that litter the film noir landscape.
If you can possibly get your hands on the discontinued Criterion edition, listen to the commentary by the film scholar Marian Keane. She brilliantly dissects, shot by shot, how Hitchcock uses composition and editing to underscore his points. For example, in the scene where Devlin returns from finding out he must whore out his girlfriend to Sebastian, but before he tells her, they embrace on the terrace, but there is a building in the background that creates a sharp vertical line in the background between the couple. Already, there is something dividing the couple. Then, immediately after that shot, Hitchcock shifts from a two-shot (two characters in the same shot) to back and forth one-shots. He takes both of his characters out of the same shot. They can no longer share the same film. They are divided because of her assignment. The rest of the commentary continues in this vein, and it's just fascinating!
Notorious is often forgotten in favor of either Hitch's earlier or later periods, but for me, it is his most perfect and most brilliant film.