[Film] Vertigo

The movie opens with the main character Detective John 'Scottie' Ferguson (James Steward) almost falling from a building while chasing a criminal. This traumatic experience causes Scottie to have a fear of heights that results in dizziness, or vertigo. The premise of the film plays on the idea of vertigo as Scottie’s fear of heights makes him unable to work on the field as a policeman, and consequently, he becomes the ideal candidate in Gavin Elster’s sinister plot.

In typical Hitchcock fashion, the story is full of deception, suspense, mystery and psychological tension. The movie, like many other Hitchcock films, explores scopophilia and the notion of guilt. As the story unfolds, one gets the sense that something is not quite right in the whole scenario, and no one seems quite as innocent as he or she first appears to be. In Vertical, Hitchcock fully utilizes the San Francisco landscape as he shoots most of the movie on location. As Scottie stalks and spies on Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak), the audience is taken on a tour around San Francisco of the 50’s. The various locations where the movie takes place are quite memorable, and they give a sense of immediacy and realism to the story. In terms of the camera work, Hitchcock uses long shots to capture the landscape and close-ups to accentuate the psychological tension of the characters. The dream sequence where a confused and half-mad Scottie’s head twirls in a spiraling circle is certainly one of the most memorable scenes in all Hitchcock films.

7/10