Nightmare Alley

Guillermo del Toro a le don d'envelopper chacun de ses films d'un manteau de charme, de mystère et de magie opulente ou de visuels magiques. Et ce film truffé de stars ne fait pas exception. Mais j'avais l'impression qu'il manquait quelque chose au niveau du contenu depuis le début, que le transfert local ne fonctionnait pas vraiment. Je n’ai ressenti de suspense que vers la toute fin et la chute anticipée aurait été à mon goût si elle m'avait au moins un peu bousculé. (25/12/2022)

Guillermo s'est éloigné temporairement de ses créatures bien-aimées et a filmé avec grâce et précision le sujet le plus abouti de sa carrière. Nightmare Alley est un drame psychologique sur la fausse représentation de l'ego, qui mène jusqu'à la perte de soi-même, un délice visuel rétro à chaque plan dans lequel la caméra se déplace légèrement même dans les dialogues les plus modestes. Cela vous rappellera le classique Freaks de Browning, votre âme sera caressée par la délicate et sombre stylisation et par chacune des créations d'acteur, avec lesquelles le film est décoré comme un sapin de Noël. Le protagoniste est le pire personnage charismatique et intérieurement corrompu de l'histoire, manipulant son entourage de confiance. Dans un casting surprenant, Bradley Cooper rend le tout plus impressionnant et divertissant en faisant brillamment face au rôle. (26/01/2022)

The continuation of a cycle of stories, which, like Crimson Peak and The Shape of Water, lay dusty in the attic until Guillermo del Toro came along and turned it into a visual masterpiece with the help of a stellar cast, one that critics admire but audiences do not. However, compared to the aforementioned works, Nightmare Alley is more mature, thoughtful, confident, and ambitious in its setting and themes. It plays with psychology, noir, detective stories, or almost a hundred-year-old horrors, and despite the predictable twist, it describes the narrative circle almost perfectly. Perhaps only the screenwriting habit of making the main character make exactly the mistakes that the supporting characters (often repeatedly) warn her against seems unnecessary to me since Pan's Labyrinth. But for lovers of the spine-chilling and immersion into images that look like they have aged for decades, this manipulative journey is a sure bet and, for me, the best del Toro film since Hellboy II: The Golden Army. (11/03/2022)

A magical neo-noir thriller by Guillermo del Toro! Nightmare Alley isn't for mainstream audiences and you need to be in the mood for it, but if you're properly tuned in like me, you're in for an awesome magical movie experience. The film benefits a lot from a perfect cast, with Bradley Cooper in the lead and Cate Blanchett also in a very prominent role of her career (the rest of the characters have less space, but Willem Dafoe, Toni Collette and Ron Perlman are good, too). The first hour was very close and appealing to me, set in a post war circus, a setting I like a lot and here they portray very nicely what goes on behind the curtain (all the shenanigans). The story of the wild man is awesome, it has quite a disturbing and sultry atmosphere. Visually it's absolutely breathtaking to the point of being mesmerizing, some of the shots will make want to pause the film and take a picture (Guillermo is a god in visual styling). The second half goes in a different direction, and I won't say which one, but it definitely builds up decently, the tension and uncertainty builds up and the finale is quite uncompromisingly ironic. The film is two and a half hours long and has a slower pace, so impatient viewers will probably fall asleep or give up on it, but I surprisingly stared open-mouthed and thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. It's a perfect example of manipulation, psychology, scamming and deception with a nice period setting, magical atmosphere, excellent actors, stunning visuals and well written dialogue. The scene where the older gentleman explains to Bradley the trick of manipulating people with the right words- is great. I took away a lesson from the movie, I feel I was on top of things and it's definitely something to debate with friends for half an hour, so very good for me. Story 4/5, Action 2/5, Humor 0/5, Violence 2/5, Fun 4/5 Music 4/5, Visuals 5/5, Atmosphere 4/5, Suspense 3/5, Emotion 3/5, Actors 4/5. 8/10. (24/03/2022)

I’m not fond of carnivals from the first half of the 20th century, with their bizarreness, the way their tormented animals and boasted about the deformity of disabled people, but the setting in the late 1930s and early 1940s suits me. However, I feel that the story and its plot arc is not so substantial to justify the enormous runtime. I would have cut the beginning at the carnival by half, maybe more, and nothing would have happened, leaving Bradley and Rooney Mara's reunion and , for the final (very funny, by the way) twist, the important monologue of the the demonic Willem Dafoe about how they recruit human scum to play the role of renegades who are locked permanently in a cage and eat chickens alive. On the other hand, if I were Del Toro I'd focus more on the intrigue in the big city, its grimness and depravity, because Cate Blanchett is a great femme fatale and the sparks between her and Bradley are electrifying. Overall, I enjoyed it, but a pair of scissors for the editor would have been really nice. But it's hard when you consider how much del Toro loves the bizarreness of the old fairs and carnivals, he must have felt like a kid in a candy store in their backdrop. (17/06/2022)