Rating: 
Summary: Vertigo: a kaleidoscope of the mind
Review: For me, the greatest thing about Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo is the way it escapes any simple explanation or analysis. This is the hallmark of a truly great film. After reading many articles and books about it, watching it repeatedly, and listening repeatedly to Bernard Herrmann's brilliant soundtrack, I still find myself unable to reduce the film to any simple analytical paradigm. In fact, new ideas about it suggest themselves to me all the time. Lately, I have been working on a gnostic interpretation of the film. Suppose one view's Scotty and Madeleine's struggle in mythic terms. They are like human pilgrims, forced to wander the physical world (the "kenoma" or emptiness in gnostic terms) while the divine spark within them longs to return to the "pleroma" or higher realm. Scotty thinks he sees a glimpse of that "pleroma," his true heavenly home, in Madeleine. He tries to follow her up the tower, a vain, human attempt to attain transcendence, and she dies. Then, still longing for escape from worldly limitations, he tries to re-transfigure her in the image of divinity. Again, he will fail, because he does not have the gnosis, or divine knowledge of how to achieve the salvation he seeks. The giant redwood trees in the forest scene could be seen as an analogue of the archons, those dark angels whom the gnostics believed were our jailers imprisoning us in the lower realms. Anyway, it's just a thought--there are so many different ways of looking at Vertigo and this is just one of them. It is, simultaneously, a deep endorsement of spirituality and a deep cry of sorrow at man's inability to transcend his inherent limitations.
Rating:
Summary: A Hitchcock Masterpiece
Review: Many believe that this was greatest work of a master renowned for the outstanding direction of suspense thrillers. Alfred Hitchcock creates a vortex of emotion and deception in this classic film about obsession. There are so many complex themes to this story that it requires several viewings to appreciate. It metamorphoses numerous times, shifting from a detective story, to a love story, to a murder mystery, and finally to neurotic obsession. It is a deep character study of flawed characters. Some are not what they appear to be and others change before our eyes. Hitchcock's direction is superb, not only from the standpoint of assembling the story, but from a technical perspective as well. The photography, lighting and perspectives are brilliantly done and the locations wonderfully selected, especially the shots at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge. Hitchcock also brings forth outstanding performances from Kim Novak and James Stewart. Stewart generally played admirable and heroic characters in his career, so the deeply flawed John Ferguson was a clear departure for him. This is probably his best and most gut wrenching performance. I don't think it would have been possible without Hitchcock's direction, because Hitchcock was the master of bringing such characters to life. Novak and Barbara Bel Geddes (most famous as Miss Ellie on TV's "Dallas") also give excellent performances. Bernard Herrmann's musical score is superlative. It is beautiful, compelling and chilling and brought additional power to almost every scene. Hitchcock had such great respect for Herrmann that he stated during production that whether the scenes of the film worked or not depended completely on the music Herrmann would write. He trusted that Herrmann would create just the right mood, and he was correct. The DVD version presents us with a completely restored version of the film with rich color and powerful sound. The new DVD is the only way to watch this film if one hopes to experience it the way it was originally presented in 1958. This film is ranked number 61 on AFI's top 100 movies of the century. I rated it a 10/10. It was virtually ignored at the Academy Awards garnering only two nominations for set decoration and sound. However, it endures in the opinion of many as one of the best suspense thrillers ever made.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Over-rated
Review: Over hyped and ultimately unsatisfying story of a retired detective (Jimmy Stewart) who becomes obssessed with a woman (Kim Novak) who may or may not be suffering from a personality disorder. Woonderfully filmed but the story lacks imagination.
Rating: 
Summary: one of the most beautiful film of all time , but....
Review: VERTIGO is one of my personal favorite film of all time, and if I write to praise this emotinally- filled obsessive love story, I just won't be able to stop. But following the lesson from the great Hitchcock himself, less is more. What I'd rather like to critisise is the "restoration" that was the basis of this DVD. Now it's true that VERTIGO has never looked as beautiful as this for the last doezen years or so before Harris and Katz restored and re-release it. The re-release print of the mid eighties was so poor in quality. So in that sense, you should buy this DVD because it is the best version available so far--for most of the audience. But this so-called "restoration" is controversial, and has a lot of problems. I must say that the best available version of the film is still the TECHNICOLOR-IB prints from the 50's and 60's, because IB prints don't fade in colors and there are still some prints available. Harris and Katz did the best they could to capture the colors, the visual beauty of the film, using the original negative, and their version basically looks fine, except for the very dark scene (such as the tower of San Juan Batista at the end). Now, as they and the film's associate producer Herbie Coleman points out on the commentary track, they restored the correct darkness, but not the contrast, which they should have enhanced to simulate the original TECHNICOLOR look in which the shadows are really black but at the same time keeping the details. On an IB-TECHNICOLOR prints, the faces of Jimmy Stuart and Kim Novak really pop out of the darkness, allowing the audience to understand the incridible dramatic conflict of the scene....but on the "restoration", you see vertually nothing except the darkness. The biggest problem is the sound. In order to create a digital DTS sound track, they removed all the original sound effects, and replaced with new effects created on folleys. They must have done the best they could, but still those new sound effects are so annoying, and it destroys the atmosphere and emotions of the film. They just sound noisy. The original version of the film had a soundtrack which is much more subtle, which creates a beautiful dreamy, moody atmosphere totally in the spirit of the film. Bernard Herrmann's beautiful music (probably the best music ever written for a film) suffers a lot because of that, which is a real pitty. Since the DVD format allows to have many different sound tracks, it would have been nice if they could keep the original monaural sound as an additional track. Then those who are in favor of the more "modern" digital sound can have their fun, while those who has a deeper, true understanding of the film could fully enjoy Hitchcock's masterpiece, truly in its original form (Hitchcock had never intended to make this film in stereo anyway). I am very afraid that from now on, people will missunderstand that this is the standard version of VERTIGO. It simply is not. It is a much much much more beautiful film
Rating:
Summary: You Destroy the Thing You Love
Review: If one were to view "Vertigo" in a plausible light, it might not hold up. Plot-wise, it is somewhat contrived. And if it were handled by a filmmaker who was something less than a genius, it would probably be another potboiler. However, "Vertigo" was made by Alfred Hitchcock, who was more interested in the theme of a man obsessed with recreating a dead woman through another who is alive. The "twist" is that both women are the same. "Vertigo" draws the viewer in, hypnotizes them, and holds them, in the same way as the film's protagonist, a bedeviled Jimmy Stewart. "Vertigo" is not so much a murder/mystery as a beautifully filmed, rather sad dissection of romantic illusion/delusion. One WANTS to believe in the beautiful, disturbed, suicidal Madeleine, whereas the sensible, "normal" but albeit "unglamorous" Midge can't compete with her for Stewart's affections. The viewer, and later, Stewart receive a slap in the emotional face when it is revealed that "Madeleine" never existed. Hitchcock was treading on very sensitive emotional territory with this film (and dealing with his own frustrated, unrealized romantic obsessions). "Vertigo" is a very deeply felt, hurtful film. In my opinion, it IS one of Hitchcock's greatest films. "Vertigo" looks and sounds magnificent in the DVD format. Bernard Herrmann's heartbreakingly beautiful score brings tears to my eyes. All of the carefully chosen visual elements of this film (the use of color is particularly brilliant), the photography, locales, Kim Novak's wardrobe benefit from the clarity that DVD provides. A winner!
Rating:
Summary: Vertigo in S.F.
Review: Mission Dolores--324 Dolores St. at 16th (Carlotta's grave) Jimmy Stewart's apartment--900 Lombard St. at Jones (a couple of blocks south of the "crookedest block in the world"). Brocklebank Apartments (Madeleine's apt.)--1000 Mason St. (largely unchanged and quite recognizable!) Mission San Juan Bautista--about 90 miles south of San Francisco, on SR 156, just south of Gilroy. (No bell tower, which was a studio add-on). Ernie's restaurant--847 Montgomery St. Now with a different name, but the same facade. Empire Hotel--(Judy's place)--940 Sutter St. near Hyde. (Then as now called "The York Hotel"). Fort Point (the rescue site under the Golden Gate bridge)--Long Dr. and Marine Ave. (Still looks the same, but with quite a few folks "wandering about"). Finally, Park Hill Sanitarium--351 Buena Vista Ave. East. Now an apartment building for the elderly.
Rating:
Summary: HITCHCOCK'S MASTERPIECE
Review: Alfred Hitchcock's VERTIGO is one of the 50 best movies ever made. I personally know one person who watches it every two months and still discovers in this movie some food for his mind. It's true that VERTIGO has been analyzed in numerous books after the brilliant articles in "The Cahiers du Cinéma" written by the future heroes of the Nouvelle Vague : Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. VERTIGO is one of this movies which directly speaks to your heart if you're a cinephile, like Peter Bogdanovich's THE LAST PICTURE SHOW or John Ford's THE SEARCHERS. Why does this particular movie speak to me more than the others ? For a simple reason, James Stewart is the mirror through which every cinephile can recognize himself. During long moments, Alfred Hitchcock films James Stewart in his car following Kim Novak ; no words are spoken, there is only Bernard Hermann's musical score and the face of James Stewart. At this moment, you are staring with intensity at a man who stares with intensity at a beautiful woman you too would like to stare at with intensity. Then, you enter the movie lover's vertigo, you become James Stewart. No need to say that VERTIGO was the first DVD I've bought and should have a place, in my opinion, in any honest man's library (in the XVIIIth century meaning of the word). English, spanish and french subtitles, a commentary, trailers, the second ending and other goodies. A DVD which is already in your library.
Rating:
Summary: COUNTERPOINT
Review: I have seen "Vertigo" at least five times. I'd like to say that it is a brilliant treatise on the subjects of obsession and necrophilia. But, it is not. "Vertigo" is simply an expertly crafted thriller, no more probing than "Jaws" or "Jurassic Park." Like those two films and their maker, Steven Spielberg, Alfred Hitchcock was a pop artist. He was no more interested in voyeurism than he was in exploring human relationships. Hitchcock was brilliant at creating suspense and tension, no more. Whether the plot involved an old lady around the corner with a knife or an apartment dweller dispensing of his wife, Hitchcock relied on plot devices and editing tricks to achieve his main goal: box office success.
Rating:
Summary: Movie Goers also Reach for the Unobtainable
Review: Sir Alfred Hitchcock was trying to make a statement that we as moviegoers are voyeurs and are just as fanatically obsessed by the images on the screen as "Scottie" Ferguson is with Madeleine in "VERTIGO". "VERTIGO" is in effect a movie about people who love the cinema and are captivated by it. Those people who do not like "VERTIGO" state that it is not realistic and too improbable. That is just the point. "VERTIGO" is about an artificial world and the fascination of that world. Those who like "VERTIGO" are drawn to it over and over because it is about something that is inside each of us that is ever so fleeting and will always remain unobtainable. Bernard Herrmann, the film's composer seems to have understood the essence of this film as he captured the erotic passion and ultimate hopelessness of its characters with his haunting score. Herrmann had always expressed his desire to be a symphony conductor, yet the lure of the cinema was more than just a means of collecting a paycheck for him. I think he had a great understanding of the cinema and its power over human emotions, yet it seems to have remained an enigma even for him. With the restoration of "VERTIGO" I find only one fault: the sound. The film does sound exquisite in stereo surround, but I do not like the fact that some of the Foley effects were redone for the restoration. That was immediately evident with the opening gunshots on the rooftop pursuit. This was confirmed later when I viewed the feature on the restoration included on the DVD. To restore a film is one thing, but to actually replace elements of the film that are still present and are not lost seems sacrilegious. If the technical resources and budget were available at the time of filming, I believe Hitchcock would have made this film in stereo as long as he felt it enhanced the film's effect. I know that it is nowhere as abhorrent as colorizing a black and white film, but one should have the option of playing the film with its original sound. Restoration should mean just that: to repair something that is damaged or attempt as best as possible (using artistic discretion) to replace something that is lost. Replacing Foley elements to achieve a stereo surround effect is not restoration.
Rating:
Summary: The second time around . . .
Review: The paradox of this movie is that a man is given the opportunity to love the same woman twice, but fails, because his pursuit for reality and his drive for closure blinds him to the paradise on earth that was within his reach. Scotty's love affair with Madeline - his "fantasy" love - is cut short when Madeline meets her fantasy demise. Scotty is "dumped" by Madeline when Madeline feigns her death. Scotty's love affair with Judy - his "real" love - is cut short when Judy meets her real demise. Scotty is dumped and liberated by Judy when Judy meets her real death. Scotty tries to make Madeline his real love. Scotty tries to make Judy his fantasy love. The heart-wrenching aspect of the whole story is that Scotty's fantasy and real lover are one and the same. I am always so sad when I finish viewing this movie. I am alway left with the feeling of how much love existed in this triangle. If only Madeline-Scotty-Judy could have fully seen and comprehended that love.
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