Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison on a train, she looking optimistic, he looking skepticalalr

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

Screening on Film
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
US, 1947, 35mm, black & white, 104 min.
English with Portuguese subtitles.
Print source: Cinemateca Portuguesa

Possessed of immeasurable charm, of a light and gentle yet irreversible dive into the world of dreams, of solitude and of death. This choice celebrates the many discoveries I made in the 1980s during the great American Film Cycles at the Gulbenkian in Lisbon. What a pleasure to see and review this movie about a Norwegian captain, a ghost in love for whom "the midnight sun is impossible light, but it is his only light.” Lucy—the prodigious Gene Tierney!—is not frightened by the presence of Captain Gregg's lost soul who tells her, "Everything you see is an illusion."

Of all the arts, cinema is the most oneiric, they say. But in this movie, oneirism is the element. I recall the sea, the mists, the wind, and Keats: “Was it a vision, or a waking dream?” And I recall the ironically enchanting voice of Sir Reginald Carey “Rex” Harrison: “What you have missed Lucia, by being born too late to travel the Seven Seas with me! What I have missed too …” – RA

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De um charme incomensurável, um mergulho leve e suave, mas sem retorno, no mundo do sonho, da solidão e da morte. Uma escolha em celebração das muitas descobertas que fiz nos anos 80 durante os grandes Ciclos de Cinema Americano da Gulbenkian, em Lisboa.

Que prazer ver e rever este filme sobre um capitão da noruega, fantasma apaixonado para quem “o sol da meia-noite é luz impossível, mas é a sua única luz”. Lucia – prodigiosa Gene Tierney! – que não se assusta com a presença da alma penada do capitão Gregg que lhe diz: “tudo o que vês é ilusão”. 

De todas as artes o cinema é o mais onírico, dizem. Mas, neste filme, o onirismo é o elemento. Lembro o mar, as névoas, vento e Keats: Was it a vision, or a waking dream? E lembro a voz ironicamente encantadora de Sir Reginald Carey “Rex” Harrison, “What you have missed, Lucia, by being born too late to travel to the Seven Seas with me! What I have missed too ...” – RA

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