Vertigo (1958) Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo is a psychological labyrinth of obsession, identity, and illusion. James Stewart plays Scottie, a retired detective haunted by acrophobia, hired to follow a woman (Kim Novak) who seems possessed by a ghost. What begins as mystery becomes a haunting study of male projection and manipulation. Hitchcock uses color, camera movement (the dolly zoom, now called “the Vertigo effect”), and Bernard Herrmann’s swirling score to evoke disorientation and desire. The film’s second half—where Scottie remolds another woman into his lost love—is chillingly prescient about control and fantasy. Initially dismissed, Vertigo was later reappraised as Hitchcock’s deepest work, topping the Sight & Sound critics’ poll in 2012. It critiques the male gaze decades before feminist film theory, revealing how love can mask possession. More than a thriller, it’s a dreamlike elegy for the impossibility of recapturing the past—and the danger of trying.
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