La mort aux enchères

First, it represents a hommage to Hitchcock. An inspired, precise and delicate one. Second- it propose three inspired performances in the lead roles. And a dream remaining seductive trip in the profound rules of a genre. A murder. A schrinck. Sentimental affaires. And visually powerfull impression. Well crafted thriller could be a resonable definition about it.

I almost turned this movie off in the middle because I was tired of being manipulated by the corny scary stuff that was overwrought and too dragged out. That stuff was okay for the master, Hitchcock, but today it has whiskers.

I was very surprised to see Meryl Streep looking more beautiful than ever before or since. It was the way her hairdo framed her face, I think. Any way, this movie was all Streep. Scheider has a certain gravitas which many Hollywood Idols never achieve even though they are far more popular. But Streep—from her first moment on screen I said to myself, I've never seen this side of her! She's created an entirely original person! Then she delivered a soliloquy toward the end of the movie which she fashioned with such skill and insight that one would think it was Shakespeare!

There is simply no one as good as Streep, man or woman. She turns this average movie into something worth watching.

Dr. Sam Rice (Roy Scheider) is a Manhattan psychiatrist like his mother Grace (Jessica Tandy). He's recently divorced. One of his patients George Bynum has been killed. He is visited by the mysterious Brooke Reynolds (Meryl Streep) who worked with Bynum at the auction house Crispin's. She's also Bynum's mistress. They are interrupted by Detective Vitucci and she accidentally leaves behind a watch. Dr. Rice examines his files on Bynum and suspicions falls on Reynolds.

I really like the Hitchcockian touches. I love the laundry room when the lights go out in the hallway. I did not like all the flashback re-examination of his files. The plot loses its way a bit and some of its tension. Meryl Streep is pretty good as the mysterious damsel-in-distress. Although she's not the classic sex bombshell. Scheider is still a good leading man. This could be a much better mystery thriller.

I remember being entirely taken with this film, seeing it several times when it was originally in theaters, way back in '82. Its creator, Robert Benton, freely admitted at the time that he intended this to be an homage to Hitchcock, and he's largely succeeded, right down to the cool, mysterious blonde female with a troubled past and the detective who is drawn to her, and the balletic, deliberate pacing that accentuates the suspense and tension, almost to a fault. Unlike Hitchcock, this film is strictly serious business, with nary a moment of lightness, which, alas, means something less than 'fun'. Hitchcock ALWAYS utilized humor, no matter how dark it may have been, recognizing that it, too, can actually heighten the suspense by putting people off their guard. This film would be richer for that sense but still it remains a good, solid mystery. As I've said, the story is pure Hitchcock: a murder takes place and a cool, mysterious blonde (Streep) may be the prime suspect, something that draws New York City psychologist (and amateur sleuth) Scheider towards her. One comment here said, "They don't make 'em classy like this anymore" and he couldn't be more right: from the restrained, low-key performance of Streep (accent-free but looking perhaps more beautiful here than in any other film she's done; she nearly resembles those women in a Dutch Renaissance painting), balancing the "livelier" performance of Scheider, to the lovely muted blues, browns, greys and blacks of its cinematography. There are a fair number of jolts and a satisfactory wrap-up, too. If there is any one fault with the film, it is, as one user has already commented, how slight the script is - it's nearly a puff of smoke! Another asked if we really needed ANOTHER homage to Hitchcock since De Palma's been doing it for years; however, one look at De Palma's films and THIS film and the difference is night and day: De Palma's films, which could be considered almost a Hyper-Hitchcock, are almost TOO jokey and slavish to its directors flights of fancy, while Benton's film exhibits the cool reserve, almost detachment, of its sophisticated New York settings. Hitchcock was THE undisputed master of thrillers and remains so to this day; it's wonderful to see other, modern directors try their hand at the lost art of the classy thriller/mystery. "Still of the Night" is definitely worth discovering, no matter its minor faults.

"Still of the Night" is one of the more obscure entries in Meryl Streep's filmography, even though it came out in 1982 in between two of her greatest films, "The French Lieutenant's Woman" and "Sophie's Choice". (Until it turned up recently on British television I had never previously seen it or even heard of it). It is a psychological thriller, directed by Robert Benton who had earlier directed Meryl in "Kramer v Kramer". It has often been described as having been influenced by the works of Alfred Hitchcock, and one of the obvious signs of this influence is the fact that the main character, like the heroine of "Spellbound", is a psychiatrist. (Hitchcock was fascinated by psychology and psychiatry, and often makes reference to them in his films).

Another Hitchcock touch is the idea of the "man in the street" who suddenly finds himself in trouble or in danger. When one of his patients is murdered Dr Sam Rice, a Manhattan psychiatrist, finds himself becoming emotionally involved with a young woman named Brooke Reynolds, who was not only a colleague of the dead man but also his mistress, and who is also a suspect in his murder. The plot is a complex one, involving Rice falling under suspicion with the police, who believe that he may be withholding evidence about the killing, and his placing himself in danger by his own attempts to solve the crime.

The film makes quite deliberate reference to a number of Hitchcock films. Besides the general psychiatric theme, there is also a dream sequence reminiscent of the one in "Spellbound". The appearance of a bird during this sequence is a reference to "The Birds" and possibly also to "Psycho", where Norman's hobby is stuffing birds. A fall from a bell tower recalls "Vertigo" and, as in "North by North West", there is a scene set in an auction room. (The murdered man, George Bynum, was a senior employee of an auction house). There are also scenes reminiscent of "Rear Window" and "Marnie". Jessica Tandy who plays Rice's mother (also a psychiatrist) appeared in "The Birds". Many of Hitchcock's films, including "Notorious", "Strangers on a Train" and "Psycho", feature a strong, dominant mother-figure.

Perhaps the most effective Hitchcock touch is the use of a trademark blonde heroine. Although this is far from being one of Meryl Streep's greatest films, she nevertheless gives a very accomplished performance as Brooke, portraying a woman who is clearly disturbed and frightened and who might just also be a psychopath, while leaving (as the conventions of the thriller genre require) that second point open to doubt. Had Meryl been twenty years older, she might have become one of the Master's great muses, along with the likes of Ingrid Bergman and Grace Kelly.

And yet any number of Hitchcock references do not in themselves make a Hitchcock film. "Still of the Night" falls along way short of the great man at his best, or even at his second-best. Roy Scheider does not make a very charismatic hero and, except perhaps in the final sequences, Benton never succeeds in generating the sort of nail-biting tension that Hitchcock was so skilled at conjuring up, even in some of his lesser films. Whereas Hitchcock could normally relieve that tension with some effective use of humour, "Still of the Night" is a pedestrian and humourless film, no more than an average eighties thriller. 5/10, largely for Streep's performance.