Obsession and death in dreamlike Technicolor

Rating: 10/10 (2 April 2015)

Vertigo (1958) has haunted me since I first saw it. Its dreamlike atmosphere and twisted tale of obsessive passion have made it a classic for all time. It's a film that gets better and richer with every viewing. You appreciate the first half of the film more as well as Novak's cool and later heartrending performance. And this is no doubt Hitchcock's best directorial work; he may have made more suspenseful and wittier films, but few get as poignant and creepy as Vertigo.
People often complain that it's too slow and that James Stewart is miscast. On the first criticism, I say the film's slow pace is one of its biggest strengths; it gives us time to know the characters and appreciate the atmosphere, something Hollywood's modern blockbusters cannot manage since all viewers want is sensory overload and story whiplash.
On the second criticism, I must disagree; Scottie is not a romantic lead. That he's played by a graying, older James Stewart makes his obsession with the young Madeline and the fantasy romance she represents all the more understandable and poignant; this is a man who desperately wants out of his dull, everyday world and is willing to go dangerously over the edge to possess a woman too good to be true. That this is classic Hollywood everyman James Stewart playing this disturbed character adds a level of creepiness to the character too.
A true classic, an essential piece of cinema.