Review of Portrait of Jennie (1948) by Harry E — 29 Dec 2008

How do you film love? How can one convey, on a movie screen, a love that transcends space and time, life and death? Big, daunting questions - and they are dealt with as such; not much subtlety is to be found in this tempestuous Dieterle/Selznick production.

But it still rings true, conveying love through the title image and the nice conflation of the canvas texture to the image onscreen. The cinematography is fantastic, with all those lights shining through mist and those mammoth rolling heavenly storm clouds.

The most arresting image for me was the shot of Jennie's unfinished portrait, half of her not there... very fitting. Of course, then, they go over the top and roll out the spectacular green-tinted sea-storm sequence and the full-color reveal in the final shot.

Very romantic and grandiose, with a great spiral staircase (reminiscent of Vertigo, which would come 10 years later - and Bernard Herrmann contributed to the music here too) and overall a great image sense.

It works. With its being a supernatural romance, I'm glad I saw this close to Benjamin Button (which also addresses that first question in interesting ways) as well as during a period of Twilight Zone marathons.