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Movie of the Week: Nightmare Alley

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Nightmare Alley. Despite the title, the film is definitely not classified as a horror movie. So those who do not like "horror films" can not be frightened and feel free to watch the premiere. The famous Mexican Guillermo del Toro, whom the average viewer, of course, remembers from the Oscar-winning "The Shape of Water", directed "The Alley of Nightmares". The main roles in his new work were played by Bradley Cooper, prettier after the birth of Rooney Mara, the dizzying femme fatale Cate Blanchett, Toni Collet and Willem Dafoe. For just one such rare constellation of Hollywood celebrities on one set, Nightmare Alley deserves attention. It is curious that Leonardo DiCaprio originally claimed the lead role.

The film of the week is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by American writer William Linzi Gresham. It was first published in 1946 and filmed in 1947. The scriptwriters of the first film adaptation made the ending softer and more optimistic than in the book. Later, this film version of Nightmare Alley will be called a film classic. Guillermo del Toro, on the contrary, added more violent moments to the script, which is why the tape received an R rating. In general, the new film adaptation of Nightmare Alley was so adapted by Guillermo del Toro that it can hardly be called a remake of the 1947 film.

Movie of the Week: Nightmare Alley

The plot originates in 1939 somewhere in the American outback. The viewer sees how the hero of Bradley Cooper – Stanton Carlisle – pulls a certain corpse along the floor and burns down the house with him. Then the man gets on the bus and moves to another city. Here he adjoins a traveling circus and begins to work here as an auxiliary worker. Having become acquainted with the members of the corpse, Stan becomes close to the charlatan fortune-teller Zina and slowly finds out the secrets of cheating the crowd from her alcoholic husband Pete. Pete teaches Stan everything with inspiration, but his main secrets are kept in a diary, to which Stan does not have access. Then the hero of Bradley Cooper decides to replace the bottle of alcohol, on which Pete is so dependent, with a deadly drink with methanol. So Pete dies, and Stan finally gets his diary. Having mastered mentalism with its help, Stan decides to start a solo career. He leaves the traveling circus and moves to New York, taking with him the beauty Molly (Rooney Mara), who captivated the audience with her electric tricks.

Movie of the Week: Nightmare Alley

In New York, the couple performs with spectacular psychic numbers. Using the so-called cold reading and a system of verbal signs, Stan and Molly create an illusion of mysticism in front of the viewer. Now the heroes make good money, dress beautifully and live in luxury hotels.

Movie of the Week: Nightmare Alley

But, when one day the heroine of Cate Blanchett, the fatal female psychotherapist Ritter, comes to their show, Stan realizes that, working together with her hand in hand, he is able to reach unprecedented heights in his craft. Needless to say, the finale of the tape will be unexpected and crushing.

Movie of the Week: Nightmare Alley

As we mentioned at the beginning of the article, the film does not belong to the Horror genre. No mysticism, no monsters, no curses – you will not find anything supernatural here. But there are still enough nightmares. And above all, the actions and conscious life choices of some heroes are a nightmare. To understand the reason for these actions, the reason for such a choice, the viewer will have to pick up the keys to the door behind which the answers are on their own. The style of Nightmare Alley is very multifaceted. It is dark and bright at the same time. 150 minutes of running time, and no stamps, no predictability. At some point, it seems that the plot is frozen and is not moving anywhere. Suddenly, a sharp turn, surprise, followed by shock, a change of scenery, new heroes.

Movie of the Week: Nightmare Alley

Nightmare Alley, on the one hand, is a film about a brilliantly assertive rise from a homeless beggar to a maestro surrounded by stylish baroque. On the other hand, Guillermo del Toro’s new work is about a thin line between creativity, the life of an artist, artist, his flirting with the public and moral responsibility to her. After all, having played the favorite of the crowd, it is so easy to believe in your superpowers and, having lost your vigilance, put at stake not only your life, but also the lives of your loved ones. The protagonist transgresses this trait easily, without fear and subsequent regrets. It seems that if fate had given him a second chance, he would have done the same.

Nightmare Alley is already called the most pessimistic work of Guillermo del Toro. Here, as always, he is unchanged by his credo – to make monsters people, and people – monsters. And the scenery and costumes in Nightmare Alley seem to be created only to make it more interesting for the viewer to get to the bottom of this important subtext.

And, of course, speaking of Nightmare Alley, one cannot fail to note the amazing work of the cinematographer Dan Laustsen, who already has such successful films as The Shape of Water and the third episode of John Wick, as well as the team that put on the light. It is thanks to them that we get the aesthetics of neo-noir. The scene in the semi-dark office, when the light falls on the faces of the characters, and through the huge windows you can see the falling snow – this is very, very talented.

Movie of the Week: Nightmare Alley

Curiously, there is a black and white version of Nightmare Alley by Guillermo del Toro. We hope that one day the director will present it to the audience, but for now we enjoy the film, albeit in a darkly subdued, but still color.

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