Hitchcock's Crowning Achievement. Watch it!

Rating: 10/10 (19 February 2003)

SPOILERS?!? Jimmy Stewart (John 'Scottie' Ferguson) is hired to follow Kim Novak (Madeleine Elster) around the streets and sights of San Francisco. The twenty or so minutes when this is taking place is almost entirely devoid of dialogue. All we, as an audience, have to do is simply watch their movements around the city. Only Alfred Hitchcock could pull a sequence of this kind off and achieve what he himself referred to as 'pure cinema' - telling a story solely through what we see, not what we hear. It is one of my favourite sections of any movie, let alone Vertigo itself. This section of the film is a masterpiece all by itself.

Yet the whole film is a work of art. To watch a man become inextricably obsessed with a woman to the point that he makes up another woman to look just like her is saddening and sickening! It should make us turn our eyes away with disgust, at least with dismay. Yet Hitchcock had the uncanny knack to know exactly what an audience could bear (Rear Window being the par excellence). Nobody can resist voyeuristic temptations forever and he knew it, preying on and manipulating that knowledge to such an effect that we become as obsessed as Scottie the longer we watch. To cast Jimmy Stewart, the representation in many films (It's a Wonderful Life and Harvey for example) of the 'everyman', in this role was an extremely brave move, but I'm positive Hitchcock knew that it was impossible for this to fail, and Stewart serves up one of the best performances of his long and distinguished career; not once did I feel that his slow and definite descent into madness and obsession was somehow 'fake'.

Everything in Vertigo is faultless. Kim Novak's dual performance as the ice-cool Madeleine and the needy, insecure Judy is confidently assured, if nothing else adding to the believability of the declining mental state of Scottie, despite the best intentions of Scottie's best friend 'Midge' - sometimes the best intentions are the worst intentions. The score is provocatively haunting, a perfect and necessary accessory to the slow-burning, suspenseful tone and all together surreal atmosphere of the movie. That atmosphere is created by great cinematography; the fantastically bright colours seem eerily out-of-place, the fogless and cloudless city somehow adding to the provocative, obsessive nature of the movie. A lot of this effect is amazing - Vertigo being not far short of 50 years old - therefore a lot of credit must go to those who have so painstakingly restored this classic of cinema to such an extent that it perhaps is in better condition now than even when it was first shown!

Ultimately though, the genius of Vertigo lies with Hitchcock. He manages to time the pace of the events perfectly; the story never feels to be dragging along as some might say, IT IS NEVER BORING; nor do the events unfold too quickly, which would rob the audience of the suspense which Hitchcock was famed for. You get the sense that in the hands of anyone else this film would have been a disaster, being too complex and lacking that compulsive 'must-see' element; only Hitchcock, the master of suspense, could weave out of such a knot of intricacies a work of such technical brilliance. He was, of course, much more than just the master of suspense, he was the king of storytelling, and Vertigo was his pinnacle. With careful thought, anyone could see that this is a fantastic movie, proving that films do not need colossal explosions or bucket-loads of violence and profanity to be entertaining. What is necessary is a simple, yet great story and people who can act well. In Vertigo you have the best of both, but most of all you have Alfred Hitchcock at the helm, the greatest director ever!