Despite lukewarm reception from critics and audiences upon its release, Vertigo has risen over time to be considered one of the best, if not the, best film ever made. It is referenced in many subsequent movies and is often referred to with a reverence that few other films rival. I remember first seeing this film in college and not really apprenticing it. Older now I can see it in a different light. It is fascinating for many reasons, most of which is how terrifying it is in how presciently it chronicles male desire to control women, especially made by a film maker known to have similar tendencies.
But lets start with its visuals, which are to say the least, inspiring. My preference is for films, which are a visual medium, to be visually striking. Hitchcock imbues his Vertigo with lush colour, so much so that his sets are often striking for the saturated monotones, but often using filters as well to make everything red or green or whatever. He also invented a camera technique to give a unique visual translation of the feeling of vertigo. Overall the film is remarkable in its presentation, so much of a pleasure to watch.
Almost in contrast to this is the film's plot which is noir inspired, the colour of the film setting up such a different tone. But the music, and the mystery, as well as the way the film presents obsession, is all juxtaposition in a way that makes Vertigo fascinating. The film is heavy on the melodramatics, especially Novak's performance, everything heightened, all emotions so intense. Yet there is something just so grounded in it. Like Hitchcock's invented camera technique, the film both pulls out and inward simultaneously.
But what makes Vertigo so disturbing is the way it zeros in on it's "hero's" point of view. Hitchcock brilliant casts Stewart so against type. He is usually the do good hero of whatever piece he is starring in, even in Hitchcock's other collaborations with Stewart like Rope and Rear Window. But here he is at best a flawed man, cruelly obsessed with, first a woman he shouldn't be, and second a stranger. I would argue that he is the actual villain of the piece. He is abusive. Perhaps even a murderer in a way. The film follows his attempts to control Judy, almost making us complicit in that by using Stewart (with his almost irrefutable likeability) and his tragedies to make us sympathize with him despite all we see him doing. But as we reflect he's quite monstrous and the film doesn't let him off the hook. Really it has us look at ourselves as we care about him.
I think a big part of Vertigo's success is why we often do not appreciate it entirely the first time we see it. It presents itself as the story of man solving a mystery but in the end we see it be about his obsession with a woman he doesn't know, and how that leads him to controlling, abusive behavior.
Still as I watch it I think about how it would feel if we don't see Judy write her letter to him, so that the truth remains more ambiguous. Perhaps we don't see exactly how she falls at the end, again leaving us to wonder and perhaps explore our own complicity with death. There is a famous alternate ending, dull and seemingly random where we are focused on placing blame onto another character, Madeline's husband. It was supposedly shot for European censors who wanted to see some justice happen. But, like those previous scenes I mention all it does is distract from what makes Veritgo's story so compelling, the way a seemingly good man becomes more and more monstrous as he loses himself to an obsession. I know I am in no position to edit Hitchcock's film, but I often pretend Judy's letter never was written, that perhaps it is an invention of Scottie to justify what he does, and it allows me to appreciate the depth of his madness.
Vertigo
Starring: Jimmy Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Writers: Alec Coppel, Samuel Taylor
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