Nightmare Alley
Short description
Stanton Carlisle is a drifter with a gift for winning people over and telling them what they want to hear. He joins a travelling carnival, where he learns the tricks of a mind-reading act from a veteran performer and his wife. He then takes the act on the road on his own, moving from fairground crowds to wealthy clients in 1940s New York. Alongside his loyal partner Molly, he sets out to cheat a powerful and dangerous businessman, and he brings in a psychiatrist, Dr. Lilith Ritter, to help with the scheme. She proves to be at least as manipulative as he is.
Guillermo del Toro directed and wrote the screenplay with Kim Morgan, and the film is the eleventh of the thirteen he has directed, arriving between The Shape of Water and Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio. Bradley Cooper plays Stanton, with Cate Blanchett as Dr. Ritter, Rooney Mara as Molly, Toni Collette as Zeena, Willem Dafoe as Clem Hoatley and Richard Jenkins as Ezra Grindle. It was produced by del Toro, J. Miles Dale and Cooper, with 54 credited cast members and 80 credited crew.
The film received a critics' rating of 7.4/10 from 357 reviews, above its audience scores of 7/10 on IMDb from 182,000 votes and 6.9/10 on TMDB from 3,493 votes. Made for a budget of 60 million dollars, it took about 40 million dollars worldwide.
What's left behind the scenes
- In 2022, during an interview, Guillermo del Toro explained why he has long been interested in the topic of fraudsters and fake psychics. In 1998, his father was kidnapped in Mexico and a ransom was demanded. His worried mother almost fell victim to two psychics who were ready to tell her where her father was. Some of their lines were used in scenes where Stan conducts sessions.
- Richard Jenkins left during the pandemic-induced break with one scene remaining unfilmed, and when he returned to Toronto to film it, he had to spend two weeks in a hotel room before being allowed on set.
- Leonardo DiCaprio was initially cast in the lead role in the film, but he preferred the opportunity to play here to projects by directors Paul Thomas Anderson and Alejandro González Iñárritu. However, negotiations eventually stalled due to disagreements between the parties on financial matters, DiCaprio left the project, and Bradley Cooper was then cast in his place.
- Bradley Cooper later admitted that agreeing to film nude from the front in full growth was not easy for him, as he had never filmed in "nudity" before.
- When filming began, Rooney Mara was pregnant, and the baby was born during the pandemic-related break in production. According to the actress, she was lucky, as the early scenes of the film (in which she is shown almost undressed in a carnival costume) were filmed after the break was over.
- The wooden panels in Dr. Ritter's office are designed in the form of Rorschach inkblots – images used in psychological tests.
- A significant portion of the early scenes were filmed after a break in work due to the coronavirus pandemic. During this time, Bradley Cooper lost almost 7 kg and even began to look younger.
- Bradley Cooper learned to box shortly before filming began at the request of Guillermo del Toro, who wanted Cooper's character to convey a sense of recklessness and a turbulent past through his body language.
- According to director Guillermo del Toro, Bradley Cooper flawlessly performed the film's final scene on the first take. The director later stated that he was prepared to shoot up to 60 takes, but fortunately, it wasn't necessary.
- According to Bradley Cooper, many of the items on the table were provided by director Guillermo del Toro.
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