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The Trouble with Harry (1955)
A real masterpiece of black comedy in an uncommonly light-hearted mood
As crime stories usually are, this is a story of finding the truth. But in this case it is not so much about the cause of death of a corpse formerly called Harry and found in the bushes. Everyone of the characters learns a lot about the life of his neighbors.
Although this lighthearted mood isn't very typical for Hitchcock, the twists in the plot and the dark sense of humour certainly are. Or could you think of any other movie handling a dead body as if it was nothing, just everyday-stuff like a pair of old pants, without drifting into mindless slapstick? I can't help comparing it to "Waking Ned Devine".
Although "Harry" seemed very British to me, it sketches a nice picture of life out in the American countryside. The photographs of fall in New England are of an incredible grandeur seldom seen in any motion picture.
And that's where the tone is set. Life is beautiful and easy in the small town as long as they all mind their own business, but then the sudden arrival of Harry brings them all together, unites them in their dependence on each other.
This well-cast and -acted (watch out for Shirley McLaine in her first major role) black comedy also marks "the beginning of a long and beautiful friendship" between the director and his (only true) collaborator Bernard Hermann, who provided the magnificent pictures with a appropriate score; one of his best for Hitch.
Idyllic it seems, but thrilling it is, to see things happen in their own slow way. My favourite joke is the one with the closet door, maybe the weirdest ever...
Even or maybe just because it's not exactly what you expect from the master of suspense, this movie is among Hitch's very best.
Beresina oder Die letzten Tage der Schweiz (1999)
A hilarious comedy about the last days of Switzerland - A milestone in Swiss filmmaking
Deconstructing Switzerland, or at least its myths and legends. "Beresina" is a comedy that gains its attraction from a naive Russian girl Irina, played by Elena Panova, a very talented young actress. Although it is presented in a very fairy-tale-like way, the story takes place in today's Switzerland with all its old-fashioned clichées. But since the movie never tries to take itself too serious, it manages to give a view of the real centers of power in this "oh so beautiful little country" the way they could be. Actually at the date of release, reality has already caught up with fiction, meaning we now have a scandal about a "secret" Secret Service and a whore pretending to know the Swiss government from within. One might almost call "Beresina" the "Wag the Dog" of Swiss politics.
All in all the film's first half presents kind of a "chronicle of slowness" and hence reflects the way structures are broken and opened to new ideas in the heads of many people always being mindful of tradition. But this slow pacing can also be very amusing, as Daniel Schmid shows us. Although he never reaches the tempo of a Billy Wilder comedy, he manages to capture another speciality of the very same director: showing people the way they are, making us care for them, without taking them too serious. A pretty obvious characteristic of this movie are the constant repetitions, which may not always please, but which show effectively how the presented characters live their lives following ritualized patterns.
What makes this movie go is doubtlessly the story of Irina, the Russian callgirl. She is the only one really believing all the myths and promises around her "promised (Switzer)land", and ironically a central factor in their destruction. She provides the only emotional relation to the audience. In her idealisticly pure hope for a paradise she is willing to sacrifice even a virtue or two ("lying is a bad thing!") in order to make her dream come true.
It's also a story about friends, most of them false ones though. From a certain point in time things happen to tumble and the satire turns into a very amusing grotesque.
Watch out for the "réduit"-sequence, a true highlight! I have to admit that I would have never thought that Swiss Folk songs could be delightful sung with a Russian accent. By the way there is a powerful performance by Geraldine Chaplin, who shows us a hundred ways to open a fan
I was very pleased to see the first good Swiss movie in years, even if its attraction may somehow be limited to Switzerland and prevent it from being successful in probable foreign releases.
Torn Curtain (1966)
Not bad for a cold war thriller, but below Hitchcock's standards
Hitchcock and politics. In the two movies that followed his most productive period (1953 - 1964) of great suspense classics such as "Vertigo", "Psycho" and "the Birds", there was an attempt of telling stories of political actuality that were set more in the environment of James Bond than following Hitchcock-patterns.
The first of them was "Torn Curtain" and in my opinion the best (though it was also a critically torn "curtain"!) of the last four movies directed by the master of suspense but far below the mentioned masterpieces
The main problem though is that the global don't exactly match with Hitch's concept of people's destruction from within. The menace lies far beyond the characters themselves, it's constructed by countries and governments and not specifically to certain persons, so the actual story of Miss Sherman's and professor Armstrong's emotional journey somehow loses weight in the context of the broad political scenario.
One great step in the right direction is taken by not using suggestive music (working so effectively in movies like "Psycho" or "Vertigo"), part of which was apparently the result of the lack of Bernard Herrmann's inventive collaboration. Okay, the score by John Addison is easy-listening and background music, but what really counts is the use of on-screen source sounds like the "Romeo and Juliet"-ballet (which is a nice reminder of "The Man Who Knew Too Much") or the sheer absence of music and sound at all which makes it more realistic.
Hitch had always been best at showing things instead of talking about them. I would even say that a lot of his concept of suspense is based on mute actions and extremely long takes and scenes during which sometimes nothing seems to happen but scares the devil out of you. And that's where all this German talk fits in. We understand everything even without knowing German. There is a very realistic approach in handling the story that itself sometimes gives you the impression of being quite constructed.
The whole affair looks pretty modern in its camera angles and close-ups. There are several extremely well done sequences including the one in which Paul Newman tries to get the secret out of the physicist's head.
The true highlight is arguably the murder scene. I dare say it was the first major movie to show the strength and endurance it takes to commit a murder and how unpleasant this all unfolds. It is the exact counterpart of the immortal shower scene in "Psycho".
To come to an end: it's a movie that tries to bridge the gap between the epic scope of the political situation and the interaction of its protagonists. But although it fails in many ways it still tells a thrilling story in the usual masterly craftsmanship. But whether craftsman or artist, politics was never Hitchcock's field...