Vertigo
Alfred Hitchcock / US, 1958 / 128 min.
Hitchcock’s dive into the psyche of a traumatised San Francisco cop who develops an obsession for his good friend’s wife. Years later, Vertigo was recognised as the best work by the ‘master of suspense’. Starring James Stewart and Kim Novak.
Cop 'Scotty' Ferguson (Stewart) has nothing to do after he’s put on paid leave by the San Francisco police department because of his extreme vertigo. With time on his hands, he agrees to help out an old friend. The friend’s wife Madeleine (Novak) is behaving oddly, and Scotty is asked to follow her. This leads to the suspended police officer falling obsessively in love with the blonde he’s tailing.
In Vertigo, Hitchcock plays an ingenious game with appearances and reality; are audiences seeing Scotty’s observations, or his imagination? The film harvested little praise upon release, but is now seen as one of the very best of Hitchcock's films, particularly thanks to the camerawork, music and sensual use of colour.
Bernard Hermann’s score is famous for the way it represents the leading man’s confused state of mind. In its once-a-decade poll, in 2012 film magazine Sight and Sound ranked Vertigo as the best film of all time.
This is part of
Special screenings
Details
Director
Alfred Hitchcock
Production year
1958
Country
US
Original title
Vertigo
Length
128 min.
Language
English
Subtitles
NONE
Format
DCP
Part of
Eye Classics
Eye’s collection includes a wealth of classics. With the Eye Classics series, Eye brings film history even closer. Every week, we screen at least three classics from the collection under one recognisable name: Eye Classics.
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