Vertigo
**Halloween* 2025: Film XXXIII*
Alfred you still haven't let me down. This one i went into very very blind for. All I really knew is that it was the first film to use the dolly zoom and to use cgi. And I must say I was very surprised.
James Stewart has become one of my favourite since watching Rope and this possibly made him my number one. I love how we perfectly follow Scottie throughout and, until the last half an hour, are just confused as him.
The use of the dolly zoom to represent Scottie's acrophobia which even made me feel scared of heights despite not having any fear prior to viewing. It has always been one of my favourite techniques in cinema and seeing its origin here is so cool.
Scottie's nightmare is incredible, highlighting his grief, guilt, and psychological trauma. The violent disintegration of the flower is maybe my favourite symbol in the scene, representing Madeleine and the shattered nature of Scottie's perception of her. The spirals of course represent Scottie's physical vertigo but is also a motif in the film as a sign of his mental spiral into madness and obsession. The grave perfectly shows his failure and his feelings of guilt.
The plot twist really threw me and I never saw that coming. The denouement really ends poignantly as you watch Scottie stand there and process the events.
This competes very close with Psycho as my favourite Hitchcock film but as of right now, I will say Vertigo is better. Masterpiece!