Posted by Sarah
The third film in the Gulbenkian Cinema’s Gothic Season – Thorold Dickinson’s Gaslight (1940) – will screen on Sunday the 9th of Feb at 3pm.
The Gulbenkian Cinema’s description of the film:
Thorold Dickinson | UK | 1940 | 82mins | Anton Walbrook, Diana Wynyard, Frank Pettingell, Robert Newton
A powerful Gothic melodrama of domestic sadism and psychological suspense, now presented in a sparkling digital restoration. Not to be confused with George Cukor’s film of the same name – the second adaptation of novelist/dramatist Patrick Hamilton’s play, and more well-known until now, as MGM famously tried to suppress the competition – this suspenseful, stylish classic from Thorold Dickinson (The Queen of Spades) is an absolute treat.
Diana Wynyard and Anton Walbrook are Bella and Paul, the young couple settling into a new house when Bella begins to lose things and becomes fearful when the gaslights go dim in the middle of the night and she hears footsteps above her head. Fer husband begins to question her judgement, and Bella herself begins to feel that her sanity is slipping away. But there is a deception in play – and the key is in the history of the house itself.
“Walbrook [gives] a brilliant, seething performance” David Thomson, The Guardian
“Sadism propels Thorold Dickinson’s exquisite Victorian thriller of 1940” Graham Fuller, Artsdesk.com
For more information and to book your ticket please go to:
http://www.thegulbenkian.co.uk/events/cinema/2014/February/2014-02-gaslight.html
Posts on the Melodrama Research Group’s discussion on this film and the Hollywood remake:
http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/melodramaresearchgroup/2013/04/05/summary-of-discussion-on-gaslight/
http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/melodramaresearchgroup/2013/04/05/gaslight-links/