Ravishing

Rating: 10/10 (18 July 2006)

What an extraordinary experience it is to see this movie in the cinema. Having scene the film as a youngster on an old black and white TV set sitting on a couch with a bunch of young cousins, we were all transfixed. I remembered the story line and the disorienting experience, and how captivated I was by the mystery story for years. I remember that we had to leave my aunt and uncle's home before the final twist of the film was revealed--and I made my aunt promise to watch the film and let me know how it ended. Well, she obviously didn't see the film, as I called her up when we got home, and she told me that the man and woman fell in love and the movie ended with them nice and happy!! So for 30 years, that's how I thought Vertigo ended. Then in the early 1980's I saw the film in its famous re-release as it was garnering its new found critical and commercial acclaim, in all its glorious color, with a New York City audience laughing and clapping and getting so amazingly caught up in this grand cinematic experience. It was, simply put, awesome!
There are scenes in this film that are so unique, so surprising , that they genuinely take the breath away. The two shots of Madeleine, as a beautiful goddess-like figure in Ernie's restaurant, viewed from Scotty's perspective in the distance, then up-close as she glides by as if in a dream; the shot of Madeleine reappearing after Scottie's initially humorous, but then uncomfortably obsessive make-over, filmed in a glowing, hazy light, with Bernard Herrmann's ravishing film score welling up in waves of sonorous passion; the surprisingly long sequence without almost any dialog in which Scotty trails Madeleine, containing one gorgeous moment after another - the back-door opening up onto the kaleidoscopic colors of the flower shop, the mysterious silence in the grandeur of the museum; the gorgeous views of San Francisco - the monuments, the colors, the vistas; the truly dreamlike scene in the middle of the towering, dark redwoods; and that vision of the Golden Gate Bridge where Scotty "saves" Madeleine - it took truly masterful film-making to take an iconic American image, and present it on screen in such a spectacular and unique manner.
But the film is not merely a "museum film" where art direction and cinematography are the most important element. In Vertigo, the story is a "page turner". We are watching each of the characters, absolutely fascinated with the twists and turns that abound. The engaging humor, the riveting suspense, the intriguing story line all stem from the manner in which Hitchcock presents the three main characters: - the physically and psychically crippled hero of James Stewart, the enigmatic, but unbelievably alluring heroine of Kim Novak, and the adorable, humorous, lively, human and humane Barbara Bel Geddes - we care deeply for all three of them, tangled in this complex spiral of inevitable sadness and tragedy.
I loved the film having seen only 2/3rds of it as a kid, and I now know this film as a great and enduring piece of American Cinema, a true classic.