Nightmare Alley (2021)

Cate Blanchett as: Dr. Lilith Ritter

Directed by: Guillermo del Toro
Selected Cast: Bradly Cooper, Rooney Mara, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, David Strathairn, Ron Perlman
Written by: Guillermo del Toro and Kim Morgan (Based on William Lindsay Gresham’s novel of the same name)
Release Year: 2021
Genre: Neo-noir | Thriller | Crime | Drama
MPAA Rating: R

 

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When charismatic but down-on-his-luck Stanton Carlisle endears himself to clairvoyant Zeena and her has-been mentalist husband Pete at a traveling carnival, he crafts a golden ticket to success, using this newly acquired knowledge to grift the wealthy elite of 1940s New York society. With the virtuous Molly loyally by his side, Stanton plots to con a dangerous tycoon with the aid of a mysterious psychiatrist who might be his most formidable opponent yet.

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Behind the scenes; On set
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Quotes from Cate Blanchett

  • “Hopefully Lilith is an enigma. Someone who’s completely unknowable. Anyone who’s been in psychoanalysis is desperately trying to unlock the recesses of their therapist’s mind. It’s a magnetic pull, because they seem to be like the Sphinx – they hold the answer to all the riddles they ask you. But in the end, they hold a mirror up to yourself.” (Dazed, January 2022)
  • On Guillermo del Toro: “It’s unique. Not only is he a great lover of film history, as is obvious, but he is also fascinated by acting, production design, photography. He is constantly creating and is an artist who drives those of us who work to be better.” (El Pais, January 2022)
  • “Nightmare Alley is about fear, about greed, and it’s about manipulation. It has all the dark underpinnings of what seems to be a very polite society. The world of the carnival might have some trickery and deceit, but it has the beating heart of a true community. It is the high society in this film that is far more threatening and terrifying.” (Production Notes, 2022)
  • “Both Guillermo [del Toro] and I wanted Lilith to be unknowable and mysterious. At the same time, Guillermo was looking for those little perforations where you might see through Lilith’s many layers to what lies beneath – both physically and psychologically. The process of playing Lilith was that every day we’d discover a new, deep, frightening secret. There’s a lot of damage behind what seems to be a calm pristine exterior.”

Quotes from Others

  • Guillermo del Toro:
    — “I was very interested in a story about destiny and humanity. Stanton Carlisle is a man who is given all the elements to change his life. He has people who believe in him, who love him and trust him. Yet his drive and his own hubris are so strong that they turn him away from that.”
    — “I wanted to render a classic story in a very alive and contemporary way. I wanted people to feel they are watching a story pertinent to our world.”
    — On Cate Blanchett: “Kim [Morgan] And I agreed that we were writing it for Cate. And I approached her and I said to Bradley, “Look, King Kong, I need to get you your Godzilla.” And I knew that I needed somebody of that stature to, what has been up until then, a guy that has run on unopposed for half the movie. And you need to feel when the vineyard comes in. And the other thing is, very important here, is the ramp of the movie needs to be slow, but continuous. And you need to feel “O.K.. I get the world, I get the act. I get the guy. Now what?” And the answer to “Now what?” Is Lilith, it’s Cate.”
    — “I know that I always say that the monsters that scare me the most are human beings. But Cate [Blanchett], no [laughs]. Our relationship has been explosive and joyful. It has been like discovering a friend who was already a friend before I met him. Years ago we developed a television series that was never shot and I was captivated by its humor and depth. Now my challenge is how to write roles for Cate in my future films.”
  • Luis Sequeira (costume designer):
    — “Here’s the thing about Cate [Blanchett]. She knows how to wear the clothing. It didn’t wear her, she wore it. And then she moved; I was quite taken in the fitting when she would kind of doing some movement to feel how the clothing felt in the way she would recline, or the way she would sit. And that would inform us about how tight we could go without being too tight or was there gonna be a problem when you foreshorten the front of your body when you sit, so that suit had to sit pretty in a very distinctive way to not buckle up. Those are all things that were really helpful from the standpoint of Cate and I working those things out in the fitting room.”
  • J. Miles Dale (producer):
    — On scenes with Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett: “That was like watching an acting masterclass. I felt like we could have sold tickets to the crew.”
  • Martin Scorsese:
    Op-ed on Los Angeles Times urging people to see the film in cinemas: “I caught up with Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley. I was impressed and moved. I look forward to watching anything that Guillermo does, but this particular picture had a special power and resonance for me…
    The majority of the picture takes place in the ‘30s, and it seems to grow out of the bitterness and despair of the depression: You can feel it in the images and in the body language of the actors. All the characters in this film are feeling real pain, a sense of spiritual desolation rooted in everyday life. This isn’t just a matter of “style” or “visuals,” exquisite as the film is. It’s a matter of Guillermo’s complete commitment to the material, to bringing his vision to life with his production designer, his costume designer, his DP and his amazing cast, led by Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett. They work together to create a dead-end universe from out of the American past, and they do it inside and out, through and through.”

Trivia & Facts

Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony, 27 February 2022