Saturday, October 22, 2011

Vertigo

A Movie Review by Magdalen Aithne Arkwright

A movie that creates incredulous excitement, Vertigo deserves mentioning.  Another Hitchcock triumph, stranger than any I've yet seen.

It does not take long for a cautious and particular viewer to fall out of love for these characters - one is a killer, one is an accessory to murder, one is adulterous.  James Stewart does not fail to impress, even if he does play one of these characters.  (As a side note, Midge disappears from the picture quite quickly.  It's interesting to note that she is given such a prominent roll to start.)

Hitchcock goes above and beyond the call of creepy with this film.  Three deaths, two dead bodies, and one girl from Kansas.  One detective, retired on account of his vertigo - detective turned lover.  James Stewart becomes a passionate psychopath.  And don't let old friends fool you.

This movie is hard to rate.  It is crazy.  It seems to end without an ending.  It is passionately insane.  The characters have no soul, living only on their instincts and adrenaline.  It psychedelic.  Vertigo is the kind of movie that I would have doubted under this description.  Maybe I ought to have.  So long as it is taken in its due season and not interpreted as theology, this is a great piece of film.

This movie has been rated, officially, as PG-13.  I agree.  While there is no rough languages, James Stewart involves himself in messing with a married woman, pitching people off of high places, and, off the scenes, undressing an unconscious woman.  The movie starts with Stewart's character's vertigo being the cause of a policeman's death.  He then falls in love with a woman, a woman whose husband was his friend in college.  He unwittingly plays his part in a murder.  He then goes crazy himself, driving himself insane with guilt and confusion, all spiraling at the high speed of passionate love.  When he gets out of the hospital, he sees her everywhere, even in a young woman from Kansas, whom he drags up the tower of the church....

It is said that this is the most infamous out of Hitchcock's films, but I believe that to be primarily for its raciness, if I may say so.  Midge appears to be either an underwear designer or just an artist for underwear.  A woman is, off the scenes, undressed by a man; passions are excited, forbidden love is entered into, and lovers drive themselves crazy for each other.

Rating: T
Points: 8
Satisfaction: 100%

~Meggy

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