Film’s Title: Notorious Lead Actors: Ingrid Bergman (Alicia Huberman), Cary Grant (T.R. Devlin), Claude Rain (Alexander Sebastian), Leopoldine Konstantine (Mrs. Sebastian, Alex’s mother) Written by: Ben Hecht Director: Alfred Hitchcock Notorious is a black and white movie whose production started on October 22nd, 1945 – which means 76 years ago this month – and finished in February 1946. In 1947, this movie was nominated to two awards of the American Film Academy: for Best Supporting Actor (Claude Rains) and for Writing (original screenplay, Ben Hecht). The movie begins with a court sentence of twenty years in prison for a German war criminal. The entire movie is about American governmental agents working to find and to bring to justice former members of the German nazi party. Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman) is the daughter of the convicted war criminal, who did not testify to the trial – father’s wish – and who was known by the American agents as being on the United States’ side. She was recruited by the American government, through the secret agent T.R. Devlin (Cary Grant) to infiltrate a nazi group who escaped justice leaving and living in Brazil. In Brazil, she became the wife of the group leader, Alex Sebastian (Claude Rains) – a former close friend of her father and once very much in love with her. At a reception given by Alex, Alicia and Devlin enter the wine cellar where they discover that in the 1934 bottles there was no wine and that the group was involved in illegal traffic of uranium. Alex Sebastian understood that he married an American agent and truly scared of what his friends or business partners would do to him, he discussed this issue with his mother (Leopoldine Konstantine). They both decided to pretend that nothing happened and to poison Alicia condemning her to a slow and certain death. In the end, Alicia discovered that the source of her sudden illness was due to poisoning and I let you discover the way the movie ended. photo edited by Laura Lai From an artistic point of view, I think this is the first movie of Hitchcock in which the actors are … so affectionate with each other. This was just a general observation. The first thing I would like to point from an artistic point of view is the door leitmotif. In the first scene – that of the court sentence – the camera framed a door. Then during the movie, people knock at doors, door open, people enter – I think I counted at least five scenes with a door getting open or closed. But one was always closed – the wine cellar one. But it opened, too! Alicia had to steal the key for that, but the door opened. Hallelujah! :-)
Until even this last door opened, Hitchcock pointed several times on a bottle. It was a hint. The director was suggesting that whatever the reason why the wine cellar is closed is in the bottle, but what?! I was surprised because it would never ever cross my mind that in the bottles might be uranium. From a technical point of view, it looks that most of the shots were done indoors, which gave the filming crew more freedom to weather conditions and changes. There are two scenes I would like to point. First, I loved the sequence of scenes from stealing the key, to the passing of it from Alicia to Devlin and then back to Alex’s key chain. It was superbly made! Second, in the scene when Alex told his mother that Alicia is an American governmental agent, the camera gets from top to down and it feels that the situation is serious, that the sky is about to fall on his shoulders. Additionally, I want to point the simple but very metaphorical shot of two shadows (Alex and his mother’s) projected on a … door (1h:27). They powerfully suggest how bad Alicia was feeling from poison and, probably, that it was death that she was thinking about. I found it truly brilliant to emphasize this idea through two shadows on a closed door. Brilliant! I also loved a scene with Alicia, the visiting doctor, and her cup of coffee (1h:25) – it stands for a great photography shot! Notorious is a mystery movie, whose suspense climax is counted in … bottles – a constantly diminishing number of bottles. It is also a beautiful love story. It is a great movie that I want to let you watch and enjoy! And if would like to comment, please do not hesitate!
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