23
Sep/15

INGRID BERGMAN AT BAM: GASLIGHT

23
Sep/15
GASLIGHT

Trouble is not far away shortly after Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer) and Paula Alquist (Ingrid Bergman) wed in GASLIGHT

GASLIGHT (George Cukor, 1944)
BAMcinématek, BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Friday, September 25, 2:00, 4:30, 7:00, 9:30
Series continues through September 29
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

The lovely September 12 tribute to Ingrid Bergman presented by Isabella Rossellini and Jeremy Irons at BAM in honor of the hundredth anniversary of Bergman’s birth included wonderful archival footage and clips from some of Bergman’s most famous films, including the intense 1944 psychological thriller Gaslight. Bergman won her first of three Oscars as Paula Alquist, the niece of a famous murdered opera singer in Victorian England. Paula tries to follow in her aunt’s footsteps, but she doesn’t have quite the same skills. Instead, she falls in love with her pianist, Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer), and following a whirlwind romance, they get married and soon settle down in the London home where Paula lived with her aunt. It isn’t long before Gregory is playing with Paula’s mind, controlling her every movement, trying to make her think she is going crazy. His devious plan is helped along by one of their maids, Nancy (Angela Lansbury), but Inspector Brian Cameron (Joseph Cotten) of Scotland Yard starts smelling a rat and is determined to get to the bottom of things. Meanwhile, gossipy neighbor Bessie Thwaites (Dame May Whitty) keeps sniffing around as well.

gaslight 2

Based on Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 play — which gave “gaslight” a new meaning, to try to drive someone insane — Cukor’s film is bathed in London fog and dark shadows, shot in lurid black-and-white by master cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg (Mrs. Miniver, Gigi). Boyer, who would appear in 1948’s Arch of Triumph with Bergman, is dapper and elegant as the duplicitous Gregory, who mentally tortures Paula with great relish. Bergman gives one of her most complex performances as the increasingly paranoid Paula, a young woman haunted by an incident in her past, something that has weakened her resolve to fight for her sanity. Cotten is stalwart as ever, while Lansbury makes a mark in her first film role. Cukor (Dinner at Eight, The Philadelphia Story) keeps the tension running high throughout, although a handful of minor plot holes near the end keeps this from becoming quite the masterpiece it nearly is. The MGM film was nominated for seven Oscars, consisting of nods for Bergman (Best Actress), Boyer (Best Actor), Lansbury (Best Supporting Actress), Ruttenberg (Best Cinematography, Black-and-White), John Van Druten, Walter Reisch, and John L. Balderston (Best Adapted Screenplay), and Cedric Gibbons, William Ferrari, Edwin B. Willis, and Paul Huldschinsky (Best Art Direction, Black-and-White). Gaslight is screening September 25 in the BAMcinématek series “Ingrid Bergman at BAM,” which continues through September 29 with such other gems as Roberto Rossellini’s Europa ’51, Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound, Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn Sonata, and Sidney Lumet’s Murder on the Orient Express.