A Work of Art

Rating: 10/10 (21 February 2008)

I'm not sure I can adequately express what I feel about this film. It's hypnotic, almost surreal. Does anyone else think that? Maybe it's the way it was shot, or the score, or the actors but the net effect on me is that I'm watching a movie but I'm also watching something more than just a movie. It's almost like you're viewing a work of art, something not unlike a great painting or piece of sculpture. And no matter how many times you view it, it still has a profound effect on you.
This feeling is something you either get or don't get. I know all sorts of people who say it's boring or it's tedious or it's not believable. These are the ones who don't "get it." But it's like someone else's comment here about the film....see it 20 times and you'll come to realize how magnificent it is. To compare Vertigo to North by Northwest is preposterous. I love NBNW but Vertigo is Hitchcock's crowning achievement. Many claim it's the greatest movie ever made and I'm not prepared to argue with them.
Another thought....the scene where Judy emerges from the bathroom, now totally transformed by Scotty back into Madeleine, and bathed in the soft green neon light of the hotel sign, and with Herrmann's leitmotif, played heretofore in various unfulfilled versions, now fully realized and climaxed....well, this is unquestionably the most beautifully spine-tingling moment in the history of film.