Self-revelation.

Rating: 10/10 (12 April 2000)

VERTIGO reveals itself three times during the film - it encapusulates itself, shows us what will happen before it happens, future and past in the present - it interprets the future, but we only know once our experience (watching the film) is past. The opening credits - lips, James Stewart; eyes, Kim Novak, into the eyes of woman, not as fleshly human being, but man-made illusion - vast, black, abyss, geometrical patterns which only repeat, visualising the labyrinth, the white pattern that looks like a shroud, the changing colours like Scottie's dream.
The opening sequence. Scottie chases criminal over San Francisco rooftops at night. Scottie follows, criminal escapes, 'innocent' falls to death. Scottie, even when most in control, following someone else, being driven by himself. Scottie follows Maddie the night after he rescues her, through the same old San Francisco streets, baffled. She leads him to his own house, to himself. Scottie, after he has made up Judy into Maddie, the circular kiss, the anxiety, the stable.