one of the greatest works of art, alltime

Rating: 10/10 (23 May 2003)

There are many good films, and it may seem pretentious to think in terms of superlatives. There are many good paintings, good plays, good books, but then there are some that tower just so high that they dwarf everything around them and defy analysis of any kind, either technical or aesthetic.
I have just about every film which appears in the 'top 250' here at imdb, and Vertigo is my favorite, by a steep margin. It's sublime, it hits on so many cylinders. The color, the lighting, the symbolism, the drama, the personal dilemmas, the acting, the direction.
There are some moments in art that are so rare, that they cannot even be measured by media, let alone eras. In the genre of staged drama, 19th century and forward, I see maybe four titans: Wagner, Verdi, Puccini, and Hitchcock. I can't think of any other movie director who soars as high, and it's not just Hitchcock who soars high in this movie. It's also Bernard Hermann's music and Jimmy Stewart's acting. It's the people who shot the film. It's just a magical moment.
What makes it happen? Hitchcock, who is not only at the height of his powers, but is delving so deep into his subconscious that it defies analysis. He creates an image in a movie with the same frenzied detail that Scotty seeks as he re-creates Madelaine. The richness of Hitchcock's vision here is without rival in this history of film, as far as I am aware.
As for other great Hitchcock films, there are Rear Window, Notorious, North by Northwest, Shadow of a Doubt, Strangers on a Train, and one of my personal favorites, Psycho. But this one, Vertigo, this one goes all the way into Hitch's deepest thoughts. It may very well be the greatest artistic creation of the 20th century. It is certainly one of them.