Vertigo

[Ferretfancy]

I'm baffled. Just what is about Alfred Hitchcock's film Vertigo which makes it the centre of so much enthusiasm ?

I recorded and watched it a couple of nights ago in what is a definitive restored print with a superbly mastered soundtrack which did justice to both the dialogue and Bernard Herrmann's music. That said, I was once again bored to tears.

I wanted to see the film after a gap of some years because I thought that all the critical praise must mean something, so I'd give it another go.The glacial pace and solemnity fails to disguise the ridiculous twists of the plot. James Stewart is his usual admirable self, but Kim Novack is almost totally unconvincing, walking through the part as if under an anaesthetic. The pictures of San Francisco are nice though.

Perhaps this sort of thing only appeals to heterosexuals?

As for the scene at the Golden Gate Bridge, the send up by Mel Brooks in High Anxiety was much more fun

[richardfinegold]

I am Hetero, and I never saw the point of this movie either. And of course it is mis-titled. It should be called acrophobia

[seabright]

The most ridiculous part was at the very beginning. There was James Stewart, hanging from the guttering by his fingertips, while the cop on the sloping roof was saying "Give me your hand." Yet he himself wasn't holding onto anything with his other hand that would have enabled him to haul Stewart up. They'd have both fallen to their deaths had Stewart in fact reached out! In any case, Hitchcock then conveniently, some might say deviously, fades the scene out so that we have no idea how the hell Stewart got down from there after all.

In the book on which it is based, the dual role played by the Kim Novak character isn't revealed until the very end. According to the Wiki entry on the film however, there was some indecision on whether to stick to the book or reveal the murder scene much earlier. In any case, there are too many holes in the plot, such as (a) did no-one see Judy and the Gavin Estler character take his wife up the tower where he threw her off and (b) did no-one see them leave after he'd done so? Quite why "Vertigo" is so highly rated is a bit of a mystery in itself but the one bonus is Bernard Herrmann's music score, one of the best he ever wrote.