Review of Vertigo (1958) by Art S — 08 Aug 2012

Is this the greatest movie of all time (as recently voted by critics in the 2012 Sight and Sound poll)? I watched it again to find out. My conclusion? This is a film that offers many riches to the discerning viewer and certainly belongs in a list of films that can be watched again and again.

It sends ripples through my brain. Jimmy Stewart plays flawed and cruel (as he sometimes did in the Anthony Mann westerns) and you feel for him as he suffers in the trap created by Gavin Elster. But this isn't quite film noir, the romance (even though it is mysterious and then sinister) and Bernard Herrman's score sweep away the noose-tightening vibe of that genre -- instead Stewart through his own actions takes us somewhere else.

Of course, much has been said about the way voyeurism, cinema-going, and wish fulfillment are put on trial by Hitchcock here (damning himself most of all) and those points are all well taken (Scottie is a stalker and we are sizing up Madeline/Judy ourselves).

And Chris Marker's thoughts about the power of memory to influence our thoughts, feelings, and actions in the present are both alluring (since we all have nostalgic reveries) and disturbing (because the innocent Judys of the world may not deserve Scottie's tranference, even if this Judy does).

I could go on...and that is what raises Vertigo to a lofty height in these sometimes arbitrary polls.