A Great Classic Thriller That Works on Many Levels

Rating: 8/10 (1 December 2014)

Vertigo is many things - a meditation on the illusions engendered by romantic attraction, an original and engrossing psychological thriller, a story about how people cope with trauma and psychological problems in ways that can ultimately prove self-defeating, a film about how people deceive each other, and a look at the ways that men and women lie to each other in the context of heterosexual relationships. Not only is the plot engrossing and the story told one that touches on many interesting and important themes, but the motifs employed throughout the film (the hairstyle employed by the woman in the picture in the art gallery and in other places throughout the film, the necklace, paintings, the old church building, the nuns, the grave, and agoraphobia and vertigo themselves as phenomenological experiences and psychiatric conditions) are nuanced, expertly deployed, and lend themselves to an even deeper analysis than the one provided here. I also found the contrast between John's ex-fiancé and the other woman he falls in love with to be an important contrast in the film as well. The score is amazing and the way that the sound and visual elements work together make it very clear why people say that Alfred Hitchcock was the master of suspense.