I really need to read a biography about Otto Preminger. (This one looks pretty good; remember the link to my wish list on your lower right hand side?) Thus far, I’ve only seen three of his movies - Anatomy of a Murder, Advise and Consent and now this one. I own the first, will be buying the second, and will definitely be grabbing this one. A special edition of it would be friggin’ awesome, as this version has no special features, but the movie itself is good enough to make it worth it.

I mention my interest in Preminger because each of those three movies are a) stellar, and b) totally different genres. Courtroom drama-cum-detective investigation, inside-the-beltway political thriller and psychological horror, if I have to give each a label. And yet each also has a commonality: slowly but surely, the viewer discovers that people are not at all who they say they are. Given the formal constraints of the time (which he also did a great job of working around), every movie I’ve seen of his still unfolds in an extremely subversive way, giving the basic satisfaction of a good story, good narrative pacing, and a traditional cast of characters, but then upsetting the viewer’s expectations time and time again.