Notorious

I really liked this movie. I think it really stuck with Hitchcock's interest in character studies. There was so little that was actually said in the way of really important information. In fact, he seemed to intention drown out some of the dialog. The best scenes where when Alicia was in the house of Sebastian. There was a lot that her face read that shows how much she had to conceal from Sebastian. On her meetings with Devlin, you could tell that most of her actions were more of a way to put up a front. The expressions on both her and Devlin's face read that they were both attempting to mask their feelings for each other, him for his job, and her out of the abandonment she felt. This was most evident in their final meeting when she tells him that she was simply hungover, angry at him for leaving her.

The best example of pure cinema though is the scene where Alicia figures out that the coffee she has been drinking was the source of her illness. She read the looks from both Sebastian and his mother and ended up realizing that they were poisoning her. In turn, we see all of this not because some says are much, but by watching the way she looks from one to the other in suspicion, then the way the react to the doctor picking up the wrong cup of coffee, and watching her expression change in realization. It was an amazing scene.

The role of mother was a significantly changed one. In this movie, Sebastian's mother was fairly strong and powerful. She held and extreme amount of control over her son and she seemed to know exactly what to do in every situation. She was very manipulative and evil. She even sat by Alicia's bed sewing as Alicia slowly died from the poison the mother was administering her.

Her actions, however, did mirror some of Hitchcock's life, however. He talks about how his mother was a very strong influence in his life. Similarly, Sebastian almost reports to his mother about his life. She knew everything about what was going on in the house. Sebastian even came into her room when he realized that Alicia was actually a spy working for the United States government, sits by her bed, and wakes her up to tell her. She is the one he goes to when he has a problem.