Cinema
Vertigo
Alfred Hitchcock · 1958
Synopsis
San Francisco. During a rooftop chase, Detective John Ferguson, known as Scottie, discovers that he has vertigo; a policeman who comes to rescue him falls and dies, and Scottie leaves the police. Gavin Elster, a college acquaintance who runs shipyards, asks him to follow his wife Madeleine, whom he says is possessed by the spirit of her great-grandmother, Carlotta Valdes, who committed suicide at twenty-six. Scottie follows her to a florist's, to Carlotta's grave, to the museum before her portrait, pulls her from the waters of the bay, and falls in love with her.
Context
The forward zoom combined with a pull-back of the camera, which gives the sensation of vertigo, was devised by Hitchcock and perfected by Irmin Roberts for this film; according to the filmmaker, the shot cost 19,000 dollars. Critical opinion was divided and the takings barely exceeded the budget. Withdrawn from circulation in the early 1970s with four other films by its director, it was not re-released until October 1983. In the decennial Sight and Sound poll, it rose from seventh place in 1982 to first in 2012.
Who it is for
A two-hour-and-eight-minute colour film in which James Stewart plays the detective and Kim Novak the woman he follows.
Prizes and reception
Two Academy Award nominations, for art direction and sound; inscribed in 1989 among the first twenty-five titles of the Library of Congress's National Film Registry, and ranked second by critics in 2022.
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