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Summary: Vertigo a spaced out masterpiece?
Review: I must take issue with the last review by Charles F.... Vertigo is considered a Hitchcock masterpiece, but it is an aquired taste. I recall vividly watching this movie with my family on Black and Whte network TV in the 1960s and being lost in the plot(as a kid).... but how clearly I remember it now, as an adult, being able to read between some of the conservative 1950's suggestive lines. (What was the point of having Midge design or draw a bra in the begining of the movie??? And, Scotty says he only wants to talk with Judy...nothing more, she can even leave the door open. She says she's been picked up once or twice before.... etc.) With the DVD re-release,
I was shocked to discover there is/was an alternative ending to the movie in Foreign release.... one that eliminates the final death and ends on a more happy note. Is that better? Or just a historical footnote? View the DVD alternative extra materials and just for yourself. I think the AMC half hour special on "Obssessing over Vertigo" that is included on both the DVD and VHS tape releases is OUTSTANDING... telling the story through interviews, production stills and on-location shooting that fans of both the movie, restoration and Hitchcock, Stewart, and Novak demand. THIS ALONE IS WORTH THE PRICE! I recall listening in the 1970s to an LP of Bernard Hermann theme's for Hitchcock movies and being stumped at the lush movements presented from something called "Vertigo" which I did not recall seeing at the time. My obsession was, and still is, a more fiting masterpiece, "North By Northwest"... arguably the best Hitchcock movie and much more accessable than Vertigo. So, no matter what your taste in movies, or shock endings, the DVD restoration deserves your attention, if not your purchase. NO essential film library or collection is complete without it. I only wish the original novel "D'entre les Morte" (From the Dead) by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac was available for comparison. Any help out there?
Rating:
Summary: Hitchcock's masterpiece!!!!!
Review: No question, the best Hitchcock film. The DVD is very nice.
Rating: 
Summary: Fallen upon evil times
Review: I can't agree that this is the absolute top of Hitchcock's form, when compared to PSYCHO, FRENZY et als, but it's a good movie. I'd prefer a slightly different ending, but that's a matter of taste.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad
Review: The first half of the movie is pretty scary and entertaining. But after the secret is revealed, nothing is scary anymore. Here is what I learned from the movie:
1. Don't try to save a man on a steep roof if you can't balance yourself.
2. Men prefer mysterious beautiful women than sunny, earthly girls. :-) Is SF still that beautiful nowadays?
Rating:
Summary: Hitchcock's Masterpiece
Review: This movie works on so many levels, right down to the clever choices of colours for the actors costumes. Hitchcock created a tour de force showcase for Jimmy Stewart (only Rope ranks has a better performance) and the simply beautiful beyond words Kim Novack. The pace is mermserising, slowly drawing you deeper and deeper into the complex study of man and fears and his obsessions. Just does not get any better than this! You might also check out Bell, Book and Candle which teams Stewart and Novak (even more beautiful then) in another charming tale.
Rating:
Summary: A Must See
Review: This classic movie is great. There are some absolutely wonderful shots of San Francisco how it used to be in the late 50's early 60's. A super mystery. I'm glad I have it in my collection.
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Summary: Sometimes, a DVD makes all the difference.
Review: I saw "Vertigo" for the first time when it was re-released in 1983. While I enjoyed it, I wasn't enraptured by the film as much as so many of my contemporaries. Maybe I just didn't like the ending (don't worry- I won't give it away). On the other hand, its plot was one of the most enjoyable rollercoasters of mystery (rather than suspense or horror) I'd ever ridden. A love story becomes a tragic love story and murder mystery, and even then, there is so much more baggage to pilfer through in the movie's plot. But when I watched the restored Technicolor and VistaVision format in 1996, I fell in love with the film. That's the only way to see such a sublime production. The film is not only a postcard tourguide of San Francisco, it is a musical feast- courtesy of its composer Bernard Herrmann. And all of these factors have been sumptuously captured in the DVD release- along with the film's original trailers and a very nice "making of" documentary. And watch Kim Novak- with a subtle adjustment in hair, makeup, and wardrobe- play two (but not really two) different roles.
Rating:
Summary: Love that Spirograph, man
Review: I first saw this movie when I was six. It is interesting how certain visual images will strike someone so strongly, implant themselves in one's brain so that one never forgets them. At the age of six I registered neither the story nor the meaning, but for the next twelve years the general impact of the movie did not leave me. I remember the swirling of the credits, and the name Carlotta on a gravestone in a sunny, flowery churchyard; I remembered the mission tower and how Jimmy Stewart kept looking down as he climbed those stairs; I remembered how beautiful I thought Kim Novak was with that hair and all her snappy outfits; and I remembered Carlotta's necklace. All I could recall of the story was something about how the man thought the woman was dead and it ended up she wasn't but then got killed. I frequently made up stories in my head about a woman who supposedly died. Later her boyfriend would find her again and take her back to the place she was said to have died - and then she'd die for real. And when she died she would be wearing a beautiful black velvet dress.
So when after twelve years I watched this movie again, I was glad to finally understand the story and see all those things I remembered and loved when I first watched it, only now they all made sense. I suppose my opinion of this movie would be this: Much as I love Hitchcock, this isn't the most wonderful movie ever made. Still, it IS very good, I enjoy it very much, and it is definitely not a waste of time, if you like intrigue and "weird" plots. It's interesting to watch the downward spiral of Scotty's obsession with Madeleine - like a maelstrom at sea, once he was pulled in, he could never escape, and it ended in destruction for him as well as "Madeleine".
I've always thought of this film as being in two distinct parts: Act 1, Madeleine; and Act 2, Judy. The first half, Scotty pursues a woman who pretends to be possessed by an ancestress; in the second half, the woman who has pretended comes back to his life to possess him. Ultimately she destroys herself through allowing him in his obsession to make her what she should never have been. Kim Novak may not be the most dynamic actress - she is certainly no Grace Kelly or Ingrid Bergman. Still, she is a beautiful woman, and her dreamy acting in this film complements her role as Madeleine. She puts on a hard front for a little while as Judy, but as she gives in more and more to Scotty, Madeleine comes back. And that's how we want to see her - like Scotty, we want her to be Madeleine, even though we know no good can come of it.
I also must put in a word for Barbara Bel Geddes who played Midge, Scotty's former fiancée. She is wonderful, quite funny and motherly, and I love both scenes in her apartment. The first when she is drawing the advertisement illustration for the brassiere designed after the cantilever bridge concept, and the second when she paints a self-portrait after the manner of the Carlotta portrait. One of the saddest moments in the movie is when she leaves the institution where Scotty has been put - walking alone down the dark hall, leaving Scotty, and leaving us. Her heart is breaking. We do not see her again.
I highly recommend this movie.
Rating:
Summary: exceptional
Review: A brilliant psychological thriller from Hitchcock.Everything comes together beautifully in this extremely well made classic.
I love all of Hitchcock's films but this surely is the apogee of a truly wonderful career.
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Summary: Vertigo a dream made movie
Review: Perhaps that viewer from Spain and a lot of realistic viewers lost the major point this, and i would say, every film has: you go to movies to be transported to another world, to watch dreams come alive. That was the whole point of Hitchcock's masterpiece, who was always very interested in surreal signs and in the world of dreams. You can't go to see Vertigo with a notebook writing down every single flaw because the sensation the movie transmits is what really matters. Vertigo to me, is mainly a surrealistic movie which uses the argument as an excuse to communicate all the hidden secrets that lie in our subconscious. Hitchcock uses camera work, and all the tricks in his magic hat. by the way how can anyone criticize Vertigo without mentioning its music? This is one of the best soundtracks ever written by another genius, Bernard Herrmann. So keep it in mind: if you are a mathematician who likes to see "perfect" arguments and cant understand the feelings of an art work, please accompany the Spaniard to that parade he is talking about, meanwhile I'll be watching Vertigo again.
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