Thursday, 6 May 2010

Spellbound



















Spellbound (1945)
a film by Alfred Hitchcock

After watching That Obscure Object of Desire I was 0n the surrealistic track, and it drove me right into this movie. Salvador Dali making dream scenes for a movie. Ingrid Bergman hugging Gregory Peck while he holds a straight-edge razor in his hand. Alfred Hitchcock. These were the reasons why I was excited about watching this movie and found out there was much more to like.

I don't fear to be film-sacrilegious if I say that nowadays Alfred Hitchcock's stories could fit into a CSI -insert-name-of-city- episode. Nevertheless, the fact that they linger in time and they survive now as masterpieces is nothing but the result of a great combination of ingredients, and in this case that ingredient was the amazing blend of images and characters.

This film is a thriller and what keeps thrilled me after the plot was developed and the movie is over are the greatly memorable images. I close my eyes and I see the shinning straight-edge razor, I shake when I remember the image of JB's trauma -unveiled in a ridiculously crafty skiing sequence-, parallel lines on a white background appear everywhere and the shadows in an immaculate bathroom become mind-twisting.

Beside the images I really liked the characters. Although they were stereotypical representations, the roles do the trick and work great putting the story together. Gregory Peck goes from normal person to crazy at 24 frames per second. Dr. Brulov is a cartoon of Freud but I liked his great voice and pace. I'm dazzled by Ingrid Bergman's presence in the screen, she is really beautiful and I love her glasses.

I must confess I didn't find Hitchcock's cameo at first glimpse, he was thinner, he was faster and he was certainly a great filmmaker.

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