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Notorious (1946)
The greatest Hitchcock film
Notorious is on my short list of movies that I can watch anytime, anyplace, no matter how recently I have seen it. It never grows old. Many people have described the plot and cinematography but I'd like to give a more personal view of the film. Why do I find it so endlessly enjoyable? Here are a few good reasons:
1) Ingrid Bergman has never looked more beautiful. Perhaps no actress has ever looked as beautiful, alluring, vulnerable and sad as Bergman in this film. From her bare midriff in the opening scenes to her marvelous riding outfit when she meets Sebastian I cannot take my eyes off her.
2)Notorious has one of the most adult scripts in the history of the movies. I'm not talking about plot -- but just *listen* to the dialog! Devlin and Alicia don't just spar or joust -- they verbally rip at each other with a venom that only wild passion can explain. If you listen to all the dialog it can be quite uncomfortable -- there is no lighthearted banter between them. It's open sexual warfare -- "right below the belt every time" as Alicia so accurately observes. The dialog is about sex in language so bald that I can hardly believe it survived the censors. And not a dainty, pretty sex, but raw, intense, wounding, needful, adult sexuality that almost never gets explored in mainstream movies. That Hitchcock did it in 1946 is nothing short of astonishing. Ben Hecht gave Notorious one of the great screenplays in the movies -- perhaps only Chinatown can compare to it.
3) Cary Grant & Claude Rains. I love their competition for Alicia and the way that Hitchcock and Hecht have inverted their roles. As Devlin, Grant is cruel, cold and repressed in his dealings with Alicia. He is her lover but he can hardly reconcile his love for Alicia with his fear of losing her or with his own self-loathing. Sebastian, as played by Rains is a perfect gentleman. We never doubt that Sebastian, the Nazi, deeply and truly loves Alicia. He is tender and caring with her in ways that we can't really imagine Devlin ever being. Their love triangle is endlessly fascinating to watch.
4)Perfect form. Hitchcock was a master stylist and he was at the top of his game in Notorious. The movie is like a elegant, formal dance. To complain about realism in a movie like this is totally beside the point. It's all artifice and all art. No scenes wasted, no scenes that are designed to shock. Everything locks together in perfect symmetry.
I have sat through Notorious with many people who simply don't get it. I feel sorry for them. This is one of great experiences that the movies can offer.
Jackie Brown (1997)
Q's Best
Rarely do I see a movie where all the characters are real. They are in jackie Brown. Not only are they real, I actually like most of them (even Ordell, although he scares me to death). The script is a gem -- smart and funny with great dialog. And the acting -- Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson and Fred Ward are absolutely perfect.
I can watch this movie over and over at the end smile because I know that at least someone in Hollywood still knows how to make movies!
Game, Set, and Match (1988)
Unforgettable Series
Like the previous reviewer, I have seen this series only once at it's original airing -- I've hoped in vain to find it on tape or DVD since! After I saw this series I read Deighton's Game, Set, Match trilogy and that made me realize that it was Ian Holm's portrayal of Bernard Sampson that made this special.
Most spy thrillers feature loners of one kind or another. These people live lives where duplicity is their stock and trade. You can't really have a family hanging around if you're going to try to fool all of the people of all of the time -- I mean your family has seen it all! So spy heros are usually disconnected from normal human relationships. Some are as cartoonish as James Bond (can you even *imagine* what Bond's mother would be like?). Some are as rich and textured as George Smiley. But invariably, these are men apart.
Not Bernard Sampson. Bernard is one of us. Not only does he have family, he has family TROUBLE. His beautiful wife Fiona has just defected to the East Germans. When you're a British agent that is seriously embarrassing. And she was a spoiled rich girl from a better class and much more money. Her father is big in the establishment, of course he really blames Bernard. Why not? Bernard is not from the right kind of family after all. He grew up in Berlin of all places and he never had the sort of money that breeds good manners and gets you into the right school.
Bernard's messy marital problems are just what his simpering, bureaucratic boss Dickie needs to make sure that Bernard's career doesn't rise to threaten his own. And it would if Dickie couldn't find a way to keep him down, because Bernard is the last true professional at MI6. He knows the spy game from beginning to end. From the messy killings to the scary skull-duggery to the boring stakeouts he lives this life in a way that his nicer superiors can only imagine. And perhaps they sense it because they don't trust him at all.
And under it all Bernard keeps going. He is a dedicated father. He STILL loves Fiona (she has a strange way of showing up suddenly for parental visits). And he knows that he'll never have the career that others may enjoy but he still can't refuse to do the work when he knows that no one else can.
On paper, in the Deighton books, Bernard is an interesting variant on the classic British spymaster. Portrayed by Ian Holm he's hauntingly real. Even now, some 13 years after seeing the series I can still see his craggy face and his tired walk. The terrible betrayal of his wife sits on his shoulders like the weight of the world. But his eyes were like cold metal probes. He was always the one who saw the most, understood the most. And because he was also the only real pro, he was the one left to do the dirty work.