Notorious On the Big Screen

We met at one of our favorite places – if any of you all come to New York – I so so recommend it: The restaurant is called ‘ino. It has about 5 tables (check out the photo. That’s IT.) If you are sitting against the wall and you need to get out to get to the bathroom or something – then many other people, strangers, will be involved – in moving their tables, scooting their chairs over, etc. They have an enormous wine list – and all of the waiters are friendly, personable, and know a TON about wines. They can help you out. The waitstaff is fantastic. The food is scrumptious and unbelievably cheap. We always get the olive bowl. Then there are bruschettas – many different kinds – paninis … There’s exposed brick. The candlelight. The big wine glasses. It’s a teeny-tiny enclave in the Village. We just love it there. It’s one of those places that you feel so PSYCHED to know about. And you hope that not too many other people find out about it. I took my parents there once – which was really fun – to share it with them.

We ate our olives. We drank wine. We talked like maniacs.

Topics covered:

— how the brain works, how it processes information.
— Brokeback Mountain
— Joan Didion’s book Year of Magical Thinking
— how amazing it is that the EYE has developed – the EYE – the MIRACLE OF THE EYEBALL, the INCREDIBLE-NESS of the evolution of the EYEBALL
— acting, directing

We were excited. It was an exciting night. We got the check at 6:55 – and then headed over to the Film Forum – to see Notorious. I’m not joking: my heart was literally pounding out of my chest. I felt like I was going to see a Broadway show. I felt like I was standing in line to meet someone I idolized. I was so excited. SO excited to see this film on the big screen. One of my favorite movies ever made. I’ve only ever seen it by myself. In my apartment. Obsessively. My experience of the film has been sheerly solitary. So to sit in a crowded movie theatre? And watch that film?? What???? I was beside myself.

He had seen it before – years ago. His vivid memory of the film was the scene in the wine cellar – He found it so intense and suspenseful that he couldn’t even watch it. He had to stand up and walk around.

I cannot even express how EXCITING it was to sit in a movie theatre – surrounded by people – watching that film. It was a completely different thing – seeing it in that way. Seeing it BIG. Seeing them larger-than-life – rather than on my small television. The film is meant to be seen BIG. There are moments when Ingrid Bergman is in close-up that I literally couldn’t catch my breath. Her beauty, her passion, her very LIFE just leapt off the screen and caught me by the throat. You can definitely get that it is a powerful performance – even if you see it on a 12 inch TV – but to see it up there, huge – was a horse of a different color. She is an absolutely extraordinary actress.

But most of the fun came from the LAUGHTER in the audience. I have only seen the film by myself – and I think it’s a very witty script – but you know, I’ve seen it 50 times, sitting alone – I don’t sit in my chair, laughing out loud, every time I see it. But the crowd – the energy of the crowd – it was just electric. People just BURSTING into laughter – the scary Fraulein mother got huge laughs on almost every line – it was exhilarating – I felt like I was experiencing the movie for the first time. When the amazing Claude Rains wakes up his mother after his horrible revelation about who his wife is … and his mother sits up in bed – with that terrifying Germanic look on her face … he confesses, “It’s about Alicia.” The mother suddenly QUIVERS with almost visible triumph – only she puts a lid on it – and she reaches out for a cigarette from her cigarette box by her bed – she puts the cigarette in her mouth and says, viciously, “I have expected this.” HUGE laugh. I found myself caught up in it too – I saw the moment for the first time. Movie-going is – after all – a communal experience. That’s part of the joy of it. I like going to the movies. I like sitting home and watching movies too – but there’s nothing like going out, and sitting there with a bunch of strangers, watching a movie. It’s one of my favorite things to do.

The wine cellar scene was absolutely excruciating to watch. You could just FEEL people freaking out all around … It was unbearable. And it is only done through the acting, and the circumstance. There’s no special effects – the only “sound” is the distant sound of the orchestra upstairs … there are no additional elements added onto the scene to tell you how to feel … It just WORKS. She is terrified. She paces. He inspects the wine bottles. Slowly … we start to see that because he is reaching behind the first row of bottles … he has pushed one of the bottles forward. He doesn’t notice it – but WE do. People were just gasping all around us. This one poor woman sitting a couple of rows ahead was basically having a nervous breakdown. Then comes the terrible moment when the bottle is pushed off the shelf – we see it go – Cary Grant sees it go – it is too late – The sound of people all around me just REACTING to this horrible occurrence gave me goose bumps. A beautiful sound. One of the most beautiful sounds in the world.

And the last scene. Oh, the last scene. Seen in a darkened movie theatre – the screen glimmering silver and black up front – quiet RIVETED people all around me – the tears glimmering down Ingrid’s face – the blazing white pillow behind her head – Cary in blackened shadow – his urgent whisper – her head falling back – Literally you could have heard a pin drop in that theatre.

Cary takes her to the door – shaking her occasionally to keep her conscious – she is afraid – she clings to him – He is now the man he should have been all along. He is protecting her. He is shielding her. He opens the door slowly – ready to face what is ahead.

I have seen the last scene so many times that I guess it’s lost its oomph a bit – I forgot, really, how terrifying it is – and how LONG it seems – but I rediscovered it tonight. The two of them emerge from the darkened bedroom into the brightly lit hallway – he starts to lead her towards the stairs – Suddenly we get a shot of Claude Rains approaching the top of the stairs. There he is. Here he comes. People all around us just JUMPED in their seats at the sight of him. A woman caught her breath – alarmed – terrified. It made a huge sound in the quiet theatre. It was so feckin’ exciting – to realize, yet again, how DEEPLY that last scene works. How damn effective it is. After all these years. There were a ton of Hitchcock freaks in the audience – myself included – and the VIBE in that theatre was one of absolute involvement. It wasn’t a rapt precious atmosphere. We weren’t whispering in the presence of the Mona Lisa. We were fully wrapped up in the EVENT of the film. The EVENT still works. People burst out laughing, gasped, squealed from time to time (especially during the wine cellar scene) – it was absolutely awesome.

Oh, and when the screen slowly went to black at the end – after we watched Claude Rains walk back up the steps into his house, with the two Nazi guys waiting for him in the doorway, Rains knowing that he is going to meet his death – the screen slowly went to black – the music is HUGE at that point – and then came the words “THE END” – and the audience burst into raucous applause. Cheering, whooping, clapping – it was just GREAT. Such a release!!

A great night. I’m still high from it.

Can ya tell??