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Summary: VERTIGO is the most wonderful movie ever made!!!!!!!!
Review: James Stewart and Kim Novak are at their best in this movie!! They are my favorite actor and actress. Why? Because of this movie. Vertigo is in a class of it's own. Some people may agree, some may not. The perception that you get from within the movie is great. And the music goes exactly with that. Bernard Herrmann is one of the most greatest composers of all time. And because of his music, the movie is even better. The prelude, nightmare, and love theme (my favorite) are all composed greatly. Let's not forget about Alfred Hitchcock, he did a magnificent job directing this movie. He is one of my personal favorites, and I love all his movies. Now, to get to the movie we start with James Stewart who plays Scotty Ferguson. To help his friend Gavin Elster, (played by Tom Helmore) Scotty follows his wife all around San Francisco. She is suppossed to be possessed by a dead woman. This part is played by the beatiful Kim Novak. She is potraying Madeleine Elster in this film. So, the two end up falling in love. Alot of things go on between here, but I don't want to give it away. That is the basis of the movie. You have to watch the movie and find out the rest yourself. I would reccommend this movie to anyone who likes mystery and suspense. It is a wonderful film you can't go wrong. I bought it, and so should you. If you love Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak together like I do, than you should see Bell, Book, and Candle. So see Vertigo, because you'll treasure it forever!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Summary: SCOTTIE LOVES MADELEINE................................
Review: Considered by many (including myself) to be Hitchcock's finest film. It's easy enough to appreciate the best of Hitchcock's films and to be jolted by them, but VERTIGO stands alone in its ability to move audiences emotionally. What's remarkable about this deservedly celebrated film, is that considering all its plot twists, VERTIGO definitely works even better after a first viewing. The film's genius is depicting such perversity as merely circumstance-crossed love. In other words, its genius is in revealing the perversity behind accepted "normal" practices. Once the secret's out, (and I ain't gonna spill it, folks!) it's a completely different film, and a better one - No longer a harrowing (albeit hokey) ghost story, it's a profound study of sexual obsession, tied together by the city which best displays the essential acrophobic metaphor. VERTIGO was not particularly successful at the time of its release in 1958; it is now considered one of Hitchcock's greatest films. The voyeuristic impulse behind Hitchcock's style is most immediately evident in the tourist sensibility that pervade his American films - a tourist will keep his careful distance from the grit of the world. Here, The Golden Gate Bridge, the Palace of the Legion of Honor, Podesta's flowershop, Ernie's restaurant, Coit Tower, Fort Point, etc. make up San Francisco's slick surface through Robert Burks's sharp edged Technicolor. Hitchcock's silent film mastery pays off in the scenes involving Scotty's extended tailing of Madeleine, accompanied by Bernard Herrmann's haunting score. A unique film experience and definitely one of the most fascinating and intricate movies of the last century!
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Summary: HITCHCOCK WAS A GENIUS
Review: I have been a Hitchcock fan for years, but can you believe it--until recently I had only seen "Psycho" and "The Birds". I'm 28 years old. Of course, these two movies alone would make one remember Hitchcock forever. I FINALLY, recently made the effort to become acquainted with Hitchcock's other movies. I purchased "Rear Window" which was GREAT. And, then I purchased "Vertigo". My, my! Great! How could you possibly go wrong with this movie! First you have director Alfred Hitchcock, the superb genius of portraying true, human elements and hidden emotion on film. Then, you have Bernard Herrman who orchestrated the musical score for the movie--beautiful and impressive. Herrman also was a genius in composing music. Being extremely familiar with "Psycho", made in 1960, I could hear faint elements in the "Vertigo" score, made in 1958, which hint at what would later become the "Psycho" composition. Yet, they are two, completely different scores with their own unique qualities. And, JAMES STEWART, one of my very favorite actors. GREAT as usual, maybe even better than usual. Actually, this is the first movie I have seen with KIM NOVACK, and I am impressed. She actually plays the role of two different women in the movie, and does so very realistically. Impressive!
This movie has beautiful, absolutely superb footage of 1950s San Francisco and surrounding area.
This particular VHS widescreen edition is excellent in that it includes advertisement and movie trailer of the movie. And, as an extremely interesting bonus, after the movie is the AMC program which tells about the very costly and time-consuming restoration of the movie and also discusses the making of the movie.
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Summary: Movie Craftsmanship at its best
Review: James Stewart can do no wrong in my eyes, and probably in the eyes of the vast majority of the movie-going public. It is obvious why he was a favourite of Alfred Hitchcock's. Here he shows not only his usual charm, but also a slightly sinister side, evidence of his great talents as an actor and not just a star. The plot is interesting, and best enjoyed if you don't try to guess ahead. The restored version shows the beautiful colour of the original and particularly the fine costume design. The sound restoration is also worthy of mention. It is handled sensitively by re-creating the sound effects in stereo and adding a clean copy of the Bernard Hermann score to the best versions of the dialogue the restorers could find. It might lack authenticity but it does make the film more enjoyable than some of the worn-out prints we had been used to, which really did not do the film justice.
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Summary: Bernard Herrmann's Best with Hitch
Review: Everyone in the world is probably familiar with Bernard Herrmann's score for "Psycho," particularly the music from the shower sequence. And his scores for films like "North By Northwest," "Citizen Kane" and "The Day The Earth Stood Still" rightfully place him at or near the top of the list of the worlds greatest film composers. However, nothing matches "Vertigo" in terms of raw emotive power. If "Vertigo" is Hitchcock's most atmospheric masterpiece, then Herrmann should be given credit for much of the atmosphere and dramatic impact. How else could 10 to 15 minutes of Jimmy Stewart wordlessly following a dazed woman be so riveting?Fortunately, in this restored DVD release of Vertigo, the music is given a prominent place in the mix (only occasionally hampered by the sometimes awkwardly recorded new foley effects), which really supports the dreaminess of it all. Some of the most groundbreaking and progressive music of the 20th century was written in the context of film scoring, and Bernard Herrmann was a giant in his field. It's truly a shame that he and Hitchcock had a falling out prior to the completion of "Torn Curtain" (I might add that if Herrmann's score for "Torn Curtain" had been used, which he did write, the movie might not be considered one of Hitch's lesser pictures today). Between the exotic, lovely, deeply color-saturated and newly restored print and Herrmann's own film score, "Vertigo" as presented in this DVD package is mesmerizing. Very, very highly recommended.
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Summary: What more can be said, really?
Review: If there ever was a film that was to demand multiple viewings, this is it. There is so much to get out this movie that thousands of film students, professors and critics have written essays, even books about it. After 43 years it still remains one of the most discussed films in cinematic history. All I will say is that Bernard Herrmann's score has to be the most beautiful music I have ever heard put to a film. He was just as masterful a composer as Hitch was a director...
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Summary: Don't Look Down!
Review: Definitely not for those with acrophobia, "Vertigo" tells the story of a police detective who developed vertigo after a near fatal fall who must come to grips with his phobia at a most horrific time. James Stewart explores his dark side once again with Alfred Hitchcock. Like the wheelchair-bound photog in "Rear Window", the police detective is not really a nice guy, certainly not nice to the women who love him. This creates complexity for the audience: You're supposed to feel some sympathy for him, yet you can't really like him, either. He's been hired to shadow Kim Novak, a beautiful, aloof, and somewhat suicidal blonde married to an old friend. Stewart becomes caught up in her spell, only to suffer the worst of consequences when his vertigo kicks in at a crisis. Lots of surprises all the way up to the very last second. Look up "Vertigo" in your video store, but don't look down!
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Summary: Vertigo is why cinema is great
Review: I would give so much just to see the film again as though it were my first time viewing this masterpiece. The film is as haunting as it is romantic, and works even better today than it did in 1958. Kim Novak plays the troubled Madeline, who is "possesed" by a ghost driving her to suicide, and Jimmy Stewart is a man hired by her husband to follow her.....and that's just the begining. The film is full of brilliant plot twists, and has moments of romance and suspense that will forever remain in our memory. Vertigo is an immortal film, one that remains, along with Psycho, to be his most disturbing and most discussed. See it, especially the DVD, which is full of great extras and a great widescreen transfer.
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Summary: vertigo
Review: Again a classic thriller by Hitch backed up by Bernard Hermann. What more could you ask for.
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Summary: 'Vertigo' in a soundbite? You're joking.
Review: Is there anything left to say about 'Vertigo'? How would you describe it to someone who had never seen it: a Martian, say? You couldn't claim it was the greatest film ever made, the last Modernist film, the ultimate film about watching films: s/he wouldn't know what you were talking about. You could say it was a detective film, about an investigator who loses his modus operandi, his mind. you could say it was a dream, the story of a man who sleepwalks through a non-existent illusory world, created by Gavin Elster, alias Alfred Hitchcock. You could use it to reveal the character of Men, their boundless, self-deluding, myth-making capacity for romance, and murderous, self-centred, emotional brutalism. You could call it a labyrinth in which the different paths are made of Time, and the walls created by Colour, Music, Paintings, Stories, San Francisco, Religion. You could tell them that Bernard Herrmann's music will haunt them forever, score their own obsessive memories. You could even proffer it as a prime example of religious film-making, of one man's damnation as he strives for redemption. whatever you do, you'd better advise them not to watch it at all, because it would convince them that they were an inferior species, and that one portly Englishman, nearly half a century ago, found the key to the Truth, and ran away with it. We've been chasing him through 'Vertigo' ever since. Delirious.
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