X
- 1958
- TV-PG
- Universal Pictures
- 2 h 8 m
- 1958
- TV-PG
- Universal Pictures
- 2 h 8 m
Summary Vertigo creates a dizzying web of mistaken identity, passion and murder after an acrophobic detective rescues a mysterious blonde from the bay. [Universal Pictures]
Directed By: Alfred Hitchcock
- 1958
- TV-PG
- Universal Pictures
- 2 h 8 m
- 1958
- TV-PG
- Universal Pictures
- 2 h 8 m
Vertigo
8.6
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Summary Vertigo creates a dizzying web of mistaken identity, passion and murder after an acrophobic detective rescues a mysterious blonde from the bay. [Universal Pictures]
Directed By: Alfred Hitchcock
Where to Watch
Not available in your country?
ExpressVPN
Get 3 Extra months free
$6.67/mth
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 32 Critic Reviews
100
97% Positive
31 Reviews
31 Reviews
3% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 32 Critic Reviews
100
97% Positive
31 Reviews
31 Reviews
3% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Guilt and obsession combine to create the most personally revealing effort of his career. [Restored version; 13 Dec 1996, p.5]
From the very first images of Saul Bass' credit sequence, the whorls and patterns revolving in darkness, the huge eye bathed in red, the movie lets us feel the heartbeat and divided soul of its hero. And its creator. It is a movie about desire, darkness and the pull toward destruction. Most of all, it is about impossible love and overwhelming fear--conveyed with consummate control and art. Watching it, we feel the fear, suffer the desire. [Restored version; 18 Oct 1996, p.1]
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 441 User Ratings
8.6
91% Positive
400 Ratings
400 Ratings
7% Mixed
33 Ratings
33 Ratings
2% Negative
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 441 User Ratings
8.6
91% Positive
400 Ratings
400 Ratings
7% Mixed
33 Ratings
33 Ratings
2% Negative
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
Just Perfect. Absolutely incredible music from. Bernard Herrman, Acting is Superb, Chef’s Kiss
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A former San Francisco cop terrified of heights falls in love with the woman he's supposed to protect, but appearances hide reality.
Few words to describe this noir masterpiece. Only Hitchcock could make a film like this.
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Brilliantly schematic, endlessly fascinating...this prescient 1958 spellbinder can now be admired as the deepest, darkest masterpiece of Hitchcock's career. [Restored version]
A thematic analysis can only scratch the surface of this extraordinarily dense and commanding film, perhaps the most intensely personal movie to emerge from the Hollywood cinema.
This dizzyingly intricate film reveals new facets each time you see it. We leave Vertigo unsettled, like Scottie, who ends up on the edge of a precipice. Hitchcock is daring us to leap. He has prepared the ultimate fix for a cinema junkie: a movie to get lost in.
Vertigo, which is one of the two or three best films Hitchcock ever made, is the most confessional, dealing directly with the themes that controlled his art.
The old master, now a slave to television, has turned out another Hitchcock-and-bull story in which the mystery is not so much who done it as who cares.
By Staff (Not Credited)
FULL REVIEW
Another masterpiece from the master of cinema: Hitchcock.
The film can be said to have the best direction in history with a wonderful camera and unique techniques and excellent form.
Bernard Herrmann's music, which conveys dizziness to us, is perfect and beautiful.
The main point of the film is its suspense, which Hitchcock performed perfectly in this film, the perfect acting of Novak and good Stewart.
In the end, it can be said that Vertigo is a masterpiece in the history of cinema, but it is not the best film in history!!!
Because it is a short distance away from the best movie in history, Rear Window.
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Sempre gostei muito das obras do Hitchcock, mas Vertigo se supera em vários sentidos!! O diretor imprime com maestria o suspense e a tensão passado pela atriz principal.
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Jimmy Stewart's fourth and final collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock, Vertigo casts him in the role of John Ferguson, a detective whose life unravels when he develops acrophobia during a rooftop foot chase. A troubling picture in many ways, from its complex, effectively unsettling filmmaking to the distressing personal changes undertaken by Ferguson in the third act.
Hitchcock is, of course, a master of the craft and there's much to be learned from his efforts behind the camera (the now-infamous dolly zoom, tricks with lighting and foreshadowing, a casual pace that somehow never seems to grow stale) but also plenty cause for concern regarding the actions of his on-screen counterpart. In a Hitchcock film, it's nothing new for a visibly older gentleman to effortlessly draw the affections of a young blonde. Stewart's no exception in this film, pulling buxom Kim Novak (twenty-five years his junior), but his particular brand of obsession quickly grows dark and insistent, leading to some very squeamish scenes as he draws close to unraveling the conspiracy that's ensnared them both.
Ferguson ultimately pays a price for this turn, but his greater judgment is never lain bare on the screen. Rather, it's abruptly left to the scrutiny of the viewing audience, with more than a nudge to suggest he may not be completely without alibi. Expertly concocted and tragic from a bird's-eye perspective, but worrying from a more introspective one.
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I don't get it. Looking past its technical/historical significance, it falls flat for me. As a thriller, I found it nonsensical and hard to relate, therefor losing any kind of suspense that may have built. Definitely one of those classics that didn't age too well (and I do love plenty of old movies, mind you). Unless I completely misunderstood something here, I think it's very overrated and not a must-see at all.
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Production Company
Alfred J. Hitchcock Productions
Release Date May 28, 1958
Duration 2 h 8 m
Rating TV-PG
Tagline A Hitchcock thriller. You should see it from the beginning!
Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 2 Nominations
San Sebastián International Film Festival
• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations
Online Film & Television Association
• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations