Review of North by Northwest (1959) by Filipeneto — 06 Aug 2020

Another excellent film by Alfred Hitchcock.

Personally, this is not one of my favorite Alfred Hitchcock films, although it is one of the most acclaimed and one of the most interesting. The script revolves around a confusion of identities, where an ordinary citizen is mistaken for a spy and ends up in a tremendous confusion with gigantic repercussions on his personal life and national security.

The script is quite good and the story has no dead moments. It entertains the audience in a perfect way until the end and makes us curious to know what is really going on, curiosity being an important part of what keeps us stuck in the film (and one of the reasons I prefer to hardly talk about the plot). The main character, played by Cary Grant, was so well thought out that we quickly established an affective and sympathetic link with her, caring about what will happen to her. It goes without saying that, although the cast is very good, it is really Cary Grant who stands out here. Eva Marie Saint is good, but she never leaves the shadow of the male protagonist. Another actor that deserves a positive note is Martin Landau.

Technically, it is an impeccable film, to the taste of director Hitchcock. It is full of symbolic scenes or with more than one meaning, some of them bordering on the dreamlike. Some of the scenes are truly striking, like those that were shot on Mount Rushmore. The camera and film work is excellent and cinematography perfectly harmonizes color, light, shadow and contrast, resulting in a visually elegant film, although with the characteristics of a film of its time, of course. The soundtrack is also quite good, as are the sets and costumes.