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Ever Wonder Where “Gaslighting” Comes From? This Oscar-Winning Film

Isabella Rossellini is nominated for an Oscar for the first time this year, but her legendary mom, Ingrid Bergman, earned a statuette for this suddenly apt thriller 80 years ago.

Ingrid Bergman was named best actress for her turn in Gaslight, George Cukor’s 1944 feature centering on a woman whose husband suggests that she is losing her sanity after they move into the London home where her aunt was murdered a decade earlier. THR noted in June 1943 that Bergman, who had appeared in Casablanca the year prior, had been cast in Gaslight, Cukor’s first project since his World War II stint in the Army (earlier, he had directed such classics as 1940’s The Philadelphia Story). The 1945 ceremony, a subdued affair in the shadow of war, was the first to be broadcast nationally on the radio; this year’s Oscars, amid the aftermath of the L.A. wildfires, will be the first to stream live.

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