VERTIGO

The beauty and insight into human emotion, in addition to the cinematic commentary and sweeping Wagnerian score, set Vertigo apart not only in Hitchcock’s own filmography, but as one of the best films of all time. Like Scotty, Hitchcock was a “man who really knew what he wanted” and fought against the studio’s many doubts, to create what many consider his most personal film. The technical aspects of the camera work and music allow the audience further perception into Hitch’s own psychology and perceptions of obsessive love. The unusual number of point of view shots visually align the viewers almost completely with Scotty and his obsessions, but at the same time distance them with a metafictive self-reflexivity. Hitchcock pulls a trick on the audience two-thirds of the way through the film though, and this disruption of identification, in conjunction with the love theme’s presence, provides deeper insight into a secondary character’s-Judy’s-emotional obsessions.