Stewert and Novak, - Heavenly Pair

Rating: 10/10 (8 March 2005)

This movie is - simply put a masterpiece. Not too many movies can envelop the watcher in a dizzying array of emotions the way Vertigo can. Loss and obsession, peppered with stretches of unrestrained bliss come to mind. But aside from the carefully woven plot line, its the little nuances of this film that really grab hold of you.
There is much debate between this film and Rear window as to which film is visually superior. What makes rear window stunning is the camera work and the set of course. But rear window is confined to a single set, and makes the possibilities limited. Which leads to my point. Vertigo's cinematography is beautiful enough to entice even the most icy of viewers. This film invokes more emotion than any other film I've seen before - and this cannot be attributed entirely to the plot line, but the visual style with which it was filmed. From the sweeping camera over San Francisco, to Kim Novak's face against the red plush background of Ernie's interior, to the overhead shot of the stairs and hallway in the hotel, to the ethereal shot of the Golden Gate bridge, the placements and angles of the camera are flawless. Obviously Hitchcocks visions came alive in this one.