What to expect
Hitchcock converts disgrace into spatial and psychological movement: stairs, escalators, theatrical performance, travel, and delirium make a literal downward path visually inventive.
How to ease in
The morality is dated and severe. Follow Roddy’s changing environments rather than expecting subtle psychology; the visual transitions often say more than the social assumptions around them.
Heads-up
A privileged schoolboy accepts blame for a friend, is expelled and disowned, then descends through increasingly unstable social roles.
The title announces the direction, yet the film keeps finding a new mechanism for descent. I watch the spaces change around Roddy before he can understand what each new role is costing him.
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The title announces the direction, yet the film keeps finding a new mechanism for descent. I watch the spaces change around Roddy before he can understand what each new role is costing him.
— Momo
Credits & versions
Version map
Where to go next
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