Charles Boyer
(28 August 1899 – 26 August 1978)
as Michel Marnet

Irene Dunne
(December 20, 1898 – September 4, 1990)
as Terry McKay

It was a time when love was still expressed subtly and manifested nobly. French painter Michel Marnet (Charles Boyer) meets American singer Terry McKay (Irene Dunne) aboard a liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Although they are both already engaged, the two begin to flirt and slowly fall in love with each other. At a stop at Madeira, they visit Michel's grandmother Janou (Maria Ouspenskaya), who approves of Terry and wants Michel to settle down.

As the ship is ready to disembark at New York City, the two make an appointment to meet six months later on top of the Empire State Building. Michel chooses six months because that is the amount of time he needs to decide whether he can start making enough money to support a relationship with Terry. When the rendezvous date arrives, they both head to the Empire State Building. However, Terry is struck by a car right as she arrives, and is told that she may not be able to walk, though that will not be known for certain for six months. Not wanting to be a burden to Michel, she does not contact him, preferring to let him think the worst. Meanwhile, Terry finds a job working at an orphanage teaching the children how to sing.

Six months go by, and during Terry's first outing since the accident, the two couples meet by accident at the theater, though Terry manages to conceal her condition. Michel then visits her at her apartment and finally learns the truth. He assures her that they will be together no matter what the diagnosis will be.

Time:   1930
Place:   New York; On board a ship
Music:  Jean-Paul-Égide Martini (1741–1816)
Theme song: Plasir d'amour

Roman Holiday is a 1953 American romantic comedy film directed and produced by William Wyler. It stars Audrey Hepburn as a princess out to see Rome on her own and Gregory Peck as a reporter. Hepburn won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance; the screenplay and costume design also won.

The film was shot at the Cinecittà studios and on location around Rome during the "Hollywood on the Tiber" era. The film was screened in the 14th Venice Film Festival within the official program.

In 1999, Roman Holiday was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

The film was shot at the Cinecittà studios and on location around Rome during the "Hollywood on the Tiber" era. The film was screened in the 14th Venice Film Festival within the official program.

In 1999, Roman Holiday was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Audrey Hepburn
(4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993)
as Princess Ann

Ann, a crown princess from an unnamed European nation, is on a state visit to Rome, becomes frustrated with her tightly scheduled life, and secretly leaves her country's embassy. The delayed effect of a sedative makes her fall asleep on a bench, where Joe Bradley, an expatriate reporter for the "American News Service", finds her, without recognizing who she is. Thinking that she is intoxicated, Joe lets her spend the night in his apartment.

The next morning, Joe hurries off late to work and gives his editor, Mr. Hennessy, false details of his attendance at the princess' press conference. When Hennessy informs him that the event had been cancelled, and when Mr. Hennessy shows him a news item about the princess' "sudden illness", Joe realizes the girl sleeping in his apartment is Princess Ann. Seeing an opportunity, Joe calls his photographer friend, Irving Radovich, asking him to secretly take pictures. Joe then tells Hennessy that he'll get an exclusive wide-ranging interview with the princess, and the two men have a deal: Hennessy offers to pay $5000 for the article, but Joe will pay him $500 if he does not get it.

Back home, Joe eagerly offered to be the tour guide of his room guest who calls herself Anya, but she politely declined. Joe doesn't give up by following her and "accidentally" encounter her on the Spanish Steps. This time, Joe convinces her to spend the day with him, and he has a hilarious adventure with her and a great chance to make a fortune with the help of his friend Irvin.

But they fall in love, but it's a love not to be. Ann bids farewell to the man she wants to live with, resuming her royal role, Joe bids farewell to his thoughts on making money with their adventure in Rome, keeping the memory only for himself, alone.

Director
William Wyler
​(July 1, 1902 – July 27, 1981)

Time: 1950s
Place: Rome, Italy

The tv movie Les héritières is freely inspired by Shakespeare's play King Lear.

1945, Ottavio(Jacques Weber), The Second World War just ended. A wealthy Corsican landlord with no male heirs, wants to marry his youngest daughter Vanina (Helena Soubeyrand) to the son of Ange Caponi, a rich former farmer, but she refuses, as she is in love with someone else. Caponi wants revenge, but even he does not realize how far it will go. 

Ottavio Della Rocca
by Jacques Weber

Vanina
​Héléna Soubeyrand

Valmont is a 1989 French-American romantic drama film directed by Miloš Forman and starring Colin Firth, Annette Bening, and Meg Tilly. Based on the 1782 French novel Les Liaisons dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos, and adapted for the screen by Jean-Claude Carrière. 

A scheming widow the Marquise de Merteuil learns her secret lover Gercourt has discarded her and is about to marry her cousin's daughter - a virginal 15 year old Cécile. As revenge, the jilted Merteuil employs her ex-lover Vicomte de Valmont to seduce Cécile before her marriage to Gercourt so that the latter would be the laughstock of all Paris.

Meanwhile, after Merteuil learns Valmont is in the process of seducing a recently married honorable woman Tourvel, she and the womanizer take a bet.

Valmont received an Oscar nomination for Best Costume Design (Theodor Pištěk).

In 18th century France, the Marquise de Merteuil (Annette Bening), a beautiful wealthy widow, learns from her cousin Madame de Volanges (Siân Phillips) that Volanges' 15-year-old daughter Cécile (Fairuza Balk) has been betrothed to a middle-age man named Gercourt (Jeffrey Jones), Merteuil's own secret lover. The arranged marriage required that Cécile be raised in a convent to ensure her chastity. Angered over the hypocrisy of Gercourt's insistence on a virgin bride while keeping a lover of his own, his concealment of his upcoming marriage, and his slight of her character, Merteuil plans revenge. 

Merteuil approaches her former lover, the notorious womanizer Vicomte de Valmont (Colin Firth), and proposes that he take Cécile's virginity before her wedding night to humiliate Gercourt. Valmont is not interested in seducing a child, whom he claims would be no challenge, but is pursuing Madame de Tourvel (Meg Tilly), a married woman well known for her virtue staying at the estate of Madame de Rosemonde, Valmont's elderly aunt. 

Merteuil however, is determined to carry on her revenge. After a futile attempt to have Cécile's teenage music teacher, Danceny (Henry Thomas) who is in love with Cécile to take her virginity, Merteuil takes Cécile on holiday to Madame de Rosemonde's country estate, where Valmont had gone to pursue Tourvel. And there, without her intending to, while fulfilling her plan of revenge, she is also becoming the planning hand of Valmont's tragic destiny.

The plot of Valmont differs significantly from Laclos's novel. In the novel, Cécile miscarries Valmont's child, and at the end retires to a convent; in Valmont she is pregnant at her wedding. In the novel, letters between Valmont and Merteuil are exposed, and Merteuil is publicly ridiculed and humiliated; in Valmont, the letters are not mentioned, and Merteuil has no downfall except in the eyes of Cécile and her mother. She also does not suffer from the physical disfigurement described by Laclos in the denouement. Madame de Tourvel's future is less tragic: instead of dying of a broken heart, she returns to her forgiving and understanding older husband.

The costume is designed by Czech artist Theodor Pištěk (born 25 October 1932 in Prague) who is known for creating photo-realistic drawings and paintings, movie costumes and decorations. He won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design for the film Amadeus, and received an Academy Award nomination in the same category for the film Valmont.

He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague as a pupil of Vratislav Nejezchleba. In the 1970s, after he left the career of a car racer, he focused more on painting and art installation.

He participated in around 105 films, and his works were exhibited at dozens of exhibitions around the world. 

Au revoir là-haut est une comédie dramatique française coécrite et réalisée par Albert Dupontel, sortie en 2017. Il s'agit d’une adaptation du roman du même nom de Pierre Lemaitre, prix Goncourt 2013.

En novembre 1920, Albert Maillard est interrogé par un officier de la Gendarmerie française, au Maroc. À travers son témoignage, il raconte la fin de sa participation à la Première Guerre mondiale, sa rencontre avec Édouard Péricourt, fils de bonne famille parisienne défiguré lors du conflit. Ensemble, ils montent une opération d'escroquerie. L'histoire suit également Henri d'Aulnay-Pradelle, leur ancien lieutenant va-t-en guerre devenu lui aussi escroc et qui est parvenu à intégrer la famille Péricourt, dont le patriarche règne sur la classe politique parisienne.

See You Up There (French: Au revoir là-haut) is a 2017 French drama film written and directed by and starring Albert Dupontel, adapted from the novel The Great Swindle (Au revoir là-haut in French) by Pierre Lemaitre.

In November 1918, a few days before the Armistice, Edouard Péricourt saves Albert Maillard's life. The two men have nothing in common but the war. Lieutenant Pradelle, by ordering a senseless assault, destroys their lives while binding them as companions in misfortune. On the ruins of the carnage of WWI, condemned to live, the two attempt to survive. Thus, as Pradelle is about to make a fortune with the war victims' corpses, Albert and Edouard mount a monumental scam with the bereaved families' commemoration and with a nation's hero worship.

Les Choses de la vie est un film français réalisé par Claude Sautet et sorti en 1970. Il s'agit d'une adaptation du roman du même nom Les Choses de la vie de Paul Guimard datant de 1967.

Pierre (Michel Piccoli), architecte d'une quarantaine d'années, est victime d'un accident de la route, au volant d'une Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint. Éjecté du véhicule qui prend feu, mortellement blessé et dans le coma, au bord de la route, il se remémore son passé récent, notamment les deux femmes qui comptent dans sa vie : son épouse Catherine (Lea Massari) dont il est séparé et avec qui il a eu un fils (Bertrand), et Hélène (Romy Schneider), avec qui sa relation amoureuse est à un tournant.

Il revoit sa vie en accéléré et réalise alors l'importance de ces multiples petites choses de l'existence, « les choses de la vie », ces joies et ces peines qui constituent le bonheur de toute une vie. L'état de Pierre constitue la trame du film : sans aucune conscience de la mort qu'il est en train de rencontrer, et naïvement obsédé par sa « fatigue », son monologue intérieur tourne sans cesse autour de la nécessité de ne surtout pas laisser traîner une lettre qui donnerait un sens tout autre à son rapport aux autres. Cette lettre ne parvient finalement pas à sa destinataire : elle est déchirée, ce qui accomplit le vœu ultime de Pierre.

•    Titre original : Les Choses de la vie
  
•     Réalisation : Claude Sautet
•     Scénario : Claude Sautet, Jean-Loup Dabadie et Paul Guimard, d'après le roman éponyme de ce dernier Les Choses de la vie
  
•     Dialogues : Jean-Loup Dabadie
  
•    Musique : Philippe Sarde. La Chanson d'Hélène est chantée par Romy  Schneider et Michel Piccoli.
  
•     Décors : André Piltant
•     Costumes : Jacques Cottin
  
•     Pays d'origine : France | Italie | Suisse
  

The Things of Life (French: Les Choses de la vie) is a 1970 French drama film directed by Claude Sautet. Based on the novel Les Choses de la vie (English title Intersection) by Paul Guimard, the film circles around a car accident experienced by the main character, and the events before and after it. The film won the Louis Delluc Prize, and had 2,959,682 admissions in France, making it the eighth highest earning film of the year.

The idea of making a film from the Paul Guimard's novel was originally turned down by multiple financiers in France. It was the fourth feature directed by Claude Sautet, and his first to become a major success.

Sautet would work with actress Romy Schneider again on 4 further projects, including Sautet's next feature Max and the Junkmen. Sautet also hired young composer Philippe Sarde to write the score. That initiated a long partnership between the two, spanning twenty-five years and eleven films.

The Things of Life was remade by American director Mark Rydell in 1994 as Intersection with Richard Gere, Lolita Davidovich (as the girlfriend) and Sharon Stone (as the ex-partner). The remake was poorly received.

In the French countryside on a summer morning, a lorry full of pigs stalls at a crossroads. An Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint swerves to avoid it and crashes into an orchard, hurling the driver (Michel Piccoli) onto the grass. As he drifts in and out of consciousness, he revisits the essential things which make up his life.

A Paris architect in his forties driving to a meeting at Rennes, he had quarrelled with his lover Hélène (Romy Schneider) the previous night. They were due to leave together for a job he was offered in Tunis but he hadn't signed the documents. But he had agreed to take his teenage son Bertrand, who lived with his estranged wife Catherine, for a holiday in the family's holiday home on the Île de Ré. Stopping at a café, he wrote to Hélène calling everything off, but did not post the letter. Driving past a wedding, he decides that the letter was quite wrong and he should marry Hélène.

Rushed to hospital in Le Mans, he does not recover. As his widow, Catherine is given his effects, including the unsent letter to Hélène. Catherine is reading it when she sees Hélène arriving. She tears it to pieces, and Hélène is told by a nurse that she is too late.

The Scarlet Pimpernel is a 1982 British romantic adventure television film set during the French Revolution. It is based on the novels The Scarlet Pimpernel and Eldorado by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, and stars Anthony Andrews as Sir Percy Blakeney/the Scarlet Pimpernel, the protagonist, Jane Seymour as Marguerite St. Just, the love interest, and Ian McKellen as Chauvelin, the antagonist. In 1792 during the Reign of Terror, the Scarlet Pimpernel rescues French aristocrats while posing as the wealthy but foppish and seemingly empty-headed Sir Percival Blakeney. Percy marries the beautiful French actress Marguerite St. Just, but her previous relationship with Robespierre's agent Armand Chauvelin may endanger the Pimpernel's plans to save the young Dauphin, eldest son of the former King of France. The story differs from the book but is largely inspired by it.

In 1792 during the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution, a secret league of brave Englishmen are rescuing French aristocrats from the guillotine. The leader of this secret society is a mysterious English nobleman known only as the Scarlet Pimpernel, whose signature sign is a humble wayside flower. In society he hides his identity by posing as the wealthy but foppish and seemingly empty-headed Sir Percy Blakeney. After rescuing the Count de Beaulieu and his family, Percy is introduced to the beautiful French actress Marguerite St. Just through her brother, Armand, whom he rescued from an attack. Percy is attracted to Marguerite, but she is in a relationship with Armand Chauvelin, an agent of Maximilien Robespierre. Due to the Scarlet Pimpernel's past successes, Chauvelin is assigned to discover his identity and capture him.

After Percy and his associates smuggle another aristocrat out of the city while picnicking with Marguerite, Chauvelin deduces that the Scarlet Pimpernel must be an English nobleman, and tries to coerce the Count de Tournay to spy on the English court for the Republic. Later, Marguerite and Chauvelin have an argument over the executions and he angrily departs. Percy reveals his identity to Armand and convinces him to use his connections to Chauvelin to investigate the French prison holding the Dauphin, son of the former King of France. Soon after, the Scarlet Pimpernel and his associates rescue de Tournay's family.

Following a passionate courtship, Percy marries Marguerite, but soon their happiness is interrupted when he discovers that she apparently signed the arrest warrant of the Marquis de St. Cyr and his family, the man responsible for the previous attack on Armand. This leads to beheadings of the entire St. Cyr family. Believing that she was seeking revenge and is still in league with Chauvelin, Percy becomes distrustful of his new wife. Unaware of her husband's knowledge of her extorted role in the deaths of the St. Cyr family, Marguerite unhappily notices his growing disdain for her and for married life. Armand advises Percy to tell Marguerite about his suspicions so that she may defend herself, but Percy refuses, even though he admits he will love her until the day he dies.
Soon after, Chauvelin discovers that Armand is in league with the Scarlet Pimpernel, and summons him back to Paris. Blackmailing Marguerite by threatening her brother's life, Chauvelin coerces her into discovering the vigilante's identity. After finding that the Scarlet Pimpernel is to rendezvous at midnight, Marguerite tells Chauvelin. However, she immediately warns the Scarlet Pimpernel—actually her husband, unbeknownst to her—and adds that Chauvelin betrayed her trust and faked her signature. Percy's faith in his wife is restored. Having been thwarted from encountering them, Chauvelin angrily leaves for Paris. Percy and his associates also depart for France to save Armand and the Dauphin. Marguerite notices that Percy's family crest bears a scarlet pimpernel, and quickly deduces his identity.
After Armand arranges the firing of the gaolers in charge of the Dauphin's care, Percy and his associates use the removal of their belongings to smuggle the Dauphin out of the city. The boy is taken to a castle on the French coast, but Percy is soon captured while trying to save Armand. Marguerite visits her husband in prison, where he tells her to arrange for the Baron de Batz—an Austrian interested in saving the Dauphin—to smuggle the boy out of France the following night. Later, Percy agrees to personally bring Chauvelin to the Dauphin. Chauvelin and Percy, along with Marguerite and Armand who are hostages, arrive at the castle, but the Dauphin has already been removed.

Angered by the deception, Chauvelin orders Percy's execution, but the firing squad consists of members of the league of the Scarlet Pimpernel, disguised as Chauvelin's troops. Percy is rescued and returns to duel with Chauvelin, and is victorious. Percy decides to leave Chauvelin's fate to Robespierre. Impersonating Chauvelin to ensure their escape, Armand departs from the castle along with the French troops that Chauvelin had stationed there. Percy and Marguerite sail away, happily in love.

The Scarlet Pimpernel is based on a novel written by Baroness Emma Orczy. The 1982 adaptation was produced by London Films and directed by Clive Donner. Filming took place at various eighteenth century sites in England, including Blenheim Palace, Ragley Hall, Broughton Castle, and Milton Manor; also Lindisfarne. Tony Curtis served as the film's designer. The film was expanded to three hours to allow time for the addition of a subplot and extra characters. The subplot, taken from another of Orczy's novels, detailed the successful rescue of the Dauphin from a French prison.

Anthony Andrews had recently won the BAFTA for Best Actor for his performance in the 1981 serial Brideshead Revisited, and was cast as Sir Percy Blakeney/Scarlet Pimpernel. In addition to that serial, Andrews was also known to American audiences through the PBS ITV& BBC shows Danger UXB and The Duchess of Duke Street as well as several other productions. London Films hoped that this popularity would lead to Andrews starring in a Scarlet Pimpernel series in the US, but this never occurred.Other cast members included Ian McKellen and Jane Seymour. The recipient of a Golden Globe nomination for East of Eden, Seymour was cast as Marguerite St. Just. She later played Marie Antoinette in the 1989 film La Révolution française.

​Brideshead Revisited is a 2008 British drama film directed by Julian Jarrold based on the 1945 novel of the same name by Evelyn Waugh, which previously had been adapted in 1981 as the television serial Brideshead Revisited.

Directed by: Julian Jarrold

Screenplay:

• Jeremy Brock
• Andrew Davies

Starring

• Emma Thompson
• Matthew Goode
• Ben Whishaw
• Hayley Atwell
• Michael Gambon

Music: Adrian Johnston

Cinematography: Jess Hall

Release date

• 25 July 2008

Running time: 133 minutes

Country: United Kingdom

Language:

• English
• Arabic
• French
• Italian
• Latin

​Plot:

Although he aspires to become an artist, middle-class Charles Ryder reads history at the University of Oxford, where he befriends the flamboyant and wealthy Lord Sebastian Flyte. Sebastian's mother, Lady Marchmain, strongly disapproves of Sebastian's lifestyle, especially his heavy drinking. When Sebastian takes Charles home to visit his nanny, Charles is enthralled by the grandeur of the Marchmain family estate, known as Brideshead, and he is entranced by its residents, including the devout Roman Catholic Lady Marchmain and her other children, Sebastian's elder brother Bridey and his sisters Julia and Cordelia.

When Lord Marchmain invites Sebastian and Julia to visit him and his mistress Cara in Venice, Lady Marchmain encourages Charles to go with them in the hope that he can act as a positive influence on her son. Increasingly interested in Julia, Charles surreptitiously kisses her in a dark alley, unaware that Sebastian can see them from the other side of a canal. Jealous of his attention to his sister, Sebastian sets out to end their friendship, and on their return to Britain, Lady Marchmain makes it clear that Charles cannot marry Julia since he professes to be an atheist.

Sebastian's mother, concerned about his increasing alcoholism, cancels his allowance. During a visit to Brideshead, Ryder gives Sebastian money, which he uses to buy alcohol. Later that day, at a party given by the family, Charles is shocked when Lady Marchmain announces that the celebration is in honor of Julia's engagement to Canadian business man Rex Mottram. Sebastian arrives at the party late and improperly dressed. After a scene that is very embarrassing to Lady Marchmain, Sebastian flees the party, and Lady Marchmain privately dresses down Charles because he gave Sebastian money, and tells him that he is no longer welcome at Brideshead. Sebastian flees to Morocco. Four years elapse.

Lady Marchmain has become terminally ill. She asks Charles to find Sebastian and bring him home. Charles travels to Morocco, but Sebastian could not return even if he wanted to, which he clearly does not. He is in the hospital with fluid in one of his lungs, and the doctor warns Charles that Sebastian is too ill to travel.

More time elapses. Julia marries Rex, and Charles marries as well, and becomes successful as an artist.

Charles is reunited with Julia on an ocean liner travelling to Britain from New York. They immediately realise they are still in love and decide to leave their respective spouses and live together. Charles and Julia return to Brideshead, where Charles plans on asking Rex to step aside so he and Julia can be together. Rex first implies he will never let Julia go, and accuses Charles of just wanting the estate. However, he then relents and agrees to release her in exchange for two of Charles's paintings, which are now viewed as a good investment. He also reveals that he converted to Catholicism to get Julia, and he disdains Charles for not having been willing to do the same. Julia overhears all of this, is shocked and angered, feeling like bartered goods. Their arrangements made, Charles and Julia prepare to leave Brideshead.

Just as they are driving out, however, they pass a small caravan of cars that are arriving: Lord Marchmain is terminally ill, and has returned with Cara so he can spend his final days in his home. On his deathbed Lord Marchmain, who hitherto has not wanted Catholicism, regains his faith and dies reconciled to the Roman Catholic Church. Deeply affected by her father's transformation, Julia decides she cannot relinquish her own faith to marry Charles, and the two sadly part.

Several years later, the Second World War is in process. Charles, now a disillusioned army captain, finds himself once again at Brideshead, this time in its capacity as a military base. A corporal tells him Julia is serving in the reserves and that her elder brother, Bridey, died during the Blitz. We also learn that he is alone – he has no girlfriend or wife. In the movie's final scene, Charles visits the family chapel, where he finds a single lit candle. He dips his hand into holy water and moves to snuff out a candle that is almost out of wax. However, he then reconsiders, and leaves the flame to burn.

North by Northwest is a tale of mistaken identity, with an innocent man pursued across the United States by agents of a mysterious organization trying to prevent him from blocking their plan to smuggle out microfilm which contains government secrets. This is one of several Hitchcock films which feature a music score by Bernard Herrmann and an opening title sequence by graphic designer Saul Bass, and it is generally cited as the first to feature extended use of kinetic typography in its opening credits.

The screenplay was by Ernest Lehman, who wanted to write "the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures".

North by Northwest is listed among the canonical Hitchcock films of the 1950s and is often listed among the greatest films of all time. It was selected in 1995 for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

​John Russell Taylor's biography Hitch: The Life and Times of Alfred Hitchcock (1978) suggests that the story originated after a spell of writer's block during the scripting of another film project:

Alfred Hitchcock had agreed to do a film for MGM and they had chosen an adaptation of the novel The Wreck of the Mary Deare by Hammond Innes. Composer Bernard Herrmann had recommended that Hitchcock work with his friend Ernest Lehman. After a couple of weeks, Lehman offered to quit saying he didn't know what to do with the story. Hitchcock told him they got along great together and they would just write something else. Lehman said that he wanted to make the ultimate Hitchcock film. Hitchcock thought for a moment then said he had always wanted to do a chase across Mount Rushmore. Lehman and Hitchcock spitballed more ideas: a murder at the United Nations Headquarters; a murder at a car plant in Detroit; a final showdown in Alaska. Eventually they settled on the U.N. murder for the opening and the chase across Mount Rushmore for the climax. For the central idea, Hitchcock remembered something an American journalist had told him about spies creating a fake agent as a decoy. Perhaps their hero could be mistaken for this fictitious agent and end up on the run. They bought the idea from the journalist for $10,000.

In fact, Hitchcock had been working on the story for nearly nine years prior to meeting Lehman. Otis C. Guernsey was the American journalist who had the idea which influenced Hitchcock, inspired by a true story during World War II when British Intelligence obtained a dead body, invented a fictitious officer who was carrying secret papers, and arranged for the body and misleading papers to be discovered by the Germans as a disinformation exercise called Operation Mincemeat. Guernsey turned his idea into a story about an American salesman who travels to the Middle East and is mistaken for a fictitious agent, becoming "saddled with a romantic and dangerous identity." Guernsey admitted that his treatment was full of "corn" and "lacking logic", and he urged Hitchcock to do what he liked with the story. Hitchcock bought the 60 pages for $10,000.

​In the film Cary Grant's character had a very simple wardrobe. Unlike his character in many of his other films who usually owns a much larger wardrobe.

Roger Thornhill interpreted by Cary Grant wore a single suit for most part of the movie, and the suit has been universally thought as one of his most iconic outfits, to the point that some even think his most iconic movie look.

It´s curious how this particular suit gained such a high reputation when Cary Grant looked equally or more debonair in his other films like To Catch a Thief (1955) or Charade. Perhaps it has something to do with that crop-dusting scene: A suit so well tailored can be so resistant in such an extreme situation.....but how many men know that more identical suits are made for the film so Cary Grant would still look unreasonably stylish after escaping from near death experience? 

It's said that when interviewed by some press on how he managed to look so consistently good throughout the film, Cary Grant replied: "Very simple, six suits and many ties."

So who has made the suit?  According to Vanity Fair magazine, it was Norton & Sons of London, although The Independent believed it was Quintino of Beverly Hills, yet some other sources thought it was by Kilgour, French & Stanbury. It's a shame we can not know for sure at this moment, but Savile Row certainly has done a wonderful job.

The suit is usually described as grey suit, but up close as can be seen in the following shoot, it's more like blue grey, and it's not in solid color either, but in very subtle pattern called glen plaid(Or prince of Wales) so that it adds more textural richness when viewed from different distance and angles. 

After all, for audiences who loves Cary Grant film for his style, that was almost the only outfit they are going to see in more than an hour.

North by Northwest was nominated for three Academy Awards—for Best Film Editing (George Tomasini), Best Art Direction – Set Decoration, Color (William A. Horning, Robert F. Boyle, Merrill Pye, Henry Grace, Frank McKelvy), and Best Original Screenplay (Ernest Lehman)—at the 32nd Academy Awards ceremony, but unfortunately did not win any of them.