‘Under Capricorn’ is an interesting film from Alfred Hitchcock.
The fascination with this film originates from its technical innovation and the
issue of audience expectation often associated with genre films. A film from
1949, it is an early Technicolor film, just like Hitchcock's previous film
'Rope'. The film is also a period drama, a rare choice from the Master of
Suspense. ‘Under Capricorn’ also shows some similarities in terms of content
and style to ‘Notorious’, another Hitchcock film from the 1940s. Both films
were brilliantly performed by Ingrid Bergman.
The most
interesting aspect about ‘Under Capricorn’ regards the audience reception of
the film when it first came out in the end of 1940s. ‘Under Capricorn’ appeared
to adopt a European sensibility and it was more popular in the art film circles
of Europe rather than mainstream Hollywood. The audience back in the 1940s
expected the period drama to be a typical Hitchcockian thriller. Yet while the
film was suspenseful and also had a mystery plot element, the story was more
melodramatic than thrilling. The film seemed to resemble the melodramas by
Kenji Mizoguchi in the same era rather than a typical thriller in the golden
age of Film Noir.
The Sydney of the 19th
century, where the story took place, was a new frontier where many foreigners
flocked to. Prospectors travelled there to look for a new start in their lives.
What they could not have left behind, as implied by Hitchcock's stylistic motifs,
were the crime of passion and the darkest secrets of the past. Indeed, the film
was quite similar to the Hitchcock’s ‘Notorious’,
another melodrama disguised as a Film Noir. Other than the similar ‘poisoning
Ingrid Bergman’ motif, both film concerned complex love triangles. The dramatic
tensions were further complicated by the ethical gray areas, which served as an
essential theme for the Noirish landscapes portrayed in both films.
Characters searched for
their selves and made sense of their existences through Hitchcock's long takes,
as an ongoing experiment that originated from his previous film ‘Rope’. When
long takes were employed in the late films of Kenji Mizoguchi, they were
formalized and represented the processes of ritualistic gestures in the past.
In contrast, Hitchcock's long takes demanded the viewers to look for clues and
emotional cues as they travelled alongside with the characters in the film. As
we were led through the ballrooms, dining halls, and bedrooms inside the gothic
manor, the power relations due to the differing social status of the various
characters shifted, and everyone gained their upper hands at certain points
when the power dynamics were changed. In fact, ‘Under Capricorn’ can be
considered as an erotic film - it is just the clinical and subtle style of
Hitchcock that renders it less like the sexually-charged ‘erotic films’ we
understand today.
All the characters had
their own secrets in ‘Under Capricorn’. Their actions were often amoral and
they were motivated by material considerations and self-interest. For Ingrid
Bergman, she has given an edgy performance in the film, as an eccentric and
alcoholic lady. I bet Ms. Bergman has probably tried to make her photogenic
appearance more unflattering, like wearing baggy clothes and having nervous
gestures and intonations to fit her character in the film. Her character had to sort out her turmoil for
her passions and feelings for the two male protagonists, not knowing she was
slowly poisoned by alcohol with another jealous character. Through the film,
further criminal acts were carried out and unfair insinuations were made,
cluttering the moral compass of the cinematic world. Being a moralist,
Hitchcock offered hope by giving Bergman’s character a sense of justice, even
if she was physically compromised at the climax of the film. She was willing to
stand up and speak about the truth, and sorted out the moral clutter. In the
age of the dark and fatalistic Noir, ‘Under Capricorn’ gave the viewers an
ending where the innocent ones received justice as the truth came to light at
the end.
This Hitchcock film is a
great representative of classic Hollywood cinema. And, if you have seen enough
black-and-white images and films of the legendary Ingrid Bergman, you may want
to see how she looks in Technicolor, too!
by Ed Law
Film Analysis
