Keep rewatching it

Rating: 8/10 (22 July 1999)

There are some films that you somehow don´t like and that you watch every time they are on TV. For me Vertigo is a prime example. It is easy to see what is fascinating: the music by Herrmann the face of Jim Stewart the great sub plot with the down-to-earth friend Mitch played brilliantly by Barbara Bel-Geddes. (When I first saw it as an adult at the beginning of the eighties dozens of people started whispering "Miss Ellie" when she had her first scene.) Why did she end the engagement when she obviously still loves him? The thought of recreating your lost loved one. But at the same time the film is overlong (which is an euphemism for boring). You seem to see Stewart behind a wheel all the time. The plot seems to be too constructed. There is no hint of why in the world Judy should go through everything. Why not confess to John? So she started to love him only later? Why in the world should someone push a puppet down the staple? (Well, that was the troubling thought I had when I first saw the film as a kid. There should be a law against kids watching great movies. They have fun enough being kids and it spoils the films for them when they watch them later.) Anyway I will watch it again and find out what makes this one ultimately a masterpiece or what it is that makes one think it might be one.