Vertigo

UK Release Date. 7 August 1958
Certification. A
Running Time. 2 hours 8 mins
Director. Alfred Hitchcock
Cast. Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore, Kim Novak, James Stewart.
Rating. 80%

Review.

In 1952, the British Film Institute's monthly film magazine, Sight & Sound, published the first-ever Top 100 Greatest Films Of All Time, as voted for by a group of international film critics. Every 10 years since, Sight & Sound have updated and re-published the results of the poll. 

None of Alfred Hitchcock’s films featured in the inaugural Sight & Sound’s Top 100 Greatest Films Of All Time list. Vertigo didn’t feature in the 1962 list, compiled four years after the film’s release, but by the time Sight & Sound published the Top 100 Greatest Films Of All Time in 2012, Vertigo had claimed the prestigious top spot.

A critical and commercial disappointment on its release, over time, Vertigo has been reappraised as perhaps one of Hitchcock's most artistically audacious and accomplished films.

James Stewart stars as John (Scottie) Ferguson, a recuperating former police detective who is crippled by acrophobia and vertigo. Scottie is hired by an old college friend, Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore), to follow his wife, Madeleine (Kim Novak).

Despite a pedestrian pace (by modern standards), Vertigo is acclaimed for its enigmatic plot, narrative complexity, unsettling psychological depth and innovative camera work. In particular, the celebrated zoom-forward-track-back shot - the so-called 'Vertigo effect' - that is routinely used by filmmakers to this day.

James Stewart, in his final collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock [Rope, Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much and Vertigo], brings his usual natural charisma to the role, initially portraying Scottie as an endearing, affable, sympathetic character who’s been somewhat beaten down personally and professionally by his acrophobia. However, as his obsession with the arcane and esoteric Madeleine develops, Scottie becomes more maudlin, before exhibiting ever-more questionable, manipulative and detestable behaviour. Towards the end of the film, the character is almost entirely unrecognisable, almost every bit as monstrous as Anthony Perkins' portrayal of Norman Bates in Psycho. Against type, arguably, James Stewart never portrayed such a complex and calculating character throughout his career. Equally, Kim Novak was never more mesmerising in perhaps the most iconic of all the Hitchcock blonde performances.

In many ways, Vertigo signals Alfred Hitchcock at his most personal and honest - a chronicle of male desire and the objectification of women that feels startlingly uncomfortable given the reputation of the man behind the lens. The notable age difference between the two lead actors [Kim Novak was 24 years old at the time of filming, James Stewart was almost 50 years old] dampens romantic chemistry; indeed, the age difference likely contributes to the audience's uncomfortable and uneasy viewing experience - the older male character's obsession with a young, attractive woman.

In such respect, it is all too easy to forget how much of a twisted, dark story lurks below the surface of Vertigo. Vertigo is a despairing tale of cyclical, unhealthy obsession that reminds us of the director's unrivalled capacity to unsettle.