Plot intro
A world-famous opera singer called Alice Alquist is mysteriously murdered in her opulent London home. Her young niece and ward, Paula (Ingrid Bergman) is sent away to live in Italy. 10 years later she falls in love with and quickly marries piano player Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer), and returns to her old London home to live together along with a near-deaf cook, Elizabeth (Barbara Everest) and a sassy young maid, Nancy (Angela Lansbury). But married life is not happy, as objects mysteriously start to go missing and Gregory repeatedly places the blame on Paula. He insists that she is too unwell for her to leave the house, and he forces her to become isolated and paranoid. She also hears mysterious noises in the upper floor of the house, which Gregory has inexplicably boarded off. Brian Cameron (Joseph Cotton), who seems to know Paula, may be the rescue she is looking for…
This was the first film in both the Best Picture and Best Actress projects we’re undertaking that I had to look up the plot summary halfway through in order to reassure myself that the ending would not be without any hope. It is a toe-curling, horrendous, accurate portrayal of an extraordinary type of abuse, and while the film and its performances are exceptional, it is unforgivable for its lack of punishment for the villain and his disgusting activities.
Ingrid Bergman excels in this, showing us how a bright, cheerful young woman can be utterly destroyed by sustained psychological abuse. Her quick, unnerving uncertainty as her husband convinces her she loses things and forgets where other things are is horrid to watch, but even more so is the glassy-eyed, slow-speaking confused woman that he eventually brow-beats her into being.
It’s awful to watch, and at times I could hardly bear it, being a realistic and unfiltered view of how someone can come to mistrust reality. A scene when she is at a concert, enjoying music, only for her foul husband to make her believe she has stolen his watch, is horrendous. It’s made worse by the fact that we’ve seen him smile alone as he hatches his plan. He flirts with the servants in front of her (Angela Lansbury in one of her first roles) and then accuses her of being strange in front of them. He hides pictures and then tells her she’s done it. It is horrendous immoral cruelty and while it’s a good film, it is incredibly hard to sit through.
Where this film trips up majorly though is in its conclusion. As Paula begins to realise what is going on, the film builds to a conclusion in which we need - quite simply - a fight. The maid Elizabeth seems to realise what’s going on too, and in a modern version of this, I think we would see a scene where Paula and Elizabeth combine forces to beat the living shit out of Gregory. The film needs it. Even just a moment where Paula punches him in the face would do. He has been so unequivocally evil and foul throughout, that we need to see him have some form of retribution.
Good films provide satisfactory catharsis. It doesn’t have to be as brutal as a fight (although a fight often does the trick). Pan’s Labyrinth provides one of the best comeuppances for one of the nastiest villains, while Jean de Florettes waits four hours to deliver a sucker punch for its villain that leaves the viewer reeling for days after. Here, we get a bit where Paula rather lamely gaslights him back a bit and then he’s led off. No. We need to see him realise what he’s done/ die horribly / suffer in some way. He has done unthinkable things, and we do not get the catharsis we so desperately need.
The performances are exceptional, and Bergman deserves her Oscar fully, with a subtle performance that captures how sustained abuse can break a person. It is at times unbearable to watch, and having sat through it, I can only hope we have some light-hearted comedies coming up in our next few films.
Bergman’s controlled and realistic portrayal of a woman being broken is extraordinary. Also a pleasure as always to see a new favourite actress: Dame May Whitty (Suspicion, Mrs Miniver and The Lady Vanishes) in a small but lightly comedic role.
I want to see Gregory being beaten up, spat on and defenestrated. Where is the catharsis?
Paul says...
After a few weeks of actresses whose names have slightly faded away over the decades, we return to one with icon-status again. Ingrid Bergman achieved immense fame in her life and career, with the American Film Institute listing her as the fourth greatest actress of all time (surpassed only by Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis and Audrey Hepburn). In terms of Academy Awards, she was nominated for Best Actress six times and won twice, and even nabbed a Best Supporting Actress in the '70s too. She won a Bafta, 4 Golden Globes, the very first Tony Award for Best Actress (jointly with fellow Oscar-winner Helen Hayes) and a multitude of other awards all around the world.
Born and raised in Sweden to Swedish and German parents, Ingrid’s mother died when she was just 2 and her father died when she was 13, putting her into the care of her aunt and uncle. Her father had already put her in training for opera singing, but she eventually attended a theatre school in Sweden but dropped out after one year when she was already getting roles in Swedish films. She was noticed by film producer David O. Selznick who brought her to Hollywood to star in an American remake of her first movie, Intermezzo, in 1939. Other Hollywood figures had misgivings about her because she didn’t speak English and her German-ness led to a feeling of distrust around her at the time. But Intermezzo was a huge hit and Selznick, an influential voice in the industry, complimented Bergman’s humility, conscientiousness and hard work.
The early '40s saw Ingrid star in some of her most iconic movies, including Casablanca (she later complained that Casablanca would often overshadow her other movies which she described as “more important”), and For Whom the Bell Tolls, which garnered her first Best Actress Oscar nomination.
Gaslight was her second nomination, and her first win, and her performance is often considered one of the greatest Best Actress performances of all time, and one of Ingrid’s best. I truly agree. Her acting here arguably surpasses that in Casablanca, for which she wasn’t nominated. The scene at the piano concert, in which her evil husband convinces her that she has stolen his watch, is probably what won her the award. Ingrid displays a woman who thought she could enjoy a night out without worry or incident and then her hopes come crashing down around her. She desperately tries to keep control but the sobs and tears burst out of her uncontrollably. You really feel her pain and humiliation and your hatred for her abusive spouse becomes unbearable by this point. Bergman is careful not to overplay it- she focuses more on Paula’s nervousness, her fear of upsetting her husband and her constant confusion. There is a sense that, even when she is at her lowest, there is a voice in her head telling her that something else is happening here, but she has no evidence.
It helps the movie that Ingrid is accompanied by a range of outstanding co-stars. Charles Boyer as her husband is far more than just a pantomime villain- he is the epitome of manipulation and connivance and you both hate him and fear him throughout most of the story. He was also nominated for Best Actor but lost out to Bing Crosby. Angela Lansbury, in her very first movie role at the tender age of 19, is having a great time and garnered a Best Supporting Actress nomination for this. Obviously, this was the start of a very, very, VERY long career.
Gaslight is a marvellous work, but it may be triggering for anyone who has suffered from abusive relationships. I’m not being facetious, this is a genuine warning. It has a suitable injection of melodrama, as we spend much of the film discovering who murdered Paula’s aunt and why, why Gregory has boarded up the attic, and why Paula sees the gaslights changing for no apparent reason. But it’s a credit to the movie that the depiction of the psychological abuse Paula is subjected to is incredibly real. This form of abuse (which is now called “gaslighting” because of the original 1938 play by Patrick Hamilton on which the film is based) still happens today, in which someone manipulates another into doubting their own sanity. The signs and symptoms (murder mystery aside) are quite accurate, and anyone who has been a victim of it or any other form of abuse may wish to approach this film with caution as it could be upsetting. I’ve never suffered from it myself but Paula’s plight was deeply affecting to the point where I was nearly screaming at the screen for her to get out of the house.
I agree with Doug, however, that the film’s ending is a major disappointment. The toe-curling suspense is raised higher and higher with Hitchcockian delicacy as the film progresses and there are constant promises of some kind of physical showdown between the goodies and the baddies. But the climax is unfulfilling. I think the film makers may have underestimated just how involved their audience would be, and just how much we would despise Gregory. Perhaps they wanted a climax that was more realistic. But Paula’s big “gotcha” speech to an arrested Gregory doesn’t have the cathartic oomph I was looking for. A prime example of how it’s done is Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train. The final denouement sees the hero and villain fist-fighting on a carousel that’s spinning madly out of control. On its own, the scene is insane. But Hitchcock has twisted audience’s stomachs so much through the film’s two hours that it’s exactly what the audience needs to relieve the tension. I suppose thrillers need to work like orgasms in that respect - Hitchcock certainly understood that.
But all in all, Gaslight is, for me, the best movie of the Best Actress winners so far. Yes, probably better even than Gone With the Wind. It’s tense and emotional and mysterious, and its depictions of abuse have stood the test of time.
Post-Gaslight, Ingrid’s career continued strong with three collaborations with Hitchcock himself, the most famous being 1946’s Notorious. Then, in 1949, she collaborated with Italian director Roberto Rossellini. The affair between the two of them became one of Hollywood’s greatest scandals, and nearly spelled the end of Bergman’s career.
And with that intense cliffhanger, we will put a pause on Bergman. We will return to her when we reach her second Best Actress win in 1956 in Anastasia. Next time we will be writing about another silver screen icon, albeit a much more histrionic one.
The scene at the piano concert as mentioned above. Have you ever been so upset that you’ve just collapsed in tears without any control? That’s Bergman right there.
Like Doug, the ending, especially the final 10 minutes or so, does not provide the climax that the film promises.
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