8/10/2019 Vertigo Review
1/2
Vertigo review
Vertigo a feeling of dizziness...a swimming of the
head...guratively a state in
which all things seem to be engulfed in a whirlpool of terror.
In that one
denition alone it sums up the essences of Vertigo; the dizziness
comes from the
myriad of daunting camera angles that rotate, ip and spin you
until youdesperately cling to a compass lie the nal raft on the
sining titanic. !he
swimming of the head comes from the hypnotising array of special
a"ects, which
maes you feel as if you were trapped in psychedelic storm,
leaving you looing
at a #orschach test and seeing only your worst nightmares. $nd
engulng you in
a whirlpool of terror is what the master of suspense does best.
$ny lm that has
the pleasure of gracing the name $lfred %itchcoc ne&t to
'directed by(; promises
to weave a spellbinding web of mystery, tension and of course
suspense. !hat
slowly intertwines in between your every nerve, paralysing you
and leaving you
at %itchcoc(s mercy, so he can play with your deepest fears and
paranoia with
precision of a conductor conducting an orchestra. Vertigo is
truly the nestsymphony of suspense ever crafted by $lfred %itchcoc
and demands with
complete conviction repeated viewings, with the promise that
each watching
merely dissects only one layer of the thousands that are sure to
lie beneath.
)ne of cinemas most chilling, emotionally *arring and wicedly
captivating
romantic endeavours is ignited for the very rst time, when a
detective
portrayed emphatically by +ames tewart initially forced to
retire due to the
nasty business of almost falling to a gruesome death from the
top of a large
building . %owever despite being ravished with acrophobia -fear
of heights from
an unsightly waltz with death, cottie -tewart is brought bac
into the call of
duty via a favour for an old ac/uaintance with concerns over the
strange doings
and goings of his wife, played hypnotically by 0im 1ova. It is
at this point
cottie maes two gravely bad decisions, rst he allows himself to
be swept up
into a maze of deceit, debauchery and murder. 2ut second and
worst of all, he
falls in love with the wife.
2ut Vertigo is a #ubi& 3ube of a lm and taes awhile to
solve, because it(s not
*ust the overall nished product that maes Vertigo so haunting;
it(s also the
intricate little details of 4dith %ead(s costume designs and the
way the grey suit
worn by 1ova never /uite tted with her blonde hair, and lie the
wolf in
grandmother clothing, served as foreshadowing to that fact all
was not right withwhat you saw. 2ernard %errmann(s music score
acted lie a parado&, acting both
as a subliminal muted screams constantly warning cottie that he
was
descending down a path that only had misery promised at the end
of it; whilst at
the same time the music seduced the audiences with its operatic
decadences
lie %errmann was the 5ied 5iper. !hen nally #obert 2urs(s
cinematography
mercilessly toyed with the audiences, lie we were %ansel and
6retel and it was
the evil witch. )ne moment he would mesmerise us beautiful shots
of an
7rancisco 2ay; then the ne&t moment he would grab us and
dump us into the
belly of the lm, lled with camera angles that lie snaes wrap and
contort
themselves around every scene so they can eventually in*ect
suspenseful venominto the audience to paralyse them.
8/10/2019 Vertigo Review
2/2
8uentin !aratino and 5ulp 7iction, +ames 3ameron and !erminator
and 9avid
7incher and 7ight 3lub, while it so easy to pic the crowning
achievement from
most directors( 3V. In terms of %itchcoc the endeavour taes a
far more di:cult
turn because he(s lmography is *am paced with the very ape&
of the thriller,
murder mystery and suspense world. $udiences only simply have to
loo at the
lies of 5sycho, !he 2irds, 1orth by 1orthwest and trangers on a
!rain to
understand /uite rightly why they call %itchcoc the master, all
his lms are
simply incredible. 2ut for me Vertigo stamps its foot
triumphantly on %itchcoc
mantle piece; it(s cool, calculating and lie a methodical
metronome slowly
plying away the ngers you use to attach yourself to the edge of
reality; until
your feel yourself being dangled over the *aws of Vertigo with
the inevitability of
the nowledge that at anytime they will snap around you.
