Gaslight (1944) won Ingrid Bergman the Academy Award for Best Actress, as Paula Alquist, a young wife whose husband slowly convinces her she is losing her mind.
Opposite Charles Boyer as Gregory Anton, Bergman played Paula’s growing fear and confusion with heartbreaking honesty. The film, set in Victorian London, follows Gregory’s scheme to drive Paula to madness so he can search for hidden jewels.
Bergman’s performance gave the film its power. Paula is not weak, but she is vulnerable, and Bergman made the audience feel every step of her ordeal, and her final, triumphant confrontation.
Image: Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bergman_%26_Bogart_Casablanca_still.jpg