The Thinking Machine #85

I Was a Male War Bride

In their series The Thinking Machine, critics Cristina Álvarez López and Adrian Martin create a new video essay for Filmkrant every month.

What happens when you watch a beloved, old film just after major cancer surgery? This audiovisual essay traces the strange, unconscious encounter between a classic, Howard Hawks’ I Was a Male War Bride (1949), and the body of a male viewer who is now minus some internal pieces. The mystery hinges on Cary Grant: a brilliant physical performer who, paradoxically, could convey the troubling (yet very funny) sensation that your body is no longer your own.