Vertigo

1958's "Vertigo" by Alfred Hitchcock.

Starring the iconic Jimmy Stewart, Kim Novak, and Barbara Bel Geddes as Midge.
Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Art Direction-Set Direction (Hal Pereira, Henry Bumstead, Sam Comer, and Frank R. McKelvy), And Best Sound (George Dutton).

It features Stewart as a retired detective who in a tragic accident, develops a fear of heights (acrophobia), which when triggered can lead to vertigo. Stewart is hired by a mysterious old friend to track his wife (Novak), and Stewart ends up falling in love with her despite her bizarre trances and suicidal tendencies. Stewart and Novak get separated, things get strange, and Stewart becomes fully obsessed with Novak.  Stewart meets a new woman, who reminds him of Novak, and in turn Stewart has her look exactly like the Novak he remembers. Things come to a head when the two of them return to the iconic bell tower, and Stewart has one of the more interesting final shots in film history.

In 2012 Sight and Sound polled critics, academics, and distributors, and found that Vertigo had overtaken 1941's "Citizen Kane" as the best movie of all time. Martin Scorsese thought it was a miracle that a movie existing in a studio system could be so personal. Roger Ebert thought that it was Hitchcock coming clean about his treatment of woman as objects in his films. Regardless, Novak is superb, first playing someone who is not what she seems, and then later someone else who is what she seems, but is playing what Stewart wants her to be. Despite the fantastically coloured/designed sets, the usually amazing Saul Bass title sequence, and some nifty camera work by Hitchcock, the movie is all about head space.

I wonder with all of the head games being played if the movie drags, as it feels long for a 2hr9min feature. And despite it's length, we don't really know who either of these characters are, what they're about- despite Midge's clumsy attempts to have a relationship with Stewart. Stewart is not my favourite of the stars of yesteryear, with his goofy cadence, but apparently he is ranked just behind Cary Grant and Humphrey Bogart for all time greats’ rankings. All in all, an enjoyable experience, but despite it's multitudes of iconic charms and praise, it's hard not to think of "Vertigo" as dizzyingly overrated.

4/5

Trailer: Click Here.