Marnie (1964)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Marnie (1964) – A. Hitchcock

Now that I have reread the chapter on Marnie from Robin Wood’s famous book on Hitchcock, I am almost convinced that this film is one of the director’s most important works (as a statement of his major themes).  But the problem for me is that it isn’t really an enjoyable watch (notwithstanding Bernard Herrmann’s score, the weird non-naturalistic elements, and Hitch’s moving, peering, camera).  Tippi Hedren plays the title character, a woman who is so psychologically damaged (resulting in constant lying and thieving) that she is hostile to everyone around her, particularly men (but not including her mother from whom she desperately wants love).  Sean Connery plays her employer who becomes determined to free Marnie from her demons, even if it means controlling and dominating her. It gets pretty raw and unpleasant as the duo engage in numerous interactions where he pushes her out of her comfort zone and she reacts harshly (toward him and toward herself).  The mystery that Hitchcock invites us to contemplate/solve is the original source of Marnie’s problems, but we know from clues that he lays out (in her dreams and with some psychotronic red flashes) that it has something to do with the colour red, thunder & lightning, tapping at the window, and of course, her mother.  The fact that Connery plays a former zoologist interested in “instinctual behaviour” is another key to the film, which doesn’t shy away from considering sexual motives, pathology, and transference.  There is a lot to unpack.  Wood believes that Hitch is mostly concerned with the thin line between order and disorder, the way that our identities may be artifices constructed to hide the disarray and pain within. Of course, how we experience guilt (rightly or wrongly) is another of the director’s major concerns. The psychology here may not actually hold up, but with Marnie, Hitch also suggests that there may be a therapeutic solution to such problems through love and acceptance by others – and fortunately there really is evidence to support that contention.