Hitchcock’s evolution is beautiful to watch. Although extremely nationalistic, a beautiful progression is displayed on screen of not only history, but of Alfred’s cinematographic growth as well. Le Saboteur was filmed during WWII, while Topaz portrays all the tensions and suspicions of the Cold War. Le Saboteur is black and white, idealistic, and still wrapped with that romantic vision of the good forces against the evil ones. It keeps you on edge, like Hitchcock knows how to do, but retains the innocence lost after the Cold War. Relationships themselves are still very black and white like the movie itself. You have the “good blind man”, the younger “spunkier girl” who later realizes “the truth” within herself, and the “American sellouts” (doing quite predictable things).
En revanche, Topaz in not only unpredictable in regards to Hitchcock’s style (which is a little different than what I am accustomed seeing him do), but in its plots, suspense, and twists, mirroring the complexities of the Cold War. The relationships between husband and wife, friends and foes, is no longer colorblind as in Le Saboteur ’s. It is filled with intrigue and unsuspected, magnificent twists that reflect the uncertain and confused time. No one truly knows who is with who, nor at what moment something is to be discovered. Hitchcock lets us know this since the beginning, by showing us how something is always going to interfere: the police horses, buses, and crowds that obstruct the Russian officials from capturing the American-friendly Russian and his family. Although I predicted the protagonist’s wife to be somehow involved, his Cuban lover was completely unexpected, as was the wife’s love affair with the “sellout” French diplomat. Hitchcock progresses from very obvious “interferences”, like the mobs and police horses, to more sublime “interferences” as the series of events that cause the protagonist to lose his Cuban lover.
Speaking of which, has one of the most beautiful deaths I have seen on camera. Aside from the seductive vampire “deaths” (which I would personally like to partake in one myself), the Cuban lover’s death was esthetically beautiful and well poised. The camera angle gives it its grandeur, which allows us to see how her purple dress beautifully spills around her like blood…purple blood, or what also resembles a flower’s growth recorded and fast forwarded. I was slightly sad at seeing her go, and wondered what the protagonist would have done had he brought her to the United States; but the moral of the story was clear: authoritarian states don’t care whether the citizen loves their country enough to stay, for if you do not blindly obey, they will always get you, torture you, and kill you in the end. Additionally, if she, being the wife of a Cuban Revolution hero who must know the ins and outs of the revolution, does not agree with it and is helping the American’s, then the Cuban Revolution must be bad. In that sense, Hitchcock is a master at absorbing anyone into the personal relationships and conflict of the time, regardless of person’s point of view. Even if someone is not antagonistic towards the Cuban Revolution, they can very easily find themselves rooting for the Rico’s assistant to walk out unseen with that red suitcase (of course the suitcase would be red).
In regards to the family affair, of course I highly doubt Hitchcock would have dared break the “family mold” that America cherished so strongly at the time. I don’t see how he could have disintegrated the French man’s family (had the protagonist gone with the woman he apparently truly loved), while simultaneously breaking all the family values of unity, etc. of the time. Of course, he excuses the protagonist’s love affair by allowing his wife to have one as well. But in the end, nostalgia wins over, as Hitchcock subtly displays the black and white picture of the French resistance during WWII, where the couple fought together during their youth. It reminds them of why they are together, it reminds us of France’s gratitude for the American’s last and crucial support during the WWII, and reminded me of his nostalgic black and white Saboteur, while bringing me back to a full circle where I began viewing.
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