Directed by | Alfred Hitchcock
Produced by | Alfred Hitchcock (uncredited)
Sidney Bernstein (uncredited)
Written by | Hume
Cronyn
James Bridie
John Colton (play)
Margaret Linden (play)
Helen Simpson (novel)
Starring | Ingrid
Bergman
Joseph Cotten
Michael Wilding
Margaret Leighton
Cecil Parker
Music by | Richard
Addinsell
Cinematography | Jack
Cardiff
Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s) | September 8, 1949
Running time | 117 min.
Country | UK
Language | English
Under Capricorn (1949) is an Alfred Hitchcock film based on a novel
by Helen Simpson, with
screenplay written by James Bridie,
and adaptation by Hume Cronyn. The
movie was co-produced by Hitchcock and Sidney Bernstein for their short-lived
production company Transatlantic Pictures and
released through Warner Bros. The
film starred Ingrid Bergman,
Joseph Cotten, Michael Wilding, and Margaret Leighton.
The film was Hitchcock's second film in Technicolor and
uses ten-minute takes similar
to those in Hitchcock's film Rope (1948). The film's failure,
partly due to its slowness, and partly due to the adverse publicity
of Bergman's extramarital affair with film director Roberto Rossellini, led Hitchcock and
Bernstein to dissolve Transatlantic Pictures.
Plot
In 1831 Australia, Charles Adare (Wilding) arrives with
his uncle, the new governor (Cecil
Parker). Charles hopes to make his fortune in Sydney. He is
befriended by Samson Flusky (Cotten), a prosperous ex-convict.
Sam's wife, Lady Henrietta (Bergman), was a friend of
Charles's sister in Ireland. Sam hopes that Charles will cheer
up his wife, who is an alcoholic. Meanwhile the housekeeper, Milly
(Leighton), secretly loves Sam, and encourages Henrietta's
drinking. Sam has been sent to an Australian prison after he
confessed to a killing actually committed by Henrietta, who
followed Sam and waited for his release. Charles's efforts to
rehabilitate Henrietta conflict with Milly's intentions.
Eventually, Sam becomes jealous, and in a rage, accidentally shoots
Charles. This time Hattie accepts the blame for the shooting.
Trivia
*
Alfred Hitchcock
cameo
: A signature occurrence in almost all of
Hitchcock's films, he can be seen in the town square during a
parade, wearing a blue coat and brown hat at the beginning of the
film. He is also one of three men on the steps of Government House
10 minutes later.
* In Truffaut/Hitchcock (New York: Simon and Schuster,
1967), Hitchcock told François
Truffaut that Under Capricorn was such a failure that
the banks that financed it, repossessed the film, which wasn't
shown on U.S. network television until 1968. In the Truffaut
interview, Hitchcock also mentioned the New York Times reviewer, who wrote
that the viewer had to wait almost 100 minutes for the first
suspenseful moment.
The long take
In Style and Meaning: Studies in the Detailed Analysis of
Film (Manchester: Manchester University Press,
2005), Ed Gallafent's article "The Dandy and Magdalene:
Interpreting the Long Take in Hitchcock’s Under Capricorn
(1949)" says:
"The use of the long take in Under Capricorn
relates to three elements of film's meaning.
* Ideas of accessible and inaccessible space as expressed in the
gothic house.
* The form in which character inhabit their past
* The divergence or convergence of eyelines - the gaze that
cannot, or must meet another’s.
All of these three elements can be linked to concepts of Guilt
and Shame. In 1 and 2, the question is how something is felt to be
present. In 3, it is difference between representation or sharing,
of the past as flashback, and of the past as spoken narrative,
where part of what is being articulated is precisely the
inaccessibility of the past, its experience being locked inside the
speaker. As for 3, the avoided gaze is determining physical sign of
shame."
Gallafent, professor of film at University of Warwick, also
explains these aspects of Under Capricorn:
The inscription on the Bergman character's house -- Minyago
Yugilla -- means "Why weepest thou?"
St. Mary Magdalene (the patron
saint of penitent sinners) in religious iconography: the bare feet,
skull, the flail, the looking glass in which beholder’s is not
always reflected, the jewels cast down to floor. All of these
images are in the film. Sources for the imagery that Hitchcock
might have had in mind are the paintings St. Mary Magdalene
With a Candle (1630-1635) and St. Mary Magdalene With a
Mirror (1635-1645), both by Charles de la Tour.
The films of Alfred Hitchcock
1920s|Number 13 · Always Tell Your Wife ·
The Pleasure
Garden · The Mountain
Eagle · The Lodger: A Story of
the London Fog · Downhill · Easy Virtue · The Ring · The Farmer's Wife ·
Champagne ·
The Manxman · Blackmail
1930s|Juno and the
Paycock · Murder! ·
Elstree Calling ·
The Skin Game ·
Mary · Number Seventeen · Rich and Strange · Waltzes from Vienna ·
The Man
Who Knew Too Much · The 39 Steps ·
Secret
Agent · Sabotage · Young and Innocent · The Lady
Vanishes · Jamaica Inn
1940s|Rebecca · Foreign
Correspondent · Mr. & Mrs.
Smith · Suspicion · Saboteur · Shadow of a Doubt · Lifeboat · Aventure Malgache · Bon Voyage · Spellbound · Notorious · The Paradine Case · Rope · Under Capricorn
1950s|Stage Fright · Strangers on a
Train · I
Confess · Dial M for
Murder · Rear
Window · To
Catch a Thief · The Trouble with Harry ·
The Man
Who Knew Too Much · The
Wrong Man · Vertigo · North by Northwest
1960s|Psycho · The Birds · Marnie · Torn Curtain · Topaz
1970s|Frenzy ·
Family Plot
The article "
Under
Capricorn" is part of the
Wikipedia encyclopedia. It is licensed under the terms of the
GNU FDL.
modified: 2007-12-16 14:44:08
