Talk:Notorious (1946 film)

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Contents 1 MI II 2 Lengthy kissing 3 Awards 4 Section has no references, as such, possible original work 4.1 Style and themes

[edit] MI II

Removed link to Mission Impossible II. What's the connection? Clarityfiend 18:05, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Lengthy kissing

I don't understand the following:

Censorship of the period limited the amount of time a couple on screen could kiss to less than three seconds. Hitchcock circumvented this restriction by having his lovers (in retained close-up shot) maintain close physical contact while moving around Alicia's apartment. Such extended close-ups of lovers became a Hitchcock trademark. Similar examples occur in Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, and North by Northwest.

'Retained close up'? Close contact while moving around? I don't understand how this works, and can't remember the film well enough. Hopefully someone can rewrite and replace it.Cop 633 15:48, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Awards

The cover of the DVD given away in The Times says that Notorious recieved two nominations for acedemy awards. One is currently featured in the article. Snowman 13:49, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

I have written in links to both acedemy award nominations in the introduction. Snowman 08:53, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Section has no references, as such, possible original work

The following has been placed here until references are found (and if the reference used in the end is for that para or the whole section). In short, this section needs additional research. Do contact me if disagreements occur:

[edit] Style and themes

The beverage motif that has been noted by many critics includes: Alicia's alcoholism throughout; Alicia's poisoning towards the end at the hands of Sebastian and his mother; the disappearing wine bottles used as suspense in the famous wine cellar scene; the wine bottle left behind at Prescott's office being notable of the relationship between Alicia and Devlin; the wine bottles that contain uranium; and even Hitchcock's cameo has him drinking a glass of champagne. Donald Spoto has commented that beverages in Notorious are either "fradulent or poisonous."

The character of Alex Sebastian follows the Hitchcockian motif of the villain being sympathetic (other instances being North by Northwest, Shadow of a Doubt, and Psycho). It is in Notorious that Hitchcock was most successful, as the audience feels sympathetic for Alex as a lovestruck man that is witnessing the affair between the woman he loves and another man. Alex is always kind to Alicia up to the point he discovers she is a spy; in contrast, Devlin lacks much kindness until the end of the film.

Madam Sebastian is another Hitchcock motif - the dominating mother, which in this case controls Alex and orchestrates Alicia's poisoning.

Keys are used in the film as an element of discovery (such as the wine cellar and Alex realizing they are gone from, making him learn Alicia's secret).

The MacGuffin in this film is uranium, which Hitchcock and screenwriter Ben Hecht originally chose to use, writing his screenplay in mid-1945, before the use of nuclear weapons against Japan. In his book-length interview with François Truffaut, Hitchcock alleged that he was under FBI surveillance for several months because of the uranium reference. In the same interview, Hitchcock said that the original producer of Notorious, David O. Selznick, was over-budget and behind schedule on his Duel in the Sun (1946), and so Selznick sold Hitchcock, Hecht's script, and the two stars to RKO as a package for $800,000 and a percentage of the profits (Hitchcock/Truffaut, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967). END Luigibob (talk) 21:54, 20 April 2008 (UTC)