Arguably Hitchcock's best as well as his most tragic film. While Vertigo is at its core a mystery film, at its heart it is a haunting tale of love and loss, which help to make it Hitchcock's most depressing films.
One of the first things people say about Vertigo is how beautiful it is. Hitchcock can go to his grave knowing that he captured the city of San Francisco better than any other director. All the locations look like they are from a painting or even from a dream, with the beautiful locations and backdrops like the golden gate bridge, the various art museums, the streets of the city, and the restaurants. Even the various rooms in apartments are filled with such beautiful detail. The film also turned the "San Juan Batista" into a must-see location for film lovers. Hitchcock also perfected "The Dolly Zoom" in this film, which involves the camera moving away from the subject while still keeping the subject in the frame at the same size. This technique which would later be called "The Vertigo Effect". The film also is one of the best to utilize the different uses of color. Vertigo came out when the difference between the number of color films and black and white films was still relatively even. But after 1958, it became clear to major studios that color was the new way of shooting as black and white slowly disappeared throughout the rest of the 50s and early 60s, and Vertigo may have played one of the biggest factors of that chance. The different colors of the film help create different moods and portray the characters thoughts or feelings. The most obvious use of this is the use of green and red, with Green symbolizing life, and red symbolizing death. Bernard Herrmann's masterful musical score also help create the film's beautiful atmosphere going from being dreamlike or nightmarish, to creating a feeling of beauty and love. I would also be a fool to not discuss the opening credits and the dream sequence, with both still as transcending and haunting to this day as they were when the film came out.
Another great aspect of the film is how it balances being a classic Hitchcock mystery to also being a love story. The first halve mainly centers on the mystery aspect of James Stewart getting to the bottom of what's really going on with Kim Novak and the two eventually falling in love. The chemistry between Stewart and Novak is beautiful and eventually heartbreaking. The second Halve takes a much more dramatic and darker turn. This transition is handled masterfully with the first half culminating with the tragedy that sets Stewart's guilt and paranoia into play. James Stewart's guilt of not being able to save his new found love begin to take its toll on his sanity, which leads to the film's tragic conclusion. Stewart gives one of his best performances with that typical Stewart charm as well as getting a chance to explore a more darker side that we don't see that often from him. Kim Novak is also very effective as the mysterious beauty who's best acting in the film are the scenes where she is not taking at all, where she is silently staring at paintings and your constantly wondering what's going on inside her head.
Vertigo may be hailed by many as the greatest mystery film of all time, but it's strongest aspects are its themes of love and loss, and how traumatic events can shape our decisions, our outlook, and our sanity.
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