Notorious. 1946. USA. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Screenplay by Ben Hecht. With Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, Claude Rains. 35mm. 101 min.
Cary Grant recruits a reluctant Ingrid Bergman to infiltrate a Nazi spy ring. Truffaut reveals he is a fan of Notorious: “I’m impatient to get to Notorious because it is truly my favorite Hitchcock picture; at any rate, it’s the one I prefer in the black-and-white group. In my opinion, Notorious is the very quintessence of Hitchcock.” Truffaut says of the genuine evil the spies exhibit, “…the villains are human and even vulnerable. They’re frightening and yet we sense that they, too, are afraid.”