With Nightmare Alley, Guillermo del Toro takes an interest in human monstrosity in a reinterpretation of Edmund Goulding’s film: The Charlatan. After The Shape of Water, has the director lost his touch? Critical.
4 years later The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro returns to directing a new genre film. The filmmaker adapts this time a novel by William Lindsay Gresham, baptized The Charlatan. This is not the first time that this story has been brought to the screen, since it had already been the subject of a film in 1947, directed by Edmund Goulding.
The story follows the charismatic Stanton Carlisle, an ambitious young showman capable of baiting and manipulating people thanks to his talent for the verb. At the height of his glory, he will join forces with a psychiatrist even more dangerous than him and rip off a very rich and powerful man. But by flying too close to the Sun, will this Icarus burn his wings?
Freaks for inspiration
Re-readings of classics of the 7th art are legion in Hollywood. Bradley Cooper, who plays the main character, is also familiar with it since he had staged A Star is Born in 2018, a reboot of the eponymous film by William A. Wellman. In front of Guillermo del Toro’s camera, he tries his hand at film noir by immersing us in the America of the 1940s, fascinated by frightening and unusual creatures.
In the vein of Freaks, another monument of genre cinema, Nightmare Alley combines the codes of the fantastic with those of film noir to stage monstrosity with a capital M. A grating freakshow that takes a cynical look at the human race, and paints the picture of a society of beliefs. Very contemporary themes, which allow the narration to offer some bursts of modernity.
Because yes, in broad outline, Nightmare Alley is very faithful to the original. Del Toro, accompanied by Kim Morgan (The Forbidden Room) very rarely deviates from its base material, but when it takes a few liberties, it is to better construct its double reading and transport the work into our contemporary societies. The show then only becomes more delightful, a sort of life-size circus led with a masterful hand by the loyal gentleman Guillermo del Toro.
Still, in its beginnings, the film sometimes drags a little in length, a slowness of narration necessary for the construction of the story and which makes it possible to add a little density to the main character and to explain his disastrous destiny.
Its last act manages nevertheless to make forget the few weaknesses of the beginning, with a conclusion more tragic than the original and which wants to be the reflection of the human vacuity. A screenplay tour de force, which, added to the director’s pronounced taste for gore and violence, manages to give body to this fable of monsters.
A monstrous cast
And there are many monsters in Nightmare Alley, all incredibly embodied by an impeccable cast. Bradley Cooper delivers a flawless interpretation of Stanton Carlisle, a personality as bewitching as it is frightening. He is not spared by the director, who very rarely takes a tender look at his characters. The only protagonist to escape this cynical treatment, Molly camped by Rooney Mara who wants to be the incarnation of a purity which could be the only one able to prevent the swing of the character of Bradley Cooper.
Cate Blanchett, whose talents are no longer to be proven, also makes a show of strength with her incarnation of a femme fatale in every sense of the word. It should also be noted that Willem Dafoe has lost none of his superb, even if he is not a central element of the plot. He manages to give the necessary dramatic intensity to certain scenes of confrontation with Stanton.
Tribute to the 7th art
Guillermo knows how to direct, there is no doubt about it. The filmmaker pays particular attention to his framing and his lighting, here signed by Dan Laustsen. Nightmare Alley is no exception, all in chiaroscuro. The way he captures the dusty fairground sets allows the film to embrace its full fantasy dimension. He also has fun in a more urban universe and manages to accurately transcribe the switch to horror that occurs halfway through the film. An atmosphere controlled at all times.
Nevertheless, he seems to be restrained and never really strays from the beaten path. A realization in the nails which is successful but sometimes lacks the touch of poetry and madness which made the success of The Shape of Water. This is particularly true in the last part of the film, which adopts a darker atmosphere specific to films of the genre, without ever really freeing itself from it.
Finally, we will end with the music of Nathan Johnson. After Alexandre Desplat, the filmmaker joins forces with the composer of the soundtrack of At loggerheads for this new movie. A collaboration that bears fruit. The music pays homage to that of black films, and manages to underline the story with accuracy. Sometimes grating, sometimes more melodic, the score of the composer multiplies the flashes.
The new feature film by Guillermo del Toro is a successful reinterpretation of a classic of the 7th art. Nightmare Alley could well find a place of choice at the 2022 Oscars ceremony. The director proves once again that he is a reference in genre cinema.
