#soad posting

[charlottenewtons]

#MyCharlie

[charlottenewtons]

remember when charlie walked down the street holding hands with her uncle, happy that her friends might think he was her boyfriend...good times

[charlottenewtons]

Charlie squared could do crimson peak because it plays into Uncle Charlie's strengths - killing women for their money and incest. He wouldn't be leaving Charlie for another woman either unlike that flop Thomas.

[charlottenewtons]

Reverse Unpopular Opinion: Shadow of a Doubt (obvious) or other film noir of your choice!

Surprise, surprise I will go for Shadow of a Doubt.

The first time I watched it I enjoyed it as a good thriller/noir, the second time it really hit me just how much was going on in it and how well it holds up when I rewatch it. There's so many different elements and genres in there - noir, gothic, the position of women in society etc.

I've said a lot about both Charlies and Emma and their relationships so to avoid turning this into a massive essay I will list some other things I love about the film:

Very memorable supporting characters. My particular favourites being Louise the waitress, Young Charlie's two friends and the lady at the telegraph office.

Great use of humour that never undercuts the film's more serious moments. The Joe/Herb stuff could have been too on the nose but because they avoid having them talk about the Merry Widow case aside from the one particular moment it never feels that way.

The supernatural elements never being explained. I love it when films allow the audience to come to their own conclusions.

Bar one person, all of the performances are great. I honestly wish Joseph Cotten had been cast more often as murderous creeps because he was very good at it.

The shadows! The way the those stairs looked like bars especially.

One thing that fascinates me about a lot of Hitchcock's work is the empathy towards women facing violence in the home (and in general I feel this film has a lot of empathy towards Charlie as a character that really makes it special to me) which is always surprising given Hitchcock's entire deal.

That even though the bad guy is defeated the ending doesn't offer any easy answers or moralizing.

[charlottenewtons]

Men on letterboxd watching Shadow of a Doubt are like: well why doesn't Charlie simply turn in her uncle, a man who throughout the course of the film has physically assaulted, manipulated and threatened her and who despite all that she clearly loves and cares about what happens to him, because of course we live in a world where a woman can accuse a man of a serious crime with little to no proof and be instantly believed by everyone. Let's also not forget that her only potential ally is another man who has lied to and manipulated her, and who openly stated that he only cares about what happens to her and her family because he's attracted to her.

[charlottenewtons]

he's never done anything wrong in his life

[charlottenewtons]

The true conflict in shadow of a doubt is responsible older sister Charlie versus feckless younger brother Charles

[charlottenewtons]

Uncle Charlie visits the Newton household at Christmas and he and Charlie spend most the time trying to corner each other under the mistletoe.