George Cukor's Gaslight is a mystery thriller told with elegance and grace, a film that is part mystery, part psychological thriller about one woman's descent into near madness at the hands of a tyrant, her husband. Taking place in London, the film opens to the murder of Alice Alquist, a prima donna whose death is a confounding mystery. In an effort to avoid the chaos surrounding the murder, Alice's young niece Paula is sent to Italy to study music, with the house remaining empty in her absence. Flashing forward ten years, George Cukor's Gaslight finds young Paula all grown up, on the cusp of marriage to pianist Gregory Anton, who convinces Paula it's time to move back into her home in London, the house which she was forced to abandon so many years ago. On their arrival, Paula discovers a mysterious letter from an unknown man, Sergis Bauer, which in turn causes her husband's tone to become instantly abrasive and confrontational, with it becoming very clear to the viewer that Gregory may have other intentions for wanting to return to Paula's childhood home, more so than simply being a good husband to his wife. A great performance piece for Ingrid Bergman, George Cukor's Gaslight is the story of a woman in extreme peril, a psychologically abused character whose sanity is slowly and systematically destroyed by her authoritarian husband. A man on a mission to recover famous jewels, which are believed to be in the possession of Paula's aunt Alice at the time of her death, Gregory is a character who manipulates his wife's psyche at every turn, becoming more and more controlling over her as the film progresses, diabolically making Paula question her own sanity eventually due to his devious mind games. The torment Paula goes through is captured in vivid detail thanks to Ingrid Bergman's performance, who manages to capture the extreme fragility and gullibility of a character who thinks they are slowly losing their mind, one who grows wary of what her own two eyes are telling her thanks to her husband's tactical psychological manipulation. One could argue that Cukor's Gaslight is a performance piece for Ingrid Bergman, and it's a good one in that regard, but that's also selling the film's visual aesthetic short, as Gaslight visuals beautifully articulate the underlying battle between good and evil which takes place between Gregory and Paula. The black and white cinematography, the contrast between light and dark, good and evil, is a major component to Gaslight's visual aesthetic, with Cukor's visual design capturing the vivid contrast between the shadows and the light, with many tight compositions which themselves to accentuate the oppressive situation Paula finds herself in. Cukor's visual design is mostly stationary, but the film uses well orchestrated camera moments to accentuate certain moments throughout the film. One example of this would be the visual punch-in on Gregory to reveal his sinister underlying motives to the viewer, something which isn't spoken but is shown through the camera's fixatoin on his face as he deceives his wife directly to her face. A film which amounts to a rather archetypal damsel in distress story when viewed through a broad lens, thanks to Joseph Cotton's British Yard character saving the day in the end, George Cukor's Gaslight elevates itself far beyond that due to its detailed look at the horror and trauma associated with psychological abuse, with Ingrid Bergman's strong performance capturing the menace associated by a woman whose psyche is pushed to the brink of sanity.
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June 2023
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