Screening Journal of Notorious
Hitchcock introduces his stars with a cinematic blow that makes the opening of this dark, scrumptious thriller a monumental treat. He uses their star personalities and turns them round to dislocate us, teasing us with his unmistakable touch. The absurdity of the plot becomes totally plausible and the suspense is not merely unbearable but thrillingly entertaining. All of Hitchcock's favorite emotional and visual toys are present here. The icy blond, the sexual tension, the weakling villain with a castrating mother. A legendary kiss and a happy ending. His every directorial choice is inspired and brilliant, creating every emotion and audience reaction he could've possibly intended. The story has very unique Punchy dialog that animates this action-driven thriller that maintains its suspenseful drama to the very end. We of course cannot forget how the film uses the camera so perfectly, mixing objective and subjective points of view flawlessly. The scenes of course that I am talking about are Hitchcock's awesome crane shot that ends on Bergman's hand holding the all-important key, as well as Grant and Bergman's kissing scene, played out in one long shot and made up of dozens of little pecks and nibbles.
Cary Grant, as agent Devlin, was perfectly directed to play cold and largely unresponsive to Bergman's unrestrained and ultimately heartbreaking heat. He is allowed a dark unsmiling romantic hero and Ingrid Bergman lowers her strength to become a woman in love and in jeopardy but unwilling to appear as a victim.
When Bergman is drinking the cup of poison and the camera shows she hallucinating two figures which happen to be Raines and his mother and eventually turn into one black blob which showed that the poison had been working and the fear that she was carrying.
The tone of the film is dark. Notorious is all about in suspense, in exposition, despite the presence of Hitchcock's cinematic wizardry in it. OK, so in its heart it's a romantic movie again with some sort of chemistry between Grant and Bergman.
After watching Notorious by Alfred Hitchcock, many aspects of the movie caught my attention. The move started off slow building the foundation of the plot, but after Alicia and Devlin go to Rio de Janeiro, the events begin to unfold. Throughout the movie, role characterization and camera techniques were very unique and well portrayed as they work together. In the beginning of the movie, Alicia has guests over at her house showing them drinking and having a great time. She begins to talk to a man whose back is toward the audience and his face is never shown. Alicia continues to talk, but the man stays silent and unresponsive. The shot fades out and when the next scene fades in, the audience still perceives this particular man with his back towards the camera. This particular camera technique reveals underlining themes about this character. Not showing emotions and stiff behavior describes how Devlin reacts throughout the movie. After Alicia is knocked out by Devlin in the car, she waked up the next morning in a daze. When she hears a voice, Alicia looks up and we again see a man whose face is not visible. When he begins to walk towards bed, his face becomes visible and the camera follows his body from the view of Alicia. As the camera follows Devlin, the audience realizes how Alicia's eyes stick on Devlin's face the whole time. During the party Alicia and Alex throw, the camera is used in a distinct way to show jealousy between Alex and Devlin. When Devlin arrives, the camera follows Alicia to greet Devlin. While they are talking, the shots go back and forth showing Alex's jealousy seeing out they interact. When Alicia goes back to Alex, the camera switches back and forth from Devlin to Alicia and Alex showing Devlin's jealousy as well. Finally, after Alicia realizes she has been poisoned by Alex and his mother, the camera uses their shadows to make their personas dark and wicked. Alicia begins to become dizzy and can only see the shadows outline Alex and his mother. As Alicia walks towards the door, the shadows of Alex and his mother combine showing how both personas equal one person. Overall, Notorious kept me on the edge of my seat and never let me down. The role characterization and camera techniques were connected throughout the whole movie which made this particular movie complete.
I enjoyed how the story unfolded. The character development throughout was great and I liked how we got to see who was really on Bergman's characters side. The two plotting against her towards the end actually threw me off and surprised me. I wasn't entirely expecting Alexander Sebastian to end up being the character that wanted to off Ms. Bergman. The movie flowed very well all together; each scene was very well led into another. The acting is superb and believable. What was incredibly fascinating was that one could watch the movie and be entertained by either, or both, of the occurring plots going on within the movie. This dual plot is seldom found in modern movies that are played in theaters. I personally always find these small details in movies interesting. Seeing someone choose to make a movie about a plot that isn't even truly the movie's main total plot is always a great use of the human ability to tell stories and express ideas.
I was very impressed with the lighting throughout the film I especially liked the lighting when Devlin went into Alicia's room. The lighting started off almost eerie and then became brighter almost as though the fog of deception was being lifted from their relationship.
This was my first Alfred Hitchcock film and I was very impressed with his command of the lens. The shooting and editing was very creative and technical. Hitchcock's use of special effects to portray Bergman's intoxication was amazing. Grant and Bergman's on screen romance was very believable. The makers of this film used great exaggerated sound to make the suspense almost unbearable. I was very impressed with the way Hitchcock could make the tension so great and keep it there. This film makes you want to tell the characters when they are in danger and how to get out of it. Overall, very well done.
