LET'S START WITH A CLASSIC FROM A MASTER - ALFRED HITCHCOCK - "VERTIGO"

I think we are all in agreement as to the greatness of Alfred Hitchcock. Not only did the man almost re-invent camera technique single handedly, to this day he has yet to be toppled from his throne as the king of mystery and suspense. Of course his great mind has given birth to many masterpieces, too many to name here, but Vertigo is surely, surely one of the greatest. I had watched this film when I was a very little girl, I recall. I mean I recall I watched the film, to my shame however, I do not recall a single thing about the film itself. It was before my “awakening” to cinema no doubt…
John Ferguson (James Stuart) has a successful career as a detective when a tragic incident forces him into early retirement. While giving chase to a criminal across the rooves of some houses, a sudden fit of vertigo makes him the inadvertent cause of the death of a colleague. However, no sooner does he leave his official job than an unofficial one land in his lap. An old school friend contacts him in great distress; he claims his wife to be possessed with the spirit of a dead woman and wants Ferguson – or Scottie as his friends call him – to follow her during the day; just to gain more information on her actions and keep her safe to help him decide what course of action to take. Scottie first pooh-poohs the idea, but then decides to follow Madeline (Kim Novak), his friend’s wife, anyway. To his amazement, Madeline does seem to enter trances and mirror the actions of a young woman who died 100 years ago. Scottie becomes fascinated with the young woman in more senses than one… Whether all his experience at policing will be enough to save the woman he loves however, remains to be seen…
In a lot of Hitchcock’s films, the story throws us curveballs. Seasoned viewers are used to it by now. However even in Hitchcock’s work, rarely are these curveballs so well hidden. I defy you to figure out what will come next, right to the last 30 second. And even if you do figure out what is going on, there is the typical trick of suspense Hitchcock uses in his film; you bite your nails as you wait for the characters to catch up, fretting whether they will put two and two together in time and trying to figure out where the story will take us. And a word must be said about the short side-line Scottie has with his friend Midge; a young woman who is very evidently besotted with Scottie but whose love goes completely unnoticed and unrequited. I enjoyed their dialogues as much as I did the dramatic tension between James Stuart and Kim Novak. In short, and as usual, there is nothing bad to be said about Hitchcock’s work of art. I mean, if it still features so high in “must watch” lists to this day, there must be a reason for it… Right?