Marnie

Perhaps the most underrated of Hitchcock’s late-period American films, Marnie was largely dismissed upon its initial release, but has since been reappraised by many as one of the director’s masterpieces: a disquieting, Vertigo-like study of perverse romance and romantic obsession. Tippi Hedren, fresh from her appearance in The Birds (and here suffering off-screen under Hitchcock's own overbearing obsession with her), has the title role as a beautiful but pathologically frigid kleptomaniac. Sean Connery co-stars as the wealthy employer who discovers her larcenous nature. No slouch in the emotionally- confused department himself, he blackmails Marnie into marrying him. Red shock-flashes are used to convey the heroine's precarious psychological state; critics are still debating whether or not the obviously artificial elements — fake backdrops, clumsy rear projection — are also Expressionist devices or just slapdash. "Hitchcock's most liberated and poetic film, Marnie is a masterpiece of psychological mystery that encompasses all of the director's obsessions" (James Monaco). "As sour a vision of male-female interaction as Vertigo ... It’s thrilling to watch, lush, cool, and oddly moving" (Geoff Andrew, Time Out). Colour, 35mm. 125 mins.