The beautiful tormented - Ingrid Berman in Gaslight, 1944

 

Did anyone ever suffer as exquisitely as Ingrid Bergman? She was a virtuoso of suffering, her physical beauty seemingly designed for it. In role after role she was given the chance to display the darkest and most frantic colors of her remarkable talent. Every tortured character's every tortured thought was brilliantly alive, completely present in the glittering of her tear-filled eyes, the tiny, fluttering movements of the muscles of her cheeks and mouth; in those moments one can almost see her nerves flashing beneath the surface of her radiant skin. And always, in each of those moments, she was dramatically correct, utterly believable - and ravishing. She wasn't always tragic and traumatized, of course; her smiles and laughter are among the most delightful in film history. But certainly her most sustained emotional journey as a tormented soul was as Paula Alquist Anton, her role in "Gaslight." 

As for other examples in this vein, I can hardly bear to watch the otherwise brilliant "Notorious"; it infuriates me to watch Cary Grant being so unreasonably and pointlessly cruel to Bergman. My reaction to the (horribly miscast) Spencer Tracy as the title character in the 1941 "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is even more violent. I've only watched that film once... and never again; the torture of poor Ivy/Ingrid was nearly as painful for me to watch as for the fictional character to suffer. The story of Paula in "Gaslight" is a bit easier to endure, as I know that - spoiler! - she'll triumph in the end. (And of course the actress did as well; Bergman won her first Oscar for the performance.)

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But even Paula had some bright moments; the soirée at Lady Dalroy's begins well.... 

Bergman's wonderful costumes in "Gaslight" were by the amazing Irene.

(The fairly obvious retouching to the neckline and flowers seems to be original to the print.)