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Vertigo (1958)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

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3 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Brilliant but despicably cynical view of human obsession and the tendency of those in love to try to manipulate each other. Stewart is excellent as the neurotic detective employed by an old pal to trail his wandering wife, only to fall for her himself and then crack up when she commits suicide. Then one day he sees a woman in the street who reminds him of the woman who haunts him... Hitchcock gives the game away about halfway through the movie, and focuses on Stewart's strained psychological stability; the result inevitably involves a lessening of suspense, but allows for an altogether deeper investigation of guilt, exploitation, and obsession. The bleakness is perhaps a little hard to swallow, but there's no denying that this is the director at the very peak of his powers, while Novak is a revelation. Slow but totally compelling.

Author: GA 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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User reviews of this film

benjamin ross said...

Posted on Jul 08 2009 22:09 a fascinating film, lots going on. some say hitchcock's best tho i prefer psycho. anyway, if u haven't seen this one i wud highly recommend u do

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Magmabulle said...

Posted on Jun 08 2008 20:17 A fascinating study of human obsession. I completely agree with Time Out, it does lose it´s intensity, but keeps the viewer interested.

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Technoguy said...

Posted on Apr 13 2008 12:58 Vertigo is a film about ressurrection in the storyline and in the technical sense of the restoration by Harris and Katz.This film is probably my all time favourite and listed as one of the greatest of all time.James Stewart and Kim Novak were never better.The suspense and the plot and the action are secondary to the exploration of obsession and
the expression of emotion.The story was especially written for Hitchcock as a novel
‘D’Entre Les Morts’ by two Frenchmen,but was adapted and changed for the screen by Copel and Taylor.The opening credit sequence is astounding.
James Stewart plays ‘Scottie’(John Ferguson) an acrophobic detective retired from the
Force due to a trauma brought on by his vertigo in pursuit of a criminal across roof tops leading to a colleague’sdeath. An old school friend ,who has married into wealth,
hires him to trail his suicidal wife(Kim Novak) as he thinks she has been possessed by
a long dead relative, Dolores Valdes,who killed herself at a similar age.There are scenes where he follows her in his car slowly through the streets of San Franscisco. These are mesmerising in themselves.He follows her to Dolores Valdez’ grave, then to an art gallery in a museum as she stares at the portrait of Valdez, noting the bouquet she holds and the hair which ends in a curl that matches that in the painting.
He reports back his findings to her husband.As he continues to follow her he successfully rescues her from a leap into San Fransisco Bay beneath the Golden Gate
Bridge.His obsession deepens into love for the beautifully troubled woman. All the time this goes on he sees his lady friend ex, Midge(Bel Geddes) who does art work.
She is down to earth and humorous,secretly loves him, and provides a counter balance
to the aloof, mysterious ice goddess, Madeleine,who now loves him too.
Madeleine tells him of her dreams, one of which talks of a Bell Tower, south of San Fransisco, which tells him of her memories of a past life. He helps her retrace this in
a drive along beautiful coastal scenery and natural redwood sequences. However she runs up the spiral steps of the Tower. He follows but suffers vertigo in his pursuit and
can’t go all the way up.There is a great zoom-in,dolly out technique to convey this.
She throws herself off. He suffers remorse and guilt and has a breakdown which leads to being an in patient in a psychiatric hospital,where he is attended to by Mitch.He has
to attend a hearing with the husband where the husband after apologises for getting him into this knowing he suffers vertigo.The husband says he is moving away.
Following recuperation Scottie sees another woman in the street who reminds him of her.He dates her and remoulds her to fit into the same image and clothes and hair style. Hitchcock’s use of green coloration here is fantastic to suggest Scottie’s love.
However reality and illusion so intermingle with the superb use of Herrmann’s score
to suggest the inner turmoil, together with swirling dream sequences. Also Hitchcock
gives away the suspense by revealing the truth first to the audience then later to Scottie two thirds of the way through.Scottie makes her enact what really happened
forcing her back to the top of the Tower out of anger at the betrayal.She is scared up there by a nun and falls to her death.
This film is a chilling romantic endeavour: it’s fascinating myriad of haunting camera angles shot among some of San Fransisco’s renowned landmarks.This film has the seal of a great film visionary with a superbly talented crew of technicians and artists
never to be repeated by Hitchcock(although North By Northwest and Psycho follow)
where he revealed more of his personal obsessions than ever before.Not greatly successful on release like a geat wine it matures with age and repeated viewing.

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