probably never want to see it again, here's why...

Rating: Null/10 (1 August 2001)

My favourite Hitchcock films are (not having seen Psycho yet): Notorious, Rebecca, Rope and North by northwest. Notice the absence of Vertigo and Rear window? (Two are even from his Selznick-dominated era). Indeed, Vertigo is not one of my favourites. Hitchcock isn't one of my favourites at all. Everybody wants to be Hitchcock's biggest fan, but I am not everybody. Some IMDb-users want nicknames like Hitch or even Hitchy as if they were close friends. Hmm. Wouldn't it be easy to conform to the majority and try to find ANYTHING appealing in Vertigo? It may be technically and aesthetically flawless, but there is nothing really special in this personal piece. Absolutely NO rough edges.
Hitchcock makes a gesture at the narrow-minded audiences all over the world again as always. That's why we can say: 'I'm going to see a Hitchcock!', and everybody knows what we mean. That makes me a bit itchy. It also explains why Hitchcock's films are so over-rated: they are appreciated very well ON AVERAGE. Nobody really wants to admit that they didn't like a Hitch they just saw (try to imagine these statements with Bunuel's films in mind...). Well, e.g. 'the Birds' (1963) rates 4 in my list.
The 'vertigo-effect' of zooming out and riding the camera forward isn't new at all (saw that in a '30s movie once). However it was used extremely appropriately here. The best element of Vertigo is the visualization of the psychology (obsession) in the story. But if you want to see really interesting films about obsession see 'Obsession' (1949, Dmytryk, written by Alec Coppel ! - a must see with music by Nino Rota (Godfather, Amarcord)). And 'Ossessione' (1946, Visconti), 'Les Enfants Terribles' (1950, Melville) or even 'Abre los ojos' (1997, Amenabar, with very clear vertigo-references). Great films with rough edges about psychological problems are Suture (McGehee&Siegel, 1993), Seconds (Frankenheimer, 1966) and Fight Club (Fincher, 1999).
Where would cinema be if Hitchcock had never directed ONE film? In my opinion exactly where it is now. No hard feelings though. I enjoy a Hitch too every once in a while. But after three attempts I don't think I want to see the sluggish Vertigo ever again.
Still rates 7/10 :-)