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Sunday Happenings
Vertigo (1958)
Friday 9/5-Sunday 9/7
Brattle Theater
40 Brattle Street, Cambridge
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Starting Friday, the Brattle Theater showcases Alfred Hitchcock's 1950s, the commercial and critical high-point of his long and prolific career. The series rightly starts with Vertigo, the film now considered by many to be Hitchcock's masterpiece, and the 8th greatest American movie according to the AFI.
In many ways it's hard to evaluate a movie like Vertigo. The film is so famous, so popular, so manifestly considered great that there's almost nothing to say about its merits anymore. Vertigo simply is for us to appreciate.
But what is still striking about Vertigo today is the way it seamlessly blurs the distinction between fixation and love (if there was one to begin with). It's not simply that the movie is extraordinarily acted, though both Stewart and Novak give career performances; every element of film functions perfectly, and in unison. Bernard Herrman's score alternates between the lows of obsession and the highs of romance and romanticism, while Jimmy Stewart's eyes move alternatively from unsure, emotion filled glances to terrifying looks of desperation. From the very first frame, Hitchcock emphasizes the eyes, what they think they see, and the tricks they play.
At the same time, Hitchcock repeatedly directs us to what lies just out of sight, that last piece that changes everything. The movie is structured like noir, yet Hitchcock bathes everything in glorious San Francisco pastels; there don't appear to be many shadows, which only serves to make the few that exist all the more ominous. It's a breathtaking combination of acting, art design, and cinematography.
Vertigo is a much copied movie, but some of those allusions add to our appreciation of the film like pieces of criticism. Recognizing that the end of Burton's Batman calls back to Vertigo underscores the masquerade aspect of both films; the Joker is hardly the only one wearing a mask, or playing. One of the more interesting movies to use Vertigo was Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys, which used one of Vertigo's signature scenes and plot devices. Gilliam's interpretation reveals the impossibility of escape, or reinvention. It's an aspect present in Vertigo, but one that becomes much clearer after Gilliam's visualization.
Hitchcock made a great many movies about identity, but Vertigo is his finest, and arguably the most believable. By the time the Brattle series is over, we may no longer know who we are, but we'll have seen some great films.
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There was so much visual aesthetics, taste, class and subtly in his films.
such an extreme contrast with the in your face shock appeal of today