VERTIGO

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

1958, 128, PG

Screenwriter: Samuel A. Taylor and Alfred Hitchcock, based on the novel D'entre les morts by Boileau-Narcejac.

Cast: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore.

For the Sunday matinee of Vertigo, please join us in welcoming Cinestudio co-founder James Hanley, who has recently retired after 50 incredible years. James will joined by another friend of Cinestudio, former Trinity professor of English and Film, Milla Riggio, to introduce and discuss Hitchcock’s most revealing film.

 

Welcome back to Cinestudio, the home of great cinema in Hartford! We received over 40 suggestions from our audience on which film to re-open with, and most had one thing in common: they represented the best in pure cinema, best experienced on a big screen, in the dark, with a community of movie fans! While we can’t play them all (yet!), we’re happy with our choice. Although universally acknowledged as a masterpiece for its use of color, wide screen images of San Francisco, innovative camera movements, and its unforgettable Bernard Hermann score, Vertigo was not a hit when released in 1958. Perhaps it’s because Hitchcock’s most personal film – with James Stewart playing against type as a troubled ex-detective – is so much more than a suspenseful delight. As Stewart’s assignment to follow the mysterious Madeleine (Kim Novak) turns into obsession, Hitchcock reveals that trying to shape a real woman into a romantic ideal brings pain to everyone involved.

“If Vertigo remains Hitchcock’s masterpiece, it’s because its attitude to the unknown and mysterious is not simply one of terror but …of a profound and disturbing ambivalence.” Robin Wood, Hitchcock’s Films.