I had no expectations when I sat down to watch Vertigo due to knowing nothing more about it than one of cinemas most famous directors Alfred Hitchcock had directed the picture in 1958. With a plot that follows former police detective John “Scottie” Ferguson, who after seeing a police officer fall from the roof of a building to his death at the top of the film, quickly developing the medical condition of acrophobia, the fear of heights. An old acquaintance of John's from many years ago approaches him and asks him to use his detective knowledge and experience to follow his beautiful wife, Madeleine; he reveals that he fear she is going insane, maybe even contemplating suicide, because she believes she is possessed by a dead ancestor.The constantly unravelling plot with multiple unexpected twists and turns keeps even a contemporary audience member such as myself guessing from the opening to the steady and direct climax of the film. A key example is held in the title of the film, Hitchcock offers a reason in the beginning of the film but its importance does not become apparent until the mystery is revealed to the audience in the later stages of the film. Personally I found the plot of Vertigo much more intriguing, yet with the same strange style that I enjoyed in one of Hitchcock’s previous films, Psycho. Knowing that as a film it has many interesting elements that are impressive 50 years on. Personally it won’t be making it into my list of favourites but worth a watch.
7 out of 10
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