LSC Event Descriptions

November 15, 2003

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Rated PG
128 minutes

Vertigo (1958)
November 15, 2003 at 7:30 and 10:30pm in 10-250.

Brilliantly schematic, endlessly fascinating ... the deepest, darkest masterpiece of Hitchcock's career.
      -- Janet Maslin, The New York Times. Read this review.

After watching Vertigo at the Uptown, I was awestruck ... To watch this movie as it should be seen is too primal an experience to miss. Do yourself an aesthetic favor: Take the plunge. You'll love the fall all the way down.
      -- Desson Howe, The Washington Post. Read this review.

One of the two or three best films Hitchcock ever made ... emotional threads come together in the greatest single shot in all of Hitchcock.
      -- Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times. Read this review.

A mystery revisted -- a master remembered.

One of the famous five "lost Hitchcocks," out of circulation for over twenty years and nearly destroyed by the ravages of time. Restored in 1996 to its original Technicolor brilliance by Robert A. Harris, the same film magician who also saved from destruction Rear Window, Spartacus, and Lawrence of Arabia.

Now, see this Hitchcock masterpiece, an ode to lost love and hearts' desire, a probe into our anxieties and deepest desires, the way it was meant to be seen. Leave the pixellated DVD at the video store (the DVD is non-anamorphic and throws away 25% of its pixels to no good end), and watch Hitchcock in style with Vertigo on the BIG SCREEN.

San Francisco police detective John Ferguson (Jimmy Stewart) develops a bad case of vertigo after nearly falling to his death on a chase. Confined to low places, he finds work as a private investigator when an old college buddy details him to follow his wife. "No, it's not that ... Do you believe that someone out of the past, someone dead, can enter and take possession of a living being?" Jimmy Stewart falls deeper than he planned, in love with Mrs. Elster and into a nightmare of falling bodies, spiraling staircases, and chilling murder.

Considered by film historians to be one of Hitchcock's greatest films, Vertigo is a stunning blend of:

  • Innovative camerawork -- the famed vertigo shot, used today to convey a feeling of disorientation, was invented for this film.
  • Intense acting. Kim Novak gives the performance of her career as a woman possessed, and Jimmy Stewart is utterly convincing as the troubled ex-detective.
  • Lush soundtrack. Frequent Hitchcock collaborator Bernard Herrmann sets the tone with a soaring score that tugs at your emotional heartstrings and adds a final coda to the events onscreen.
  • Gorgeous cinematography. If you've never been to San Francisco, this is the film to see. The Golden Gate Bridge is a rich orange on blue skies, and the Presidio is imposing and luminous in its marbled grandeur. Pay close attention to the very symbolic color scheme.

November 15, 2003 <-- Previous | Fall 2003 schedule | Next -->