Director Guillermo del Toro Praises this Classic Thriller: “It informs the darker aspects of the human mind”
Tyler Doupe'
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During the Halloween season, Guillermo del Toro partnered with TCM to share a handful of entries from his October watchlist. And you know, when a celebrated director shares what they are watching, we are always here for it.
First up on del Toro’s watchlist is the Hitchcock classic Suspicion. The auteur director heaps praise on the black-and-white picture, speaking to the efficacy of Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine in the lead roles.
“Suspicion is one of my favorite Hitchcock films,” says del Toro, “Along with Shadow of a Doubt and Strangers on a Train, it forms the ‘Trilogy of the Shadow’, which informs the darker aspects of the human mind. One of the main resources of suspense is not knowing. The other one, by the way, is hope. They go hand-in-hand. And not knowing is the moral of this tale. Joan Fontaine and, by extension, we spend the entire picture trying to figure out if Cary Grant is the man we hope he would be or we fear him to be. That makes him perfectly cast: No one wants to believe anything bad about Cary Grant. But it also shows you the darker, more strange aspects of Joan Fontaine’s character.”
“At the end, which was reshot by Hitchcock, there is an ambiguity that’s preserved,” del Toro continues. “And I won’t spoil it but I will say that he uses a resource, which is shooting Cary Grant from behind, showing only the back of his head, which he will reuse in his introduction in Notorious. And there is a final gesture with the arm that can either be protective … or capturing. You decide.”
The proceedings revolve around: A shy young heiress that marries a charming gentleman, and soon begins to suspect he is planning to murder her.
Stay tuned to the site for more recommendations from the masters as we uncover them. And be sure to follow @DreadCentral on Twitter so you never miss an update.
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