Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Obsessions: Hitchcock vs. Dekkappai


The evening's viewing pleasure consisted of re-viewing my choice for Hitchcock's best: Vertigo (1958). I only saw about half of it-- up to Stewart & Novak's first smooch, with the waves crashing in the background and Herrmann swelling up all over the place. Speaking of Herrmann, it was The Artist's borrowing of his score to Vertigo which inspired me to give the original another look.

Nothing against Ms. Novak or Hitchcock's tastes, but were yours truly to film Vertigo, the model of obsession would be a bit more like the voluptuous LUU. Of course given an actress of LUU's entrancing bulk, I supposed the famous scene of Jimmy Stewart carrying Kim Novak out of San Francisco Bay would have be be restaged in the Dekkappai version. He'd have to carry her piggy-back, on shaky legs. LUU is seen at left demonstrating a union of Hitch's fetish for the "cool blond" with Dekkappai's obsession with chubby Asian women.


After that, I put on Paul Leni's Das Wachsfigurenkabinett (1924), and watched it up to the end of Emil Janning's mugging, at the point where Conrad Veidt was about to pick up the ham.

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