Vertigo (1958)

Kim Novak and the painting of Carlotta.

The late fifties were the end of an era in the filmmaking career of Alfred Hitchcock. With 1960’s Psycho Hitchcock went with smaller budgets and stars, mirroring the path of the studio system, which was on its way out with a new, independent Hollywood taking its place. Hitchcock still managed to send old Hollywood out in style, producing two of his best films at the end of the fifties with two of the biggest, most iconic movie stars: Vertigo with James Stewart and North by Northwest with Cary Grant. The former is considered by many critics to not only be Hitchcock’s best film but also one of the best ever made by anyone: in 2012, the BFI’s Sight & Sound critic’s poll ranked Vertigo number one, moving it ahead of Citizen Kane, which had topped the poll for decades. Does Vertigo live up to that lofty standing? There hasn’t been a better time to decide for yourself, since the film is returning to theaters for its 60th anniversary on March 18th and 21st, as a part of TCM’s Big Screen Classics series.

Vertigo is based on the 1954 novel D’entre les morts (From Amongst the Dead) written by Boileau-Narcejac, French authors that also had novels made into Herni-Georges Clouzot’s thriller Les Diaboliques (1955), and Jean Rendon’s horror film Eyes without a Face, both films worth watching if you are a fan of Hitchcock. The screenplay for Vertigo was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel Taylor. By this time Hitchcock, who was his own producer as well, ran a well-oiled filmmaking machine; for example, Bernard Herrmann provided his fourth score for the film, editor George Tomasi had worked with Hitchcock four times previously and cinematographer Robert Burks shot eight films for Hitchcock before Vertigo. One of the reasons Hitchcock was so easily able to work with the same people was that they understood his style of working. That is, they knew that he had a singular vision for how the film should look from beginning to end and would not deviate from that, either in the cinematography, art design, or performances. That is why Hitchcock’s films all look so unique and his personal style is easy to spot. Once the script was finished, Hitchcock would visualize the film from start to finish, create storyboards to match, and shoot the film exactly that way. Hitchcock told the American Film Institute: “The moment the script is finished and the film visualized, that is the end of the creative process as far as I’m concerned. I’d just as soon not shoot the picture.” Fortunately, he did end up shooting the picture, and in the case of Vertigo, he was shooting the film’s stars James Stewart (his last of four films with Hitchcock), Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, and Tom Helmore.

Since the object of this article in part is to inspire someone who hasn’t seen the movie to see it on the big screen, I will be as vague on plot details as possible while still attempting to provide some interesting insights into the film. Like almost all of Hitchcock’s films, it is a movie that relies on suspense instead of surprise and the “twist” is known to the audience, but not to the main character. Still, it is best to go in as unspoiled as far as the plot is concerned as possible. Vertigo revolves around the obsession of a man (Stewart) with a woman (Novak) that comes with a number of complications that develop over the course of the movie. Though there are certainly voyeurish aspects to the obsession, Scottie’s obsession with Madeleine, shares more with pieces of classic literature like Tristan and Iseult and Pygmalion and Galatea. These tales are obsessions of creation and re-creation, with Pygmalion creating a statue of the ideal woman and falling in love with it, while Tristan tries to recreate his lost love in another woman. Falling in line with Vertigo’s loose themes of reincarnation, we see that Scottie isn’t so much in love with the women in the movie but with the image. The idea of his perfect woman, Madeleine, who he tries to recreate in others, just as Madeleine is supposedly the reincarnation of the tragic Carlotta Valdes. However, unlike Pygmalion’s happy ending when his statue comes to life, Vertigo is much more in line with the tragedy of Tristan and his re-created love, and so the film can be seen as Hitchcock’s view of idealized love. However, in interviews, Hitchcock, always one to downplay his own lofty intelligence, says the movie is about necrophilia.
Visually, Vertigo is one of Hitchcock’s most interesting films because of the number of recurring themes that tie the film together. From the opening title sequence, we get the crucial motif that is clearly represented throughout the film: the spiral, which is, of course, representative of Scottie’s acrophobia and ensuing vertigo. Spirals appear throughout the film and are the primary visual design: the staircase, roads, paths, camera movements, and even women’s hair all fit into the spiral motif.

Spirals are a recurring motif in the film: from the staircase...

...to Madeleine's hairstyle.

This only increases the dreamlike nature of the film, at times Madeleine appears to be sleepwalking through the world, possessed by the spirit of Carlotta. For his part, Scottie is clearly teetering on the edge of reality and hallucination for a large portion of the story. The feeling of unreality is created partially through the use of a fog filter on the camera in certain scenes, which gives the film a green, hazy tint. Green is a color that also recurs several times in important scenes, especially in one of the more crucial scenes, one that is lit by a green neon sign outside a hotel room. Also, Kim Novak is dressed in green at times throughout the film. 

Use of green in an important scene.

Perhaps the most obvious visual treat that Vertigo offers is the location shooting in and around San Francisco. For as good of a movie as North by Northwest is, some of the scenes seem awfully stagy, especially familiar places like Mount Rushmore. Vertigo does not have that problem and many famous landmarks appear throughout the movie such as the Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower, and Missions San Juan Bautista and Dolores, as well as countless other exterior scenes shot in the city and in nearby locations like Big Basin Redwoods State Park. Location shooting, and more importantly the absence of obvious sets, doesn’t necessarily equate to a better movie, but when compared to North by Northwest, it is certainly a more immersive experience.

Vertigo utilizes famous San Francisco landmarks...

...and more mundane cityscapes.

Vertigo is a film that has been written about countless times and yet there is still a mysterious nature to it that may explain why it has become such an enduring classic that has only grown in critical appreciation over the years. No matter how much it has been dissected, there is still something untapped about it. Whether you are seeing it for the first time or the twentieth, there is always something new to see and appreciate that you hadn’t noticed before. What do you think? Does Vertigo belong among the best films ever made? How does it rank compared to other Hitchcock films?

Vertigo is available for streaming from Amazon and is returning to theaters on March 18th and 21st.