Actors: Jimmy Stewart, Kim Novak
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Note: Minor spoilers ahead
I'm not sure why I doubted Hitchcock (and frequent commenter Huntronik) about this film - halfway through I thought this the dumbest Hitchcock film I'd ever seen. All of the stupidity is necessary to set up the end, however; which end may delve deeper into the human psyche than any Hitchcock film I've seen. We are all of us a few flights of fancy away from madness, I suppose.
I don't know if Vertigo is a full success, at least not for me - it succeeds in messing with the viewer's head. The goal of the film seems to be to get us inside a film character's thoughts in a way that we just cannot in a play or even in a novel. Hitchcock brings it off, but not completely - a few false notes strike along the way. Still, a superb experiment in film by a true master; I don't think I'll forget about Vertigo anytime soon.
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also, halfway through i thought i was sick of james stewart's ridiculous mugging and drawling, and that he was even worse in this than in Rear Window, but by the end i thought it was a spectacular performance.
ReplyDeleteI can't say enough about this film. Hitchcock is exploring some of his deepest and most personal fears, obsessions, and notions about women and the consequences of hanging on to those fears and notions. There is no other film that so honestly explores these feelings in such an artful way.
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