Vertigo - film review

Vertigo is a 1958 psychological thriller film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock. The film was based on the book by Boileau-Narcejac called D'entre les mort (directly translated into English as The Living and the Dead), which was written in 1954. The story was then adapted for the screen by Alec Coppel and Samuel A. Taylor.

"The story concerns a former detective (Scottie) who suffers from vertigo, who is hired to follow the wife of a friend who is puzzled by her strange behavior. The detective becomes obsessed with the woman, eventually falling in love with her but unable to explain her strange trances and her belief in a previous life".

Some critics have named 'Vertigo' as one of Hitchcocks greatest films, and it could be perhaps be seen as a confession from Hitchcock himself, dealing with the way he used and controlled women in his films - much like the main character (Scottie).

The film is well-known for it's use of the 'Dolly Zoom' which is used frequently throughout the film to convey what happens when a sufferer from vertigo looks down from a great height suggesting a 'falling away from oneself' feeling, which it does perfectly. The audience is drawn into the scene itself, the longevity of the tower stretching to show ridiculous heights that whilst the mind knows it is still the same height they cannot help but feel like they are falling.

The Dolly Zoom was nicknamed the 'Hitchcock Zoom' or the 'Vertigo effect' as this was its first appearance onscreen.

Reviews:

Hitchcocks' rich and strange fable of love lost, and lost again, makes the case for him as a grand experimental artist who labored in genre cinema - SLANT MAGAZINE

Vertigo is an acknowledged masterpiece, one of those narrative films in which a bracing and unpredictable story has been distilled into a form that is at once classic and inventive - BLOG.OREGONLIVE

Hitchcocks' most tender story - TIMEOUT

Vertigo is a puzzling and yet compelling film that draws the audience in with mystery and intrigue, dazzling the senses with state-of-the-art special effects and a brilliant plot-line that will never fail to disappoint.

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