Saturday, June 02, 2007

I just love this scene with Grace Kelly and Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief. There's a double entendre woven into it: Frances Stevens somewhat mockingly acts out the allure of her diamond necklace to former "cat burglar" John Robie but the scene is really about her seduction of him. The fireworks in the background emphasize this throughout the scene, but Hitchcock sort of blows their beautiful subtlety by cutting between increasingly close shots of the display and, as they become more intimate, Stevens and Robie.