Why vertigo is the best movie ever

The problem was bigger than he imagined. For in Vertigo, the tightly knit fabric of classical narrative starts to unravel. Who knows why this was happening, but television is the usual suspect. Confronted by its pipsqueak rival, s Hollywood answered with spectacle — laying on panoramic colour extravaganzas for which traditional story was an increasingly slender alibi. The CGI -led blockbusters of our own era constitute the endgame in this disintegrative process, their loosely episodic form resembling beads on a string more than the intricate lockstep of cause and effect.

Though Hitchcock cheerfully slept with the enemy when required, Vertigo is one of the plush exercises whereby a panicky industry hoped to recoup its dwindling figures. But here, the cinema of attractions yields an intense, surrealist poetry. As Scottie goes driving, driving around San Francisco in pursuit of his chimerical love interest Madeleine Novak , the action resolves into elaborate set pieces: the visit to the flower shop, the churchyard, the art museum, the McKittrick Hotel, the Golden Gate Bridge, the sequoia forest.

That such an institution has evolved is not surprising, for the movie holds a singular power to contaminate viewers with its own quality of dreamy obsession. Yet the alternation between long, dialogue-free passages and scenes of talky exposition creates a strange, sluggish rhythm that waxes ever more ceremonial and trancelike.

Classical narrative pushes relentlessly forward. The goal-oriented, mystery-solving hero that Stewart essayed in previous Hitchcock films now loses confidence, drifting in perpetual circles. His fear of heights is nominally cured through extremity; but if he starts by hanging over one abyss, he finishes by staring into another. So it is that the pleasure principle of Hollywood cinema succumbs to the death instinct. Never has a work of ostensible light entertainment been this dark.

When Judy, having reluctantly agreed to pin up her bleached hair in exact conformity with the lost object Madeleine, advances through the green neon haze of her shabby hotel room, both Scottie and we catch an unspeakable glimpse of the sublime. Skip to content. The Greatest Films of All Time. Vertigo The Lady Vanishes 9. The 39 Steps Claiming that Vertigo holds up better than Psycho is to be cinematically blind. Psycho has much more impact, holds up better, shows techniques better.

Psycho changed cinema. Good analyses, but I still think Psycho is a notch above Vertigo mainly because of its grit. Amazingly, Vertigo was not that well received on its initial release. Critics thought it dragged and was confusing. But eventually they came around and Kubrick followed suit with most of his films dismissed an.

The 39 steps 2. Sabotage 3. Spellbound 4. Suspicion 5. Notorious 6. Rebecca 7. Strangers On A Train 8. The Lady Vanishes Foreign Correspondent. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Kim Novak is dynamically sexy In a performance that requires her to be both alluring and aloof in equal degrees, Novak is ravishing and sexy and, ultimately, heartbreaking. The brilliant and eerie camera work and lighting Hitchcock is known for having created new camera techniques and shots with his DPs throughout the years. Pages: 1 2. Comments 13 Vertigo. Ted Wolf says: Reply January 14, at am. Lee Gilligan says: Reply January 14, at am. Otto T. Goat says: Reply January 14, at pm.

Mortimer says: Reply January 18, at pm. Its results, said Sight and Sound editor Nick James, "reflects changes in the culture of film criticism".

Vertigo, he continued, was "the ultimate critics' film". In a separate poll run by the monthly publication involving film directors, Ozu's Tokyo Story was voted the greatest film ever made. Citizen Kane is ranked at number two jointly with , while Vertigo occupies seventh place. The full results are published in Sight and Sound's September issue. Vertigo: The best film ever? Citizen Kane tops critics' poll. The genius of Kane. Kim Novak starred in Alfred Hitchcock's suspense thriller.

Camera trick.