the term 'gaslight'
anyone have any comment on the term 'gaslight'? anyone have any experiences with someone trying to create paranoia in your life or someone elses?
shareI have to laugh and tell you that this reference has been a private joke in my family for years. Such as when someone asks a question and you answer it, and then they ask the same question again, perhaps a day later, but yet they expect you will have forgotten the previous conversation and give a different answer?
Like when your teenager asks if they can get a pizza delivered, and you say "no there are cheeper frozen ones already here to cook and eat", but then they ask again later anyways, hoping you will give a different answer...
So then you say "are you trying to do a gaslight on me?"
Upon seeing this recently after many many moons, I realized that the gaslight element of the film was the onliest thing Boyer didn't intentionally do to "Gaslight" Ingrid, but only because he didn't think of it, the cad. The inexplicable dimming of the light when no one else was using the gas was perhaps the most effective thing in convincing Ingrid she was losing it, yet it was only an unintended consequence of his using the light in the attic during his searches for the gems. I don't think it was even clear whether he was aware of it its effect on her as she only mentioned it in passing. Given that this was the title of the movie, you'd think they would've tried to have him use it as part of his many nefarious schemes to unbalance her once he'd learned about it.
shareIt's the title of the movie because the gaslight is one of the key pieces she has to prove she isn't crazy and one of the main links that ties her husband to his true activities.
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