Films / Janaury 1

I Am Mother (2019) / Madness Of The Heart (1949) / To Be Or Not To Be (1942) / Notorious (1946) / Rebecca (1940) / Rebecca (2020) / Under Capricorn (1949)

I Am Mother (2019) Smartly made film of design and ideas, with a confident pace and a twisting narrative that elevates the tension and allows for some bracing, visual scenes. Though the three characters lack character detail, future world questions on sinister AI remain potent.

Madness Of The Heart (1949) Unpersuasive fusion of Rebecca / Jane Eyre intrigues that misses the atmosphere and character ambivalence and flounders for a grip as blind and newly married Margaret Lockwood finds herself threatened by Kathleen Bryon's crazed new neighbor. Needed true commitment to its ludicrous narrative.

To Be Or Not To Be (1942) Maintaining a breezy balance between comedy and drama, a satire that skewers actors and Nazis with equal and effective glee. Carole Lombard and Jack Benny lead the terrific ensemble, piling up the laughs on a fragile narrative involving spies and the resistance in occupied Warsaw.

Notorious (1946) Hitchcock's mastery of technique and composition propels a sensual narrative of lovers and spies, of seduction and abuse, of secrets and lies. The sharp script takes Ingrid Bergman into the heart of Claude Rains' gang of Rio-based Nazis, a twisting narrative that never lets up until the last, defining image.

Rebecca (1940) Suffused with a dream-like atmosphere, ghosts and guilt swirl through Manderley's cavernous design, tormenting Joan Fontaine's timorous new Mrs de Winter and emboldening Judith Anderson's obsessive Mrs Danvers. Franz Waxman's score haunts our desires as much as the gorgeous visuals.

Rebecca (2020) Technically proficient, densely designed and containing some striking visuals, the latest adaptation is unfortunately flat, missing a singular tone and point of view. The actors flounder, ill-fitting the characters and missing the passion and mystery. The story creaks through the gears.

Under Capricorn (1949) Strangely inert and uninvolving, despite the swooning camera and rich Technicolor. Individual scenes see Ingrid Bergman and Joseph Cotton struggle to bring humanity to stilted dialog while the pressures of suppressed secrets and desires never truly convinces.