a thread for hitchcock's 'vertigo'

how unrelentingly bleak it is, how there's no real protagonist or antagonist, the degree to which it just seems relentlessly morbid and nihilistic.

final shot should have consigned the scream to oblivion

Not enough love here for Bernard Herrmann's score which is insanely good.

magnifique

Where is this lack of love that you remark upon?

Love for the clothes: http://clothesonfilm.com/costume-identity-in-hitchcocks-vertigo/25039/

Fri, Sep-21; see also Sep-25
6:00pm @ Gene Siskel Film Center
Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958, 129m)
NOTE: "Vertigo will be screened in a rare original IB Technicolor release print. If you have only seen one of the recent restorations, or seen the film on DVD or other video, you haven't really seen it. The sound in the most recent restoration was badly redone, and this is a film that especially depends on the 'look' of IB Technicolor. "
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, August 2, 2012 10:29 AM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Got to see this print with a sell-out crowd tonight. The "You haven't really seen it." thing is seriously indiesnob hyperbolic. Yes, much of the time it looks fantastic (if frustratingly a bit soft and/or fuzzy at times), and to hear the proper soundtrack in Glorious MONO--as god intended!--is worth the price of admission and then some. If anything, the way to sell such a screening is "Probably the last time you'll see it on actual film", which is sad for different reasons.

Afterwards, as the audience was exiting, I found myself next to a group of 20-somethings who must have been viewing for the first time. They were lamenting the lack of Midge in the last section. I told them about the alternate "extended" or "censorship" ending, which they all felt would have been superior to the "real" ending.

Fuckin' Kids!

just rewatched on the big screen last week with someone who'd never seen it. every bit as gloriously fucked up as I remembered.

xpost (to ... me?) I know the Music Box here is booking it for their 70mm Fest. So what's the story there? Was it filmed in 70mm? Was the sound originally mono, even in 70mm?

Anyway, it's a great movie, and I've loved Hitchcock since I was a little kid, but this one even more than most of his films really underscores his disinterest in endings. It's like ... run, run, run, suspense, and ... over the edge, the end. So many of his great films end that way, like NXNW. Rear Window is probably my fave, too, not least because of the few extra tidying-up character beats they toss in rather than a hard cut at the climax to "The End."

Ah, I see. Filmed in VistaVision, but the 1996 restoration transferred it all to 70mm, with new foley effects and other stuff. Long story from Wiki:

In 1996, the film was given a lengthy and controversial restoration by Robert A. Harris and James C. Katz and re-released to theaters. The new print featured restored color and newly created audio, utilizing modern sound effects mixed in DTS digital surround sound. In October 1996, the restored Vertigo premiered at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, with Kim Novak and Patricia Hitchcock in person. At this screening, the film was exhibited for the first time in DTS and 70mm, a format with a similar frame size to the VistaVision system in which it was originally shot. When restoring the sound, Harris and Katz wanted to stay as close as possible to the original, and had access to the original music recordings that had been stored in the vaults at Paramount. However, as the project demanded a new 6-channel DTS stereo soundtrack, it was necessary to re-record some sound effects using the foley process. The soundtrack was remixed at the Alfred Hitchcock Theatre at Universal Studios. Aware that the film had a considerable following, the restoration team knew that they were under particular pressure to restore the film as accurately as possible. To achieve this, they used Hitchcock's original dubbing notes for guidance of how the director wanted the film to sound in 1958. Harris and Katz sometimes added extra sound effects to camouflage defects in the old soundtrack ("hisses, pops, and bangs"); in particular they added extra seagull cries and a foghorn to the scene at Cypress Point. The new mix has also been accused of putting too much emphasis on the score at the expense of the sound effects. The 2005 Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection DVD contains the original mono track as an option. Significant color correction was necessary because of the fading of original negatives. In some cases a new negative was created from the silver separation masters, but in many instances this was impossible because of differential separation shrinkage, and because the 1958 separations were poorly made. Separations used three individual films: one for each of the primary colors. In the case of Vertigo, these had shrunk in different and erratic proportions, making re-alignment impossible. As such, significant amounts of computer assisted coloration were necessary. Although the results are not noticeable on viewing the film, some elements were as many as eight generations away from the original negative, in particular the entire "Judy's Apartment" sequence, which is perhaps the most pivotal sequence in the entire film. When such large portions of re-creation become necessary, then the danger of artistic license by the restorers becomes an issue, and the restorers received some criticism for their re-creation of colors that allegedly did not honor the director's and cinematographer's intentions. The restoration team argued that they did research on the colors used in the original locations, cars, wardrobe, and skin tones. One breakthrough moment came when the Ford Motor Company supplied a well-preserved green paint sample for a car used in the film. As the use of the color green in the film has artistic importance, matching a shade of green was a stroke of luck for restoration and provided a reference shade.

I remember the controversy surrounding the sound effects, but I guess I didn't remember the details that it was a devil's bargain supposedly necessary to restore the rest of the film, or at least bring the presentation up to snuff.

after "Mozart isn't going to help," Midge don't matter.

But what do you expect of a generation raised on Masterpiece Television?

It's like ... run, run, run, suspense, and ... over the edge, the end.

you only have to change your direction, said the cat

this one even more than most of his films really underscores his disinterest in endings

you didn't understand the film, btw

it's PERFECT.

fuck the suspense plot, it's about a guy destroying himself.

this movie gave me nightmares as a kid. didn't rewatch again until about 2-3 years ago, was reminded why it's probably my favorite Hitchcock.

even the muted moments have great beats, even if there aren't as many of them.

i need this on blu-ray

xpost I don't mean the ending as written, the plot. It ends "perfectly." I just mean rhythmically, I find it a little abrupt.

It'd be like if "Psycho" (which has its own problem ending) ended with the reveal of Norman in a wig and mother in the chair, then just splashed "The End" across the screen. Like here, if the end of the movie was right at the 1:30 mark:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWHYmNrAFlI

It would work perfectly fine, but would feel just as abrupt.

Hmm, this was interesting:

http://www.alfredhitchcockgeek.com/2007/06/end-according-to-hitchcock.html

Of course, all of Hitch’s films end with a dénouement. But if you blink, you’ll miss it. What’s missing is the feeling of decompression or the restoration of equilibrium that accompanies a lengthier conclusion. Hitchcock consistently cheats us out of that feeling.

pulling Marion's car out of swamp = restoration = return of the repressed

Vertigo ending just looks into the abyss (and perhaps leaps into it)

i didn't know about the alternate Vertigo ending. reading about it, it almost sounds like Hitchcock sort of snarkily made a weak "happy ending".

yeah he didn't give a shit, i imagine him saying under his breath "fuck the Italians"

The link upthread is dead...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJBSSkn0Ldw

if you watch that ending more than once it's in danger of becoming the actual ending in yr head so NO THANKS

Vertigo on blu-ray is what I bought a blu-ray player for lo! these many years. Such a beauty ( the film, not the machine). Hell, think I'll watch this tonight.

They were lamenting the lack of Midge in the last section.

i had noticed this on early viewings. in my opinion: midge is a wholesome love interest, somewhat maternal to johnny, that he rejects, which is why she isn't in much of the second half.

The bell tower scenes....man

I'd love more restaurants to look as plush as Ernie's.

i'm glad that ending isn't in the actual film but i dunno, i'm sort of glad it exists

saw a 70MM print of this last night on a double bill with De Palma's "Body Double" for my birthday and sure enough

the line where theater audiences tend to produce a sickened laugh is "Judy, it can't matter to you."

this happened

Vertigo is one of the few films that does actually get better with every viewing.

had no idea about the alternate ending posted upthread, that's nuts. Excluding Midge from the back half makes it much more removed from reality.

i think "judy, it can't matter to you" prob struck audiences as messed up even at the time

Didn't Cary Grant say something about Judy in one of his films as well?

"Vertigo" is one of my all-time favorites. Thread reminds me that I have to ask for this back from someone who borrowed it years ago and moved provinces. :-/

i wish i liked this movie more. i keep waiting for an epiphany while i'm watching it. nope.

― the late great, Monday, May 13, 2013 12:49 AM (three years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

saw Vertigo for the first time last night and this is exactly how i feel. time to read some wonky academic essays about it.

do you believe that someone out of the past -- someone dead -- can enter, and take possession, of a living being?

this movie creeps into your soul more than it wows you on first viewing.

agreed, then one day you wake up and

http://images.popmatters.com/features_art/e/ending-vertigo-1.jpg

i think ryan's probably right but i also think a first viewing in the right frame of mind should be more than sufficiently soul-wrenching

^^^ lol DN

1st viewing clicked for me this movie is a mind blowing proto-Mulholland Drive visual tone poem/psycho drama.

https://media.giphy.com/media/RurmdGzFD628E/giphy.gif
https://media.giphy.com/media/WlN3Oz873pKdq/giphy.gif
https://media.giphy.com/media/bryCtjGB4Vt72/giphy.gif

https://media.giphy.com/media/129ghIFY6s1HEI/giphy.gif

whats not to like about this? at the very least it is stylistic as heck

does flappy bird have any correct opinions

i have been to a bunch, incl the cemetery

https://sf.curbed.com/maps/a-carefully-plotted-totally-stalky-map-of-hitchcocks-vertigo

https://i.imgur.com/kB3vkq6.png

he's a fucking vampire!

(or a projector. or a director)

(repeat of the art museum tableau in which she stares at a two-dimensional version of herself designed by a man while he stands behind her, first as curious audience then as evil auteur)

Rewatched yesterday in DCP theater showing, followed by this:

https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/film-week-green-fog/

There's a very funny meta Michael Douglas ass joke.