While many of the Criterion Channel's featured categories highlight newer or international films, the lineup for September 2023 also includes one of my favorite classic sub-genres, "Gaslight Noir." If you love films like Gaslight (whether the 1940 or 1944 version), this is a collection sure to send delicious chills up and down your corseted spine.
Most of the iconic noir classics take place in their own present day, usually the 1940s and 1950s, but gaslight noir sets the action in an earlier age, usually the 19th century and often in London or elsewhere in the UK or Europe, although looming manor houses in America can also provide a suitably sinister location. The protagonist is most often a young woman who is both victim and de facto detective, striving to solve a mystery before she meets a tragic end. The films provide a heady mix of Gothic sensibility, noir style, and romance, and many of them appeared in the wake of the success of Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940) and the 1943 adaptation of Jane Eyre, the Gothic masterpiece that Daphne du Maurier's original novel of Rebecca uses as a thematic touchstone.
Here is the full list of films available this month on the Criterion Channel as part of the Gaslight Noir collection (use the links to read my discussions of these films):
Moss Rose (1947)
Blanche Fury (1948)
Corridor of Mirrors (1948)
So Evil My Love (1948)
Madeleine (1950)
So Long at the Fair (1950)
While I've seen and written about several of these films, quite a few are new to me, and I'm really looking forward to watching them. I hope to add several new Classic Films in Focus posts about these movies in the coming weeks.
For more in-depth discussions of the Gothic tradition in film, check out my essays:
This series looks so amazing. I just saw Ivy for the first time earlier this year (or maybe last year?), but I had to watch it via some random link online. I'm looking forward to seeing a better print and I'm hoping that this means that a physical release is coming soon.
ReplyDeleteI've also seen "Gaslight" which I love. "Hangover Square" is amazing. I've only seen half of "Dragonwyck" so I look forward to seeing the rest. There's something about the Gothic film noir that I really enjoy.
Thank you for the heads-up, Jennifer -- I'm looking so forward to watching several of these, especially So Evil, My Love, which I've been wanting to see for years.
ReplyDelete-- Karen