Notorious - Hitchcock
When I first read the synopsis of this movie on imdb, nothing stirred up inside me. The synopsis seemed strangely familiar to me. After few minutes of pondering suddenly a name flashed in my head. Mission Impossible 2. This would have pretty much sealed off the deal for me, but I had heard a LOT about Hitchcock’s movies from everyone, so I decided to give it a go.
I was exuberant that I did not decide not to watch the movie. Hitchcock, as usual, rocks in this movie as well. The movie is brilliant. Mission Impossible 2, though similar, is nowhere close to this movie. I am not going to compare the 2 movies here. This is just a recollection of the old memories stirred up inside when I watched another classic from Ingrid Bergman, Casablanca a few days ago. So, I decided to start with this movie as it introduced Bergman to me.
Notorious is one of the precious jewels from the film-noir genre. This noir concept always intrigued me ever since I laid my eyes on Sin City in 2005. Notorious fits into the slot pretty neatly. Notorious is a movie about a beautiful girl, an undercover agent for the United States, trying to get her hands on the dirt on her father’s Nazi friend. It was her fate to get married to this man she did not love the slightest, as a service to the nation.
Do I hear some of you muttering usual tragic love story? You’re wrong folks. This is not all there is to this movie. True, this is not one of the usual brigade from Hitchcock, full of suspense and mystery. There is not much suspense in this movie (or maybe I thought so because I already had an idea about what the end was going to be). Notorious is more of an erotic love story, pretty unusual for Hitchcock.
Devlin (Carry Grant) is an agent for the United States, who approaches Alicia (Ingrid Bergman) to give her a proposition to work for the United States as an undercover agent. Her father has just been convicted of treachery against the United States as a Nazi spy and has been sentenced to twenty years in a prison. A trial Alicia did not attend. Devlin, having the knowledge of Alicia’s love for her country, slowly allures her into his plan. Alicia appears to be in an ambivalent state initially, but she falls for Devlin and decides to complete her assignment out of that love.
Alicia, now, has to get to Rio and get romantically linked with Alex Sebastian (Rains). Another Nazi agent and a very good friend to Alicia’s father. Having always fancied Alicia, she easily penetrates her way in… the cost of which was a loveless and passionless marriage with Alex.
During all this time, Devlin is not sure if he loves Alicia or not. Her reputation of being a notorious person does not help the situation either. Alicia, however, goes to lengths to prove her love to Devlin. Without going for spoilers, I would just say, Devlin realizes his mistake a little late, but not too late.
Of course, the movie has a set-back of old technology. You can clearly make out the scenes that were filmed in studios (that is, if you are actually looking at the surroundings and not at Bergman). If the movie were made today, would it have been better? I don’t think so. The beauty of Notorious lies in the classic look.
Notorious movie was notorious for one particular scene. One of the most sensual scenes in movie history (up till that point in time when this movie was shot), with a 3 minute long kiss (broken up because of censor board restrictions). Whole conversations are spent with them (Bergman and Grant) standing no more than a quarter of an inch apart. You start to wish you’d been on Hitchcock’s crew for this one, just to see what was going on below the frame line. It was this movie which converted me into a classic movie buff and a HUGE Ingrid Bergman fan. She is… well, she is HOT and very beautiful. Carry Grant is impeccable as usual.
Movie Rating, 4.5/5.
Other Posts You Might Like
- Bored of the Same Music? Read On
- And I Started Loving Oscars Again
- Thank You For Smoking
- Karthik Calling Karthik
This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 at 00:03 and is filed under Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I am, a Linux fanatic, a nature photographer, a music fiend… I spend most of my time these days listening to Music while browsing the Internet about various topics of my interest ranging from Electronics to coffee recipes. Learn more about me 
