Nightmare Alley: Vision in Darkness and Light

"Nightmare Alley pays tribute to noir. But it's also its own dark snow globe, luminous and finely faceted, and one of del Toro's most fluent features." —Hollywood Reporter

"It's a glorious homage to an American experience all but lost to time." —Variety

Black and White edition!

Mexican director Guillermo del Toro is back in Oscar competition with his thriller Nightmare Alley, which is based on the 1946 novel of the same name by William Lindsay Gresham, being the second feature film adaptation of Gresham's novel, following the 1947 version. Though Nightmare Alley was released in December 2021, the film is already being re-released in a special black and white cut called Nightmare Alley: Vision in Darkness and Light.

"Although we shot Nightmare Alley in color," Guillermo del Toro said, "we lit it as if it were black and white. You can see exactly the same level of design, and we wanted to give viewers this special vantage as a take of the classic noir genre that the film is part of.” Martin Scorsese added that the film "is truer to the animating spirit of film noir than the many 'homages' that have been made over the years and are still being made now.”

The film follows charismatic but down-on-his-luck Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) as he endears himself to clairvoyant Zeena (Toni Collette) and her has-been mentalist husband Pete (David Strathairn) at a traveling carnival. Stanton crafts a golden ticket to success, using this newly acquired knowledge to grift the wealthy elite of 1940s New York society. With the virtuous Molly (Rooney Mara) loyally by his side, Stanton plots to con a dangerous tycoon (Richard Jenkins) with the aid of a mysterious psychiatrist (Cate Blanchett) who might be his most formidable opponent yet.

This is the first film Guillermo del Toro has directed since The Shape of Water, which won him Best Picture and Best Director at the 90th Academy Awards.

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Check out the rest of our Oscar Week 2022 program!