Notorious

[sunshine_queen]

Okay, so, I'm going to try to reaction coherently about "Notorious."

(Although most people, like, say, kerlin can reactionize coherently.
I can't. Watch, I'm going to start rambling and then end sentences with things
like, "squee" and "sigh" and "love." Meh.)



AAAAAHHHH LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS MOVIE OMG.

(See? Shorter than I thought.)

I love everything about it. I love the clothes, I love the style, I love that it
starts in Miami (squeeeeeeeee, the title cards at the beginning? That's the
Miami skyline! You can see the Freedom Tower! All kinds of crazy love.)

AND I LOVE THE ACTORS.

Not a single person in that film sucks. Even the people who play, like, Joseph
or the other Nazis, even they rock. And like, Claude Rains, forget it.
I have this huge soft spot for Sebastian, aside from the whole, you know.
Poisoning Alicia thing. He lives with his mother, for god's sake. He's like the
Kirk of Rio. Bet Mama Sebastian wouldn't let him have a car. Or a key to the
house...

And oh man, Cary Grant. I love a comedic Cary Grant as much as anyone, but
dark!Cary? Forget it. He is so good as Dev, just like he was good in
Suspicion. Here he wasn't evil, per se, but he sure wasn't good. And he could be
so mean it was crazy, but then the good guys would say something about Alicia
and his face would tighten and he'd defend her! Sure, not all *knight in shining
armor* but he would speak up, which would have meant so much to Alicia
if she knew.

One of the deleted scene script pieces they have is Devlin asking Prescott for a
transfer, and Prescott is no fool and knows how Dev is all about the Hubermans
and Dev says, straight out, that she's done with him because he's been "batting her away." I'm glad they cut the scene- it would have ruined Dev a little bit to
actually see that he was going crazy having Alicia married to
Sebastian- he even says that every time he has another drink he wants to "clean
up Mr Sebastian." Not even plain Sebastian, but "Mr," counterpart to "Mrs."
Admitting that he knows he was wrong aloud and not to Alicia pains me, even
though hearing him talk about a "pain in his gut" would've been amusing. Or sad.
I fully believe Cary could have pulled this off believably, but I'm glad they
didn't have it in there.

Other things I noticed these times that I didn't before- I really liked the
parallel of Devlin approaching Alicia while she's in bed. Looooove. And it's
such a good contrast- her sick because of herself, her sick because she's being
poisoned, him approaching to take care of her kinda-ish, him
approaching to rescue her... Faaaaabulous.

And then I never noticed that when Dev was trying to recruit Alicia and made her
listen to the recordings of her speaking with her father, she actually had a
tear under her eye. It was subtle and perfect and she never called any attention
to it- it was wonderfully done.

My favorite scene- aside from the end, which, forget it- is when Dev and Alicia
are down in the wine cellar and Alex comes and Dev decides that naturally they
need to kiss. The reason it's so good is all due to Ingrid Bergman- the way she
whispers his name. She has such longing and relief and wowwwww. And also I
really, really love her hair in that scene. It's absurd but in a great way. Her
hair is actually pretty fabulous in general in this movie.

(Ingrid is so good at using her face to show emotion. While in the wine
cellar, and Dev is doing spylike things, she's terrified. She's in so, so far
over her head and she doesn't think like he does but she always pulls through
and I am so biased because I love Ingrid more than I love any other actress.
Maaaan.)

Also, really, why didn't Devlin supervise Alicia's choice of wine bottle? It was
the wrong year, for god's sake. Dev should have caught that. And cleaned up
better. Arg.

I don't think there's ever been a more perfect final scene in the history of
ever. Bookwise, filmwise, I cannot think of a better ending. Everything
is so crazy perfect. Some of the things are silly, sure- "fatheaded guy," man-
but mostly? So fantastic. When they're walking down the stairs and you can tell
that Ingrid's through the looking glass and she keeps whispering "Dev," and
smiling, and in my family we always comment on the fact that no one can pick
Alicia up, which is actually awesome, because Ingrid was so tall and Claude
Rains is like ohhhhhh shit and Mama Sebastian is so wicked evil and cool, but
she's so good at being evil I go past liking the evil and into the hate again.
The fact that she says fabulous things like "wouldn't it be a bit much if we
both grinned at her like idiots?" and "You are protected by the enormity of your
stupidity- for a time." is just too great for words.

And the way Hitchcock lets us know how they're poisoning her? So. Good. So good.

It hurts my brain how fantastic this movie is.

And when Alicia finds out that Dev is leaving, and how Prescott tells her that he requested it- she is so hurt! And then she keeps waiting to see if he'll tell her, and she realizes that he has no intention and that's when she freezes up on him and she lies and waaaah. But then she misses a meet and he gets worried and he realizes she was sick ("ragged end of nowhere." I quote this movie all the time!), and he goes to saaaaave her, and oh man. The hugging and nuzzling and then the commands. I love that, because he's in action!mode and wants to get out and Alicia can't stay awake and he starts barking and it's awesome, because it's him showing that he's a worried, and she's so cute.

(Also? DOESN'T DIE. NO.)

And I also love the horse race scene. Poor Alicia. Dev can be so mean.

And yeah, that was tooooootally coherent. Yep.

I also adore the way everyone says "Alicia." They say it in like, three different ways. It's awesome.

Comments

[kerlin.livejournal.com]

First, you are adorable. This was way more fun than an overly intellectual and in-depth commentary would have been. :P

but then the good guys would say something about Alicia
and his face would tighten and he'd defend her!

I love the way these scenes are set up - it's all joking amongst the guys, they're all chummy, and then they bash Alicia assuming he'll join right in because they all THINK they know what he thinks of her and then he just closes off. When he finds out she has to seduce Sebastian, my God, the way he goes completely still, and then the close-up of the champagne bottle just kills me every time.

I really liked the parallel of Devlin approaching Alicia while she's in bed.

Mmmm, yes. And at the beginning how he's the last person she wants to see and at the end how she's so desperate for him. The menace in his first approach, that hard look on his face, contrasted with the despair in his eyes on the second approach.

when Dev and Alicia are down in the wine cellar and Alex comes and Dev decides that naturally they need to kiss.

Ohhhhhhh that scene. With the passion and the despair and the edge of everything - it's almost too much. It's his idea but she throws herself into it and maybe even for a second she can forget everything and convince herself he really does want her and it's not just for a distraction. Then Dev's line "I knew her before you did, loved her before you did," and he spits it out and it's like he's finally telling the truth but he has to do it sarcastically so everyone will think he's just playing a part.

Dev should have caught that. And cleaned up better. Arg.

I can't help comparing this scene to how it would've been played on Alias. Dev is definitely high up on the list of Worst Spies Ever. But then the point here is that they DO get caught, partially because this is Hitchcock and partially because this is a movie in which absolutely nothing goes right and there's something incredible about that.

And the way Hitchcock lets us know how they're poisoning her? So. Good. So good.

Right up there with the way Alicia finds out. I love how her mind jumps right to it - she really IS smart despite what she and others think. And then she's trying so hard to escape, but there's that moment she realizes that it's just not going to happen and she's pushed away the only man who would have helped her. Then there were five whole days where she lay in bed and - yeah, that gets me every time.

I also adore the way everyone says "Alicia." They say it in like, three different ways. It's awesome.

I love that, too. I showed this to a friend last week who speaks Swedish and German and he tells me Ingrid pronounced it the way it would be pronounced in Sweden, Cary pronounces it in his very own way, and only Claude Rains comes close to the actual German version of the name. Ditto to Huberman. ;)

*sigh* Damn, this is such a good movie.

[sunshine-queen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I compared Dev's spyness to what I know from Alias and I was like, SPYDADDY WOULD HAVE SO NOT BEEN CAUGHT OMG. And I know, the point was that they were caught, but still.

And I knew that the reason they all said Alicia differently was because of their accents and how they'd say it in other countries, and I loooove it. Especially the way Cary says it. When Yahtzee named Jack and Nadia's daughter Alicia, that's how I said it in my head.

And it's not adorable! It's the complete inability to think in a linear fashion!

[snapplesons.livejournal.com]

I want to borrow this!

[sunshine-queen.livejournal.com]

You may!