Vertigo

Vertigo displaced Citizen Kane as the greatest film of all time in Sight and Sound’s 2012 Critics Poll. It’s one of Hitchcock’s darkest films, both gripping thriller and disturbing psychological drama about obsessive love and the male gaze. John ‘Scottie’ Ferguson is a retired San Francisco police detective who suffers from acrophobia. A wealthy college friend approaches Scottie and asks him to follow his beautiful wife, Madeleine. He fears she is suicidal and has been possessed by a dead ancestor. Scottie is skeptical, but agrees to the assignment after he sees the beautiful Madeleine.

‘Vertigo pioneered that camera effect, known as the dolly zoom, whereby the viewer… appears to fall into an infinite abyss while remaining quite still…The film itself is that abyss, and we’re still falling into it and for it.’ Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph

‘Vertigo is one of the great movies about movies, and about Hitchcock’s own way with them.’ Richard Brody, The New Yorker