A Filmmaker's Review: "Bedelia" (1946)

Bedelia is a film about a woman who meets a man who knew her by a different name. When a portrait artist joins the picture, he seeks to find out her shady past before something horrible happens. As her happy romance begins to fall apart, it is evident that she has been hiding a great deal of her dark, and even criminal past.

The film is a brilliant and almost Shakespearean style tragic romance in the sense that it has all the elements of romance whilst also having all the elements of great tensions. The romance elements include: a happy romance on the brink of collapse, a third party entering the picture which the couple are initially afraid of and the threat of separation. Whereas, the elements for the tragedy and tension include: madness, nervous breakdowns, past loves and past lives, lies and criminal activity.

One thing that made this film great was not only the way in which the storyline reflected the breakdown of the couple’s love but also the acting of the people who portrayed the couple. The hyper-realism of the man juxtaposed with the fantasist attitude of the woman which forces the couple to confront things in their differences that lead to them falling out, regaining each other and then falling out again. This is evident in the way in which the woman manipulates her partner into loving her even after the car crash scene.

When the painter comes into the picture it is evident that the woman is frightened of him and I think that at first it has nothing to do with her past. Instead it has something to do with the fact that he is an outsider to the relationship who is taking too much interest in the relationship in order to paint her with all her poise and attitude. Later on, it becomes even more evident that as he tries to find out about her, one man calls her something else and the painter investigates to uncover something. This obviously turns into a twist ending when you get there but I do not put out any spoilers.

When we find out the ending that again, neither person in the couple knew, we are not surprised nor are we shocked because of the information that has been given to us about the woman already. This shock is about a scene from the end and it has something to do with the painter. Ultimately it is actually a relief and, upon waiting for the next thing to happen we become more and more concerned with the fate of the woman and how that will play out. The question is whether you feel sympathy for her at the end of the movie and how this influences your decisions on whether what happened was justice or not.

Throughout the film, tension is built brilliantly. In the beginning we get the painting of Bedelia and the background of the story told to us like a prologue. This puts intent to the film and expectation in the audience’s mind. After this, we have the false name that the man at the hotel calls her and then we have her attitude to the painter. All these build tensions without telling us what’s actually going on, it’s a brilliant way to keep the audience assuming and guessing. As long as the film is doing that, it’s going to hold the audience’s attention for far longer than if it had not included such a large amount of tension.

After we experience the initial tensions, we are ready for the climactic points which don’t actually appear until the second half of the movie. When this happens, we are expectant of one thing: Bedelia’s deception to be found out. What we are not prepared for is the way in which she reacts to it. What we do not realise is that at the beginning we are given a painting of her and everything else is told in past tense. When we see the painting of her at the end which closes the movie with an epilogue, only then do we actually know what has happened. Therefore, the framed narrative has a lot of impact and meaning in the film and does not just serve as a subversive technique from the normal.

Another thing I loved was the way in which the story unfolded with sub-plots. The sub-plots included very many exes, the painter and the man at the hotel and even the stuff to do with the black ring that Bedelia owns. They all played a massive part in the way in which the story came together at the end.