Hitchcock's Magnum Opus; A masterpiece on pathological obsession

Rating: 9/10 (10 February 2019)

With an incredibly storied career, director Alfred Hitchcock has created many outstanding motion pictures, and while Psycho (1960) is undoubtedly his most iconic and influential, he never quite reached the level of sophistication, narrative prowess & depth that he reached in Vertigo, which is arguably the master's greatest film.
It did require a second viewing for me personally to appreciate Vertigo for the work of art that is truly is, and even though it is a bit of a cliché these days, Vertigo is the kind of motion picture that definitely needs to be seen multiple times in order to be judged properly. This is the case because the initial first time viewer will most likely focus on the primary narrative, which consists 'Scottie' Ferguson helping his army buddy Gavin Elster investigate the strange behavior of his wife. This entire narrative already seems to wrap up completely after a little over half of the movie's entire runtime, which will probably leave the initial viewer with feelings of confusion & unsatisfaction. However, one of the greatest aspects of Vertigo is that it has this classic Hitchcock mystery/twisted atmosphere, but also an incredibly deep surreal layer added on top of it, which was quite unique for Hitchcock. Thus, the
'usual' Hitchcock narrative wraps up after a little over an hour, paving the way for the much more personal, surreal and obsession based final hour. When you understand what is going to happen in a second viewing, you could become more focused on Scottie's inner confliction and the way he handles his obsession, making the viewer finally realize the emotional resonance and artistic prowess of the final hour.
From one of the greatest opening title sequences to its end, Vertigo is Hitchcock at the absolute top of his game. The title sequence, starting with a shot of the mouth of a woman while moving to her eye, followed by an inside glance of her eye coupled with spiralling imagery, is pretty much an identical piece of storytelling as the coming two hours. In a way, the audience is shown Scottie's future obsession from the viewpoint of the camera itself, making us feel obsessed. From a shot of the mouth of the woman towards the eyes, there are a lot of digital spiralling special effects signifying the loss of self control, making this superb title sequence indeed very reminiscent of what is going to happen afterwards, making it also one of the most creative opening titles ever made.
James Stewart is near flawless as the conflicted John 'Scottie' Ferguson, displaying his wide range of acting talents as a morally complex character. Kim Novak's divine beauty as Madeleine speaks for itself, and her characteristic stiffness perfectly emphasizes her character's precarious situation as she is torn between her own identity and the man she loves. The screenplay is also superb, as is the absolutely gorgeous cinematography and production design, which are used as a medium of subtle sub text and subliminal messages.
I don't think there's any doubt that Vertigo is Hitchcock's most complex & nuanced film, as Vertigo contains many layers of narrative, character & themes. There are not many themes that do not apply to Vertigo, but the most common one is obviously obsession. Ferguson starts out as an individual that is suffering from Acrophobia, which causes Vertigo (Dizziness), after a tragic encounter on a rooftop where an officer died trying to save his life. Guilt stricken by this event, he quits the police force. This sense of guilt precisely seems to be what causes Scottie to want to escape from reality, and see Madeleine as his dream woman, something so surreal and dream-like without him even realizing it. Later it is of course revealed that she was in fact never real, further escalating his descent into madness, and feeding his pathological hunger for her. After Madeleine seemingly jumps off a clock tower, falling to her death, Scottie, a year later, is still haunted by his past memories of her, and sees a mirage of her appear in every one of these places. After later spotting a lookalike ( She was in fact the same woman as Madeleine ) Judy, Scottie becomes obsessed with turning her into his image of Madeleine, the fake image of the woman in question. This is of course a superb bit of character development, and Scottie goes through many different personality phases during the course of the film, being the seemingly average joe near the start, to trying to become the hero he is not, to falling into madness and becoming consumed by obsession near its end.
As for the story itself, which concludes in Gavin Elster throwing his wife out the clocktower ( Scottie in fact never met Madeleine, only Judy ), it is a brilliantly written mystery filled with an unpredictable twist in that everything was a farce made up by Gavin to think his wife committed suicide, which of course all sounds very Hitchcockian. But again, Vertigo's true strength does not solely come from this, but with the way Hitchcock develops these characters, uses the color palette, blocking & camera movements to tell a visual story. The symbolism of color and movement in Vertigo is endless, but a primary example of this is the desaturation of the color red in the background when Scottie first sees Madeline, which emphasizes his future love & longing for her, and of course the color red is generally associated with those particular emotions. Another great example is when Judy finally 'turns back' into Madeleine, covered by a ghostly green tint, to signify that it is indeed a dead woman's image that he loves. These are just one of the many examples where Hitchcock uses color to invoke emotions in the audience.
Of course one cannot forget the incredible contibution of composer Bernard Herrmann to this picture. Quite possibly his greatest score, his works for Vertigo ( Heavily influenced by Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde Prelude ) are a work of art in itself, perfectly encapsulating the tone of the movie, as Tristan & Isolde is also about doomed love, just like the film. When Herrmann's score hits its climax ( Judy turning into Madeleine ), the most personally significant event in the story happens, meaning the placement of the various themes is also fantastic.
Vertigo has a superb mystery narrative for the first hour, and an incredible characterization piece during the second hour. All the while it is brilliantly acted, written, photographed, but above all expertly directed by Hitchcock himself, making it indeed a remarkable achievement and a superb piece of art.