hell, I'll pimp what I wrote last year
(while encouraging you to read Chris Marker instead)
http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/vertigo/5549
― Pangborn to be Wilde (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 2 August 2012 00:13 (eleven years ago) link
reads like you're pimping Roget's
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Thursday, 2 August 2012 00:27 (eleven years ago) link
That's as effective a defense of the movie as I've ever read, Morbs; but I'm still unpersuaded by the film's pace, which seems even more at this juncture like a sop to The Plausibles.
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 2 August 2012 00:28 (eleven years ago) link
...Obviously, this text is addressed to those who know Vertigo by heart. But do those who don’t deserve anything at all?chris marker
Obviously, this text is addressed to those who know Vertigo by heart. But do those who don’t deserve anything at all?
chris marker
ps i have never seen vertigo and may never.
― jed_, Thursday, 2 August 2012 00:30 (eleven years ago) link
i deserve nothing at all.
― jed_, Thursday, 2 August 2012 00:31 (eleven years ago) link
not a patch on, say Strangers On A Train, Psycho, The Birds etc. IMO
― piscesx, Thursday, 2 August 2012 00:33 (eleven years ago) link
my favorite dave kehr capsule:
One of the landmarks--not merely of the movies, but of 20th-century art. Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 film extends the theme of Rear Window--the relationship of creator and creation--into the realm of love and sexuality, focusing on an isolated, inspired romantic (James Stewart) who pursues the spirit of a woman (the powerfully carnal Kim Novak). The film's dynamics of chase, capture, and escape parallel the artist's struggle with his work; the enraptured gaze of the Stewart character before the phantom he has created parallels the spectator's position in front of the movie screen. The famous motif of the fall is presented in horizontal rather than vertical space, so that it becomes not a satanic fall from grace, but a modernist fall into the image, into the artwork--a total absorption of the creator by his creation, which in the end is shown as synonymous with death. But a thematic analysis can only scratch the surface of this extraordinarily dense and commanding film, perhaps the most intensely personal movie to emerge from the Hollywood cinema.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 2 August 2012 00:33 (eleven years ago) link
i am kinda incredulous that anyone prefers 'strangers on a train,' one of his most mucked-up films. the only one i might like better is 'rear window.'
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 2 August 2012 00:34 (eleven years ago) link
My top five:
NotoriousRear WindowRebeccaStrangers on a TrainNorth by Northwest
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 2 August 2012 00:36 (eleven years ago) link
perhaps the most intensely personal movie to emerge from the Hollywood cinema
Maybe--maybe not. Welles, Chaplin, Ford, and Capra--just to name four that come to mind--surely had films just as personal. (Which I don't think is that important when responding to films anyway. Stanley Kramer's films were very personal too.)
― clemenza, Thursday, 2 August 2012 00:38 (eleven years ago) link
i guess mine would probably be:
vertigorear windowthe 39 steps notorioussuspicion (or rebecca -- can't decide)
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 2 August 2012 00:39 (eleven years ago) link
Psycho and Rope are my favourites. the favourites of someone who deserves nothing at all.
― jed_, Thursday, 2 August 2012 00:39 (eleven years ago) link
Rear WindowShadow of a DoubtPsychoThe Lady VanishesThe Birds (iffy...I voted for it in the horror poll, then had second thoughts)
― clemenza, Thursday, 2 August 2012 00:41 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, North by Northwest instead of The Birds. And Psycho #2.
― clemenza, Thursday, 2 August 2012 00:42 (eleven years ago) link
Strangers On a Train has great stuff in it, but c'mon, Ruth Roman-Farley Granger scenes are the pits.
― Pangborn to be Wilde (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 2 August 2012 00:51 (eleven years ago) link
also intensely personal: The Nutty Professor
― Pangborn to be Wilde (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 2 August 2012 00:52 (eleven years ago) link
vertigo is obvs the best one
― horseshoe, Thursday, 2 August 2012 00:54 (eleven years ago) link
c'mon, Ruth Roman-Farley Granger scenes are the pits.
at the bottom of that pit is Kim Novak "acting."
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 2 August 2012 01:06 (eleven years ago) link
and Ruth Roman boasts superb Groucho Marx eyebrorws
I could be persuaded that this was his best, definitely. Vying with Rear Window, I think. Though I have many many gaps in my Hitchcock knowledge.
― emil.y, Thursday, 2 August 2012 01:16 (eleven years ago) link
Kind of happy we live in a world where something as crazy and weird and just unhinged as Vertigo is considered canon "best of all time" material. Love it. More vital and fascinating than any other Hitchcock maybe because it's the one where he seems least in control of the ideas.
― ryan, Thursday, 2 August 2012 01:22 (eleven years ago) link
i genuinely don't understand the objection to novak's performance! who would have done a better job?
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 2 August 2012 01:24 (eleven years ago) link
Actually, that's the one thing I do love about the film: its audaciousness. Just the idea that he took what I assume was a blank cheque from the studio and made this. (xpost)
― clemenza, Thursday, 2 August 2012 01:25 (eleven years ago) link
yeah Alfred, i thought I carefully explained the value of Novak's casting! cheeeee!
― Pangborn to be Wilde (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 2 August 2012 01:27 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah I worry it's status will blind new audiences to how nuts it is. They will expect some austere cool masterpiece and that's not the appeal at all to me.
Novak's performance reminds me that this is one of those films whose flaws seems to resonate. Tho I always did think Vera Miles looked pretty hot in those test photos.
― ryan, Thursday, 2 August 2012 01:28 (eleven years ago) link
Novak IS well cast but so are Roman and Granger.
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 2 August 2012 01:31 (eleven years ago) link
but the roles are boring. They kinda had to be cuz Hollywood was not ready for Highsmith.
― Pangborn to be Wilde (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 2 August 2012 01:33 (eleven years ago) link
i do love the first half of 'strangers,' and the ending, but it just feels like there's so much held back.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 2 August 2012 01:35 (eleven years ago) link
notorious uber alles
― Hungry4Ass, Thursday, 2 August 2012 01:41 (eleven years ago) link
that is my personal fave, but i think vertigo is better. whatever that means.
― horseshoe, Thursday, 2 August 2012 01:42 (eleven years ago) link
Vertigo's my favorite by far, and that doesn't diminish his other great movies by any means
― Nhex, Thursday, 2 August 2012 02:09 (eleven years ago) link
Ugh you people. North By Northwest is the WORST!
― Eric H., Thursday, 2 August 2012 02:09 (eleven years ago) link
I'm perfectly fine with settling on Notorious or Rear Window as his masterpiece if not Vertigo, but just stop trying to make Northwest happen.
― Eric H., Thursday, 2 August 2012 02:12 (eleven years ago) link
gay panic
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 2 August 2012 02:13 (eleven years ago) link
Hate fuck.
― Eric H., Thursday, 2 August 2012 02:14 (eleven years ago) link
(In any case, at least Vertigo doesn't have a queer villain.)
― Eric H., Thursday, 2 August 2012 02:15 (eleven years ago) link
― Eric H., Wednesday, August 1, 2012 10:09 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark
worse than topaz???
― Hungry4Ass, Thursday, 2 August 2012 02:16 (eleven years ago) link
I mean, if someone makes the case for Topaz being Hitch's masterpiece, maybe I'll relent.
― Eric H., Thursday, 2 August 2012 02:17 (eleven years ago) link
fortunately Hitchcock, like the other Old Hollywood Masters, made a bunch of terrible movies for auteurists to revie.
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 2 August 2012 02:18 (eleven years ago) link
I'll say.
http://ochmonek.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/northbynorthwest.jpg
― Eric H., Thursday, 2 August 2012 02:21 (eleven years ago) link
as David Edelstein wrote today, NxNW "is too much fun."
(oddly left off "for Eric")
― Pangborn to be Wilde (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 2 August 2012 02:21 (eleven years ago) link
really dude, do you hate The 39 Steps too?
― Pangborn to be Wilde (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 2 August 2012 02:22 (eleven years ago) link
definitely prefer notorious, on some days might prefer marnie. love nxnw but c'mon (do prefer that score though). vertigo was one of the ones that was out of circulation right? morbs you're old enough to remember that period - was it really that hard to see them? as great as it is i do wonder how much of a role that lost treasure aspect plus the super prominent 90s rerelease (first s&s poll after that is the first where the hitchcock vote noticeably unifies around one film iirc) played in burnishing rep.
― balls, Thursday, 2 August 2012 02:33 (eleven years ago) link
Schools may have shown it and some bootleg prints were apparently available in the years it was withdrawn, but I never had the opportunity to see it til the '84 re-release.
― Pangborn to be Wilde (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 2 August 2012 02:38 (eleven years ago) link
When I finally watched Black Narcissus a few years ago I was surprised by how much Vertigo seemed to have borrowed from it, especially the crazy climax. The nun at the end of Vertigo almost seems like a deliberate reference.
― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Thursday, 2 August 2012 02:39 (eleven years ago) link
Nope, that's all good. The Lady Vanishes is even better.
― Eric H., Thursday, 2 August 2012 02:46 (eleven years ago) link
I did debate including T39S in my top five.
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 2 August 2012 02:47 (eleven years ago) link
i could probably watch '39 steps' once a week. it's pretty much the perfect movie.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 2 August 2012 02:50 (eleven years ago) link
Plays well projected on the walls of gay bars, tho maybe not quite as good as Sabotage.
― Eric H., Thursday, 2 August 2012 02:51 (eleven years ago) link
vertigo in 70mm or gtfo
― buzza, Thursday, 2 August 2012 02:57 (eleven years ago) link
Ah Alfred you gave me a good laugh
Cheers myFriends
― We’re all after that same rainbow’s end (Ross), Saturday, 26 May 2018 02:28 (five years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tesqTwX7cpc
just watching youtube and revisited this scene and it is so Twin Peaks! especially at .5 speed (try it!). this scene is the transformation of Kim Novak's character into someone with a new identity.
visually it kind of feels like a formal precursor to the Black Lodge, with green curtains instead of red. Jimmy Stewart trapped framed in that menacing backdrop, the music building to a dramatic crescendo, the minor key melancholy eeriness of it all. def see this movie if you are a fan of Twin Peaks/Mulholland Drive.
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Saturday, 21 July 2018 20:56 (five years ago) link
this is a good list of influenceshttp://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/twin-peaks-david-lynch-influences
― adam the (abanana), Saturday, 21 July 2018 22:15 (five years ago) link
"Green Fog" is showing at the local cinema this weekend. (Guy Maddin's Vertigo remake made with misc. clips from various SF-based films.) Might check it out, esp. since it's playing with the Hitchcock version as a double-bill.
― henry s, Saturday, 21 July 2018 22:35 (five years ago) link
It's fun, and at only 65 minutes should make a good second half of a double feature(even better as a first, but not for Vertigo virgins)
― kelp, clam and carrion (sic), Saturday, 21 July 2018 23:39 (five years ago) link
yes, it's good
i think Lynch even intro'd Vertigo at the IFC Center once
― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 21 July 2018 23:43 (five years ago) link
Scotty is one sick fuck
― Xia Nu del Vague (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 17 October 2019 12:26 (four years ago) link
turns out Maddin put The Green Fog up for free on Vimeo six months ago
― Dollarmite Is My Name (sic), Tuesday, 17 March 2020 03:15 (four years ago) link
Wow
― Lipstick Traces (on a Cigarette Alone) (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 17 March 2020 03:56 (four years ago) link
yeah! so good
― geoffreyess, Tuesday, 17 March 2020 05:45 (four years ago) link
omg thanks sic
― Miami weisse (WmC), Tuesday, 17 March 2020 12:47 (four years ago) link
Awesome! Good work sic
― ---------------six feet----------------- (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 17 March 2020 13:20 (four years ago) link
was I too high when I re-watched this for the first time in 10+ years last night or 1) does the lighting in the scene at the Argosy book shop actually gradually dim throughout the scene and 2) are they driving on the "wrong" side of the road both times they drive to the bell tower?
― Paul Ponzi, Saturday, 4 July 2020 12:40 (three years ago) link
1. Yes https://alfredhitchblog.wordpress.com/2019/04/06/vertigo-deconstruction-of-a-scene-argosy-book-shop/
― Alba, Saturday, 4 July 2020 17:24 (three years ago) link
Saw 1958's Bell, Book, and Candle listed on TCM over the weekend, didnt get a chance to watch it but looking to catch it this week. Posting here bc wiki sez: "It stars Kim Novak as a witch who casts a spell on her neighbor, played by James Stewart"... wtf! Surprised I never heard of this, anyone seen it? Is it the rom-com companion to Vertigo that it sounds like?
― turn the jawhatthefuckever on (One Eye Open), Monday, 7 December 2020 13:50 (three years ago) link
Yes, it's charming (no pun intended) and it features a cat named Pyewacket, you can't go wrong
― Josefa, Monday, 7 December 2020 14:52 (three years ago) link
I only saw this for the first time last night (the list of films I haven't seen would make people on ILF blush and turn away, I suspect). Damn but I can't stop thinking about it. I'm unsure about Novak - there's a blankness there but it feels deliberate and stylised: she's a vessel or a plaything that various men manipulate and distort. The analogue for Hitchcock is pretty clear.
So many great scenes but the scene with the sequoias is running round and round my head. And the line that jumped at me was (if films are Rorschach then...): "Only one is a wanderer; two together are always going somewhere."
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Wednesday, 13 January 2021 12:58 (three years ago) link
I keep thinking about this today. It's impossible coming to such a revered film (a film that comes at you out of a bathroom, cloaked in neon mist) - such that I already want to watch it again, now that I've got the first watch out of the way. The thing that keeps coming to me is James Stewart's eyes - how much acting he does with them. There is a moment in Ernie's, the first time he sees Judyline, when a look almost passes between them, that is all eyes: after the fact it's clear that he'd fallen for her, and she was trying to tell him (tell might be too strong a verb - suggest, insinuate).
As a couple of people have said, I want to eat in Ernies. All that red though - like a restaurant in the Tanz dance academy.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Wednesday, 13 January 2021 20:52 (three years ago) link
Good posts, Chinaski!
― Next Time Might Be Hammer Time (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 13 January 2021 20:54 (three years ago) link
https://variety.com/2023/film/news/robert-downey-jr-vertigo-remake-paramount-1235563018/
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/272/014/e6a.jpg
― Infanta Terrible (j.lu), Thursday, 23 March 2023 23:20 (one year ago) link
No. Just no.
― Three Rings for the Elven Bishop (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 23 March 2023 23:30 (one year ago) link
imagine if it's terrible and people watch it as a joke and it becomes more well known than the original with a generation of people.
― Camaraderie at Arms Length, Thursday, 23 March 2023 23:33 (one year ago) link
Rewatched for the first time in a long while, because my wife and kids had never seen it. My wife liked it but was skeptical of its claims to all-time greatness — "Not even the best Hitchcock," she said. The kids were mostly kind of baffled, my oldest objecting particularly to the fact that by the end there are no sympathetic characters in sight. His most telling comment was, "I don't know, it made me uncomfortable." I said, don't you think it was supposed to? He said, "Maybe, but I didn't like feeling that."
I do think it's great, and also uncomfortable. Mostly it's a really strange film. It never loses its eeriness, even once you get the reveal of Judy's complicity. It's like the film has conjured ghosts and loses control of them, it stays haunted. Also this was the first time I'd watched it since Twin Peaks: The Return, and it reminded me how much Vertigo is embedded in the Twin Peaks DNA.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 24 September 2023 13:46 (seven months ago) link
Cool. Feel free to watch THE GREEN FOG when you get a chance.
turns out Maddin put The Green Fog up for free on Vimeo🕸 six months ago
― Dose of Thunderbirds (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 24 September 2023 13:56 (seven months ago) link
I always wonder if Vertigo, (or the book it was adapted from, which I haven't read) was drawing in some way on this Capek short story.
https://openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu/premedical-society/2020/10/29/karel-capek-vertigo/
― Lily Dale, Sunday, 24 September 2023 15:20 (seven months ago) link
Huh! Good little story, and definitely seems like it could be related.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 24 September 2023 15:33 (seven months ago) link
It'll never be my favorite Hitchcock.
― hat trick of trashiness (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 24 September 2023 18:31 (seven months ago) link
Same; it'll always be my second- or third-favorite
― 50 Best Fellas (Eric H.), Sunday, 24 September 2023 18:52 (seven months ago) link
I have too many I need to revisit to have a solid ranking. Vertigo's in the top tier. And I think it's distinct — obviously it shares a lot of obsessions with other Hitchcocks, but its vibe is specific and odd.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 24 September 2023 19:54 (seven months ago) link
What are the chances that "Mad Men"'s Matthew Weiner had this film in mind when he created his own character named Midge, who was herself an illustrator/painter?
― Hongro Hongro Hippies (Myonga Vön Bontee), Sunday, 24 September 2023 20:30 (seven months ago) link
Very good. I'd never even considered that.
― clemenza, Sunday, 24 September 2023 20:32 (seven months ago) link
Oh, good call on Midge in Mad Men. I mean, the Mad Men opening montage of the silhouette guy falling is a direct Vertigo reference, right?
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 24 September 2023 21:20 (seven months ago) link
I think Vertigo is a great art installation and a middling movie. Your oldest kid is right!
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 24 September 2023 22:31 (seven months ago) link
It's an interesting question whether it's supposed to make you feel uncomfortable. Hitchcock wanted his audiences to feel scared, sure, but he was also firmly on the entertainment side, I think if you had suggested to him he was trying to challenge his audience he'd have reacted with disgust. He's def using Jimmy Stewart for shock value in the way everyone's described, but does he want the audience to be freaked out by him? Or to relate to him, while still feeling weirded out by the turns the film takes?
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 25 September 2023 09:09 (seven months ago) link
Well, it explains why the film was a box office disappointment.
― hat trick of trashiness (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 25 September 2023 09:12 (seven months ago) link
Yes, and Hitch saw it as a failure because of that. So I don't think his intention was to alienate people.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 25 September 2023 09:15 (seven months ago) link
Most directors make a film which departs quite a bit from what they have been doing.
Saw "Make way for Tomorrow" (McCarey) yesterday and you can see the comedic touch that he displayed in "Duck Soup" which ultimately served other, more tragic, ends and ended up bombing at the box office.
I think this is where auteur theory can really fail as often directors aren't in control, is how I break it down
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 25 September 2023 09:28 (seven months ago) link
Oh they often aren't but I think Hitchcock absolutely was throughout the 50's.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 25 September 2023 09:32 (seven months ago) link
Amusing to imagine Hitchcock crafting *that* ending and thinking he had a box office success on his hands.
― ryan, Monday, 25 September 2023 18:04 (seven months ago) link
Yeah I mean, it's hard to say his intention wasn't to alienate people when he a.) abruptly shifts the POV from Scottie to Judy in the last section, and b.) makes Scottie more and more unlikable and crazy right up to the end. Basically daring audiences to follow along. Which was part of his bag of tricks anyway, confounding expectations — but maybe in Vertigo he went farther than the audiences were willing to.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Monday, 25 September 2023 18:08 (seven months ago) link
Yeah what I doubt a bit is that Hitchcock viewed the "unlikable and crazy" behaviour of Stewart's character through the same lens we do now; I think he probably thought this dare was less of an ask than we think.
Anyway apparently his own reasoning for why it failed commercially was that Stewart was too old, which, that's a factor but hardly in anyone's top5 haha.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 25 September 2023 20:42 (seven months ago) link