Gaslight (1944)
Directed by George Cukor

Fascinating to think that a film made in 1944 would provide the vernacular for so much of contemporary dating culture. And most of it is within the first fifteen minutes of George Cukor’s film: Paula (Ingrid Bergman) is so infatuated by Gregory (Charles Boyer) that she sacrifices her singing career and agrees to live with the man after only a few weeks of knowing him. He’s trying to lock it down and love bombs her to oblivion, providing her with everything she needs to hear to make a commitment. I’d say game recognize game but Gregory’s intentions here are purely malicious, in search of jewels or some heirloom intended to move the narrative forward. Really, this is a film that needs to be seen for Bergman’s descent into madness and Boyer’s absolutely monstrous performance. He enters a realm of supervillainy that makes Bergman’s concluding gesture all the more satisfying, though the overarching sense is that this serves as a prototype to which better films would adopt and play around with later.