Old-fashioned detective drama, beautifully executed

Rating: 10/10 (11 March 2006)

Beautiful is the word for this film because of the love that the camera lens has for its subject (like colour postcards of San Francisco from the 1950s), and for the haunting, melancholy score that Bernard Hermann composed. A sense of loss pervades this film, far beyond the loss experienced on multiple levels by the main character; there is a sense of the loss of a civilization, too. The methodical driving scenes around the city streets, the intent viewing in an art gallery, the appreciation for California history--these reaffirm emotionally for the viewer what the intellect already knew: The world of 'Vertigo' no longer exists. Nor does the Hollywood that gave us 'Vertigo' exist. Gently-paced, subtle storytelling has little appeal to the Ritalin generation with its incessant demand for action; the job of the filmmaker changed, somewhere along the way, from "telling a story" to "providing an alternate reality." But this was Hitchcock the storyteller at his finest, and his attempts at special effects, although commendable for their time, might distract those whose souls have been addicted to eye candy. In other words, if you're under 50, you just may not get it. The one disappointment I had with this film was the performance of Kim Novak; admittedly, trying to fill the shoes of Grace Kelly set an impossible standard for her to live up to. Supporting actress Barbara Bel Geddes, on the other hand, captured the frustration of being No. 3 in "three's a crowd" perfectly.