Great heights

Rating: 9/10 (24 March 2014)

Hitchcock's masterpiece? Well, that's debatable, when there are at least six other major contenders I could think of. And yes, I've read the criticisms, about James Stewart being too old in the lead, the twist revealed half an hour before the ending, Judy's lack of surprise when Scottie turns up at her door and more, but in a great movie, you suspend these inconsistencies and instead let yourself get wrapped up in the whole experience.
Right from the start, from Saul Bass's literally eye-popping title sequence and Bernard Hermann's hypnotic theme music, a spell is created although being Hitchcock, this is occasionally punctured with surprise elements. Immediately we're catapulted into a thrilling roof-top chase, culminating in the tragic consequences of Stewart's Scottie Ferguson character's vertigo. He seems to suffer a nervous breakdown and despite the devoted attention of the adoring Barbara Bel Geddes, he falls into a carefully contrived murder plot managed by an old friend, keen to inherit his wife's fortune. To do this, Scottie is manipulated into tailing and then building up a relationship with Kim Novak's Madeleine, yet another of the director's icy cool blondes, his vertigo ruthlessly exploited as the murder is perpetrated. However a chance meeting on the street with Madeleine's doppelgänger leads them both back to the scene of the crime with tragic consequences for both.
I don't think there's another of Hitchcock's films where he displays his genius so well. The legendary fluidity of his camera we see time and again, it being particularly suited to the rise and fall of the streets of San Francisco as Scottie pursues his prey. Of course it's a sexy film and naturally being Hitchcock, there's a dark undercurrent to this, what with the "romantic hero" indulging in something approaching necrophilia in recreating his dream (but dead) woman, plus just how does Madeleine end up naked in his bed, after he's saved her from drowning? The pacing is exemplary, at key points time is compressed for dramatic effect, at other times the camera languidly relaxes allowing the viewer to witness the wonderful cinematography of Frisco's landmarks in the bright Californian sunshine.
The dramatic finish, where we're literally left hanging with Stewart and wondering what his next move will be atop the clock tower as his dream is destroyed a second time is a masterpiece of brevity and suspense.
Essays have been written about this film almost since it was first released, itself a sign of the complexity and the depth at work here. I'm not one for re-watching films too much, preferring to see something I never have before, but "Vertigo" keeps dragging me back in wonder and admiration of one of the masters of cinema at his considerable best.