While Jimmy Stewart is following her in his car he is NEVER shown driving up a street. Only, down, down, down. One of the countless little touches of genius. The dark back door opening to the flower shop is one of the most spectacular shots in any film.
The film The Man Who Knew Too Much which is another Hitchcock film has some stunning street scenes in London that are some of the most eerie and tense scenes in film.
@@bighands69To which version of the MWKTM are you referring? The 1934 original or his own 1956 remake? From what I remember of the 1956 remake, most of the street scenes in London were shot against a backdrop, with quite brief connecting actual on location shots. The most spectacular London exterior scenes from the 1956 version were those on the church's rooftop. On the other hand, the Marrakesh crowd scenes were more memorable IMO.
Vertigo most definitely influenced Scorsese when he was filming Taxi Driver. The obsessive following/stalking scenes in the car, Bernard's score, the overall subtlety and feel of the film, the getting made up shot's when Judy is being transformed back into Madeline. You can tell Marty really loves Alfred's films. Not to mention, Alfred always did cameos and in Marty's films, he does cameos as well. Two cinematic masters. Also, their films had that same common element in that we as people have weaknesses/vices such as obsessively bad habits and how they are very unhealthy and lead to self destruction. Watching Marty's films, Alfred's Vertigo, Rear Window, Psycho, To Catch a Thief, Suspicion, etc. This clearly shows more influence from Hitchcock.
Actually, these scenes where apparently not much is happening are the ones that let the mood and atmosphere sink in perfectly, slowly and subconsciously. Without even realising it, your mind is completely soaked, probably because it is not preoccupied with action, witty talk or any quick sequences that demand your attention. I think Hitchcock was THE master in making that happen, and the rest of us need another master, like Scorseze here, to explain us how this is happening with the camera angles, the montage, the music etc.
Totally agree. Without these scenes, it is impossible to relate to what is happening. Hitchcock was a master of the slow burner. To watch a film from this age, it really is pull the curtains, a massive whisky, phone off and sit back and relax. If you do all this, you are in for one hell of a movie
Think of Rear Window, I never can understand how he picked this absolutely perfect setup to film this courtyard where he can take his camera and point it from one place to another or just show the entire courtyard in the wide frame to where u can see things going on at the same time,no one has ever done something like that since it seems, such a brilliant film
I've never watched a film which plays my nerves like a fiddle so effectively. I was so tense after the car tailing scenes, and didn't really know why. Genius.
There really is something about that... The same thing with Rear Window, the lead character just staring out the window, I could just watch it for hours.
Watched this in our A2 film class and everybody hated it. I have no idea why? I was hooked from beginning to end! Great acting, cinematography, score and just something that is completely genius about it that I can't describe.
Oscar Reece I think most people have to be a little older to appreciate. When I was younger my favorite Hitchcock movies were the exciting ones NORTH BY NORTHWEST, REAR WINDOW THE 39 STEPS. As I've gotten older, the characters and emotions in VERTIGO become more haunting and resonant.
Those scenes at the start with Jimmy Stewart following this woman and obsessing over her when following her is all visual stroytelling as well. Absolutely beautifully directed. One of the most viscerally effecting films I've watched in a long time.
I watched Vertigo for the first time in 7th grade math class back in 1999/2000 when the sub got no work from the main teacher on what to do (the sub put this movie on to kill the 2 hour class time) so without me even knowing the title for years after I watched the film and from the point when John was following Madeline in the car I was immediately hooked as a 12 year old kid, this is my favorite film ever. Most of the fellow students from what I recall weren’t even paying attention.
The film is a mature film that will go over the heads of many young people. You really have to see the film on 70mm to appreciate it. It was originally shot on a system called Vistavision which is 35mm film turned on its side which makes it very similar to 70mm. Modern cinema boasts about 4k resolution Vistavision has a resolution of about 12k and a color process that is thousands of times more detailed than the best HDR which is amazing for 1958.
It is ranked as the best and I would say it is worthy of that title. Same would go for lets say 2001:A Space Odyssey, Andrey Rublev, Au Hasard Balthazar, Persona. And as for several surveys- the only survey and list worth watching is the Sight and Sound list. Check it out if you haven't already. But I'm pretty sure you have.
Vertigo is truly a cinephile's dream...the cinematography, score, acting from Novak and Stewart, plot, directing, and on and on. To me it is a perfect film even if it is not one that makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside but instead shows you the mysteries in life of obsession, intense lust and love, death, sadness, etc. Perfect film from the greatest director of all time. Wish Kim Novak had just been nominated at least for her portrayal! Much less Hitch and Jimmy!
I loved it because there was no dialogue, it was just the camera following the actors telling the story without words. That's good cinematic storytelling, and that's why Hitchcock is the master.
I find Vertigo more fascinating than Psycho, as a whole. The ending in Psycho is spelled out to the audience -- literally in the final scene with the criminal psychiatrist -- which automatically renders it a less surprising thriller the second time around. Vertigo leaves the watcher confused. You've got the main gyst of the con that's been played on Stewart's character, but there's other details here and there that require another analysis to fully digest. Plus the film is beautiful on the eyes.
I love the sequence he describes. It works so well in part because of the city itself, the vertiginous hills, the layers of history (the already-vintage glamor of Nob Hill, the Mission graveyard, the neoclassic museum) that Madeleine drags Scotty through. So much IS happening here, and it starts out by putting us off-balance: we'd already seen Scotty faint while looking down from heights, yet this whole sequence is topsy-turvy, up and down. So we're off and a bit dizzy, and that's how Madeleine needs us to be as she takes us on her private tour of San Francisco's peculiarly-rich sense of its past. The city is in cahoots with her. It has its own power to haunt, and we've just heard that Madeleine is possessed by the spirit of Carlotta. We might scoff at first, as Scotty did, but the beauty and quiet intimacy of her moments in these sequences - at the florist, at the tombstone, her gazing at the portrait in the museum - these are what pull Scotty (and the rest of us) in. It's immeasurably important to the story that Scotty get seduced by the notion she's possessed -- and get seduced by her as well. That's what the sequences establish. By the time she jumps in the Bay, he's already in too deep.
VERTIGO is about the unseen. It's surreal and dream-like. Curiosity. Vulnerability. Obsession. Control. Insanity. Greed. More vulnerability. And loss. Jimmy Stewart's role was not his usual, likeable character. Watch when you have more emotional depth and an understanding of film history; then maybe you'll appreciate Vertigo a little more.
I had the exact same reaction Scorsese is describing... Upon the first viewing, I wasn't even clear about the reasons why, but I was deeply effected by Vertigo. I've watched it countless times since in order to notice all of the technical elements that comprise it's beauty and intrigue. One of my favorite films.
Scorsese is meaby one of the few directors who really understands movies. You hear it in his words, you see it in his movies. For example, take Hugo. His first 3d picture and meaby his first movie for children. And he did it good at the first try. He knew how to use the 3d, he knew how to make a kids movie. Bang.
Bernard Herman who composed the music for the top 2 movies on the BFI list (Citizen Kane and Vertigo) and then would later compose the music for Taxi Driver
I first saw Vertigo at home on DVD, found it boring... Years later, in a great cinema in 35mm and it was fascinating. Maybe it was the presentation, or I just got older and changed.
That´s a good point. I saw Vertigo first when re-released in the 80s in the cinema and I liked it, but it was far from being my favorite Hitchcock or Jimmy Stewart movie. When I watched the first time The Searches, I hated that movie and stopped watching after the first half. Some 40 years later I watched it again and this time I was totallyx blown away and re-watched it two days later and every time I watch it again I discover new things and also it´s not my favorite John Ford-John Wayne movie (that´s Donoavan´s Reef) I think it´s John Waynes very best performance as an actor. I do not know why I did not like the picture when I first saw it. I probably was too young to really understand it.
Same shot when jimmy’s lookjng down the stairs mimics the scene in scorsese movie Hugo when looking down the steps with the same zoom/dolly effect or better known as the hitchcock effect :)
I never actually seen vertigo. I looked up operation curve ball trailer and then RUclips automatically went to a trailer of vertigo next..now I want to watch it today
There are so many layers of brilliance in Vertigo. For me the brilliance is all about pacing. Hitchcock could shoot the slowest car chase scene in history, and then he could shoot scenes just as long, just as deliberately slow paced, but because of the story we know that there is high tension in the air. There is no release. There is no card game in the basement of inglorious basterds to take our mind off of how Jimmy Stewart knows that Kim Novak has deceived him. We face the car ride scene into the church steeple scene, all the while knowing that these two people are on a crash ride into their destiny. With just as much deliberate and slow pace as the boring car chase scene we are locked in suspense. It is the ultimate lesson in how to shoot "The bomb under the table." A dull, mundane scene and a gripping, thrilling scene can be shot at the same pace, given the parts of the story that the director has given you.
At the time Hitchcock was too insistent on audience approval and it hurt him that Vertigo was not approved. He grumbled that James Stewart was too old for the role and too 'everyman' - he should have had a more sexually electric male lead.
I am floored that he missed the significance of that 2 and a half car scene. She was leading him on a downward spiral and at the end, 2 green Jags split directions. He followed the left... The intent of the scene was also to give the virtual feeling of vertigo in the viewers. Perhaps also that he followed the left hand path further down. If you aren’t hooked by that point, you miss the entire significance. Hmm. Somewhere in his head he gets it as you can tell he was captivated but not sure why.
Who cares about some of the more minute details. "Vertigo" is so special, unusual and beautiful a film as there ever was. I don't really care about storyline implausibilities!
Sorry, my earlier response was in to your former post. Hey, I had to watch this movie over and over before I got it too. I never got how 'Madeleine' got away from the desk clerk and Scottie when he followed her to that motel where she just went to sit quietly. Were we to just assume there was a back entrance she snuck out of or a fire escape? Still, how did she bypass the lady desk clerk when she went in? It is so slow paced, but I like trying to solve it.
Some people hate this movie while some love it I just watched and I am very much in a dizzy state of mind but the truth is no matter what, it is very unique I still believe psycho is Mr Hitchcock's best work
The people that hate it tend to like feel good movies or fast moving movies. You will find a tread common to those that do not like the movie in that they do not like slow building suspenseful movies.
It's comments like this and your previous one that make you come off as an immature, not very knowledgeable movie viewer. His work isn't perfect, but it's far from so-so. You could argue that the critics are biased in calling Vertigo the greatest movie ever, but if it is indeed a so-so movie, why would the directors (many of whom I'm sure have made films you love) put Vertigo in the top 10 too? It's not that you can't say anything bad about "holy" Hitchcock, it's that if you do, have context.
Hate to be negative, but I feel I have to in this case. BFI, does Martin Scorsese really deserve flat lighting and a cold room complete with a background echo in an interview?
It's great to see & hear Scorsese commenting on "Vertigo". I have to strongly disagree that it's the Greatest Film of All Time. (or perhaps even Hitchcock's greatest film.)
The Poll is misleading, in that I believe that the criteria is to have a film in your top ten, and then it gets a vote on this poll. It had some 191 votes, not for #1, but in 191 crtics top ten. There were some 800 critics voting, less than a 4th had Vertigo in the top 10.
Hi mslaerik66, I totally agree, 'Vertigo' does not even come close to any of the really great classic movies. I think it is a case of: "The Emperor's New Clothes" ! No one dares to say a negative word against the 'holy' Hitchcock.
Hello Hallowedbeeddie, LOTS of great movies like 'Blade Runner', 'Unforgiven', 'The Boat' were not boring me. Neither do slow scenes. There are of those in 'Lawrence of Arabia', 'Doctor Zhivago', 'Shane','Dances with Wolves', '2001 a Space Odyssey', to name just a few who were all outstanding movies. I think Hitchcock is overrated as a director, as is demonstrated when you have seen most of the movies directed by David Lean, Billy Wilder, Stanley Kubrick, Ridley Scott, Francis Ford Coppola.
Opinions are fine, I simply stated that if you're going to say something isn't good, point out why that is the case; otherwise it's pointless. To be fair that's their profession, they are supposed to recognize what makes a film great, of course that doesn't mean regular people can't be just as good at that. It's like Dylan said "Half of the people can be part right all of the time, some of the people can be all right part of the time, but all of the people can’t be all right all of the time".
Nice comment about Bernard Herrmann's score, Marty. "Vertigo" has some wonderful work by him. He's one of my favorite composers. Period. Shawn R., Mo-Mutt Music/Sacred & Secular
Vertigo might be in the top five films of all time, but it doesn't deserve its recent overtaking of Citizen Kane for three reasons: 1. The main antagonist is never confronted or arrested for his crime. The film simply forgets the character and we never see him after Novak's character meets her end (and she wasn't even the one who came up with the plan). That is sloppy writing (something you do not normally see in the works of Hitchcock). 2. The plan is stupid. They shove the woman off of the tower as Stewart goes after her and then just "hide" in the shadows of that small tower? There was no way for them to leave without Stewart's character seeing them. 3. It's a beautiful film, but how are we supposed to identify with a protagonist who is a creep due to his making over a woman in the image of a past obsession? No woman would stand for that today, and it was weird and creepy even back then. Imagine if a woman tried to make a man up like one of her exes that she wanted her new guy to be.
but that's one of the big points: maybe he didn't get down at all, maybe the rest was all one last fantastic dream flashing before his eyes before he falls. that would explain why at the end he's back up at a deadly height, looking down again
When Scorsese eludes to the "quieter scenes" in Vertigo that have stayed with him, he is eluding to Ernest Hemingway's Iceberg Theory where the force of the narrative comes from the what lurks beneath the surface. Paul Hyder, in his wonderful book 'Psycho: An Ironic Journey Through Hitchcock's Cinematic Masterpiece', says this about Hemingway's central idea: "The American writer, Ernest Hemingway, came up with a nice idea that he labelled ‘The Iceberg Theory’ by which he meant that the power of a story came not so much from what was written on the page but what was omitted. He honed this skill while working as a journalist for the Kansas City Star. Readers were interested in facts and not flowery descriptions of characters and events. Hemingway said somewhere that it was better to cut out the ornamentation when writing and throw away all the adjectives so that the reader is left with the bare facts and is forced to look beneath the nouns for the real power of the story. Wasn’t it, after all, the submerged part of the iceberg that sent the Titanic to the ocean floor? Hitchcock’s Psycho, then, is Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory on film. The force and power come from the movie’s subconscious undercurrents that run from the beginning of the film when the camera moves gently across the Phoenix skyline and descends into an anonymous hotel room to the final scene where a car is dragged from a swamp." www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08DL7DSXM/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i2 www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08DRQMRN3/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i1 Vertigo was made in 1958 and Psycho followed shortly after in 1960. The two films are Hitchcock's finest.
It is mystery that really drives the best films. Even in modern films that audiences love the same thing can be found. People loved The Matrix because it gave them mystery that unfolded. It is the reason why season 1 of True Detective is the greatest modern tv series.
Did I call you immature or made any other personal derogatory remarks to you? And why should any directors be wiser than you and me in calling a movie good or bad? More holy cows? Now go away and don't call back, because I don't reply to people who can't deal with other peoples opinions that are opposite to their own - without resorting to personal insults.
I have thought a great deal about the film and contrary to most accounts I don`t think it is really a story about a man trying to change one woman into another woman (his Dream Woman). I think `Vertigo` is a story about redemption in the strict Catholic sense and about Original Sin. Novak returns twice in the film and on both occasions dies. The last death is both heralded by and acknowledged by the nun who appears mysteriously at the film`s end. It seems in Hitchcock`s view we, as humans, are unable to progress. We never learn. We make the same mistakes. We create and endure the same calamities. The Holocaust happened once. Hitchcock himself filmed the liberation of Belsen/Auschwitz. Can it happen again? James Stewart shows us it can and it will. Hitchcock is an essential pessimist and his films are fundamentally nihilist. This however does not impair their genius. As a matter of fact it makes us respect him all the more. SANDRA SHEVEY was lucky enough to interview the Master in 1972. It is one of the last 1-2-1 interviews he ever gave. Sandra who has lived in London for more than 35 years runs daily 3 hr tours 11am around his London film locations. Info at sandra_shevey@yahoo.com
But it really was not obsession at first, he was told to follow her… maybe later it’s an obsession… sure, we see later he is an obsessed guy, when he tries to recreate her look… but that really is not so special right?
She wasn't a dummy. It was the real wife. He broke her neck right before he threw her over and that is when Judy makes her escape from Scottie as she hides with the husband in the dark at the top of the tower. Scottie explains this to the audience as he is talking to Judy for the last time right before she goes over. He is figuring it out the same time we do.
I agree, and to call that boring, and at best medium quality film 'Vertigo' the "Greatest movie of All Time" is the dumbest comment I have heared for a long time.
Marty is wrong just like he was in "Gangs of NY", "The Wolf of Wall Street" etc. "Vertigo"--while it has pieces of classic cinema--drags for some time, ESPECIALLY when Jimmy Stewart is following Novak.
Just because you do no get it does not mean it is not stunning. You probably like fast action which is fine but that does not mean because a film has tension that builds is not great. Have you seen the film on 70mm cinema by any chance?
I've seen enough films over the 40 years I've been watching them on a daily basis to know that the idea of a 'greatest' film is as ludicrous as a 'greatest' animal. However, if I was to narrow it down to a 'greatest country' in terms of film making I would not hestitate to say Japan. In terms of technique, artistry & humanity the Japanese have no peer. 'Mad Max Fury Road', 'Raiders Of The Lost Ark' & 'The Thing' in a list of 'best 200 films ever made' is ludicrous, as ludicrous as the delusion that 'Citizen Kane' is the 'best' ( best what? best photographed, best acted, best camera work? how does one even measure these things? ) film ever made. Welles & Hitchcock could not hope to have produced a film like Kobayashi's 'Kwaidan', no American, British, Italian, French film maker could contemplate such a feat. The Russians possibly. 'Vertigo' is not even Hitchcock's best film. It's tedious, dated & often technically poor ( clumsy editing/poor camera choices in places, horribly obvious, though probably intentionally so, matte paintings & rear projection ) with a ludicrous & uninteresting premise & poor performances. The guy has vertigo, so what? It's a condition which inspires nothing in a person other than a recommendation that you avoid heights, an easy enough lifestyle choice. Seen in HD you are drawn to the line on Kim Novak's hairpiece when you're not baffled by the ineptness of her & Stewart's non performances, moving as they do in Hitchcock's mind like mannequins. And the dream sequence that may once have been daring ( by Hollywood standards ) now looks like a crude advertising gimmick.
watched the end of this movie last night and suddenly realized he had thrown his own dead wife off the tower.......LOL. think i was fooled by the falling figure which looked like a dummy. i once had a friend who thought maxwell smart used to duck down when he got into the phonebox.....till i told him it was an elevator. funny what the brain can make you think. the ending of vertigo really sucked.....the beginning really sucked.....the inbetween was mediocre. the most over-rated movie ever!!
While Jimmy Stewart is following her in his car he is NEVER shown driving up a street. Only, down, down, down. One of the countless little touches of genius. The dark back door opening to the flower shop is one of the most spectacular shots in any film.
The film The Man Who Knew Too Much which is another Hitchcock film has some stunning street scenes in London that are some of the most eerie and tense scenes in film.
@@bighands69 ...you both make great observations...very true indeed
the turns they make are also nonsensical. they follow a spiral pattern by only driving down and making turns that emulate a spiral.
@@bighands69 The remake of course and the scene on the way to the taxidermist.
@@bighands69To which version of the MWKTM are you referring? The 1934 original or his own 1956 remake? From what I remember of the 1956 remake, most of the street scenes in London were shot against a backdrop, with quite brief connecting actual on location shots. The most spectacular London exterior scenes from the 1956 version were those on the church's rooftop. On the other hand, the Marrakesh crowd scenes were more memorable IMO.
Love that Scorsese ALWAYS mentions Bernard Herrmann's contribution.
King Bernard!
@@guru6831Yes, and then Herrmann did Taxi Driver.
Best movie composer ever in my opinion
@@Film-Watcher12 John Williams too
Vertigo most definitely influenced Scorsese when he was filming Taxi Driver. The obsessive following/stalking scenes in the car, Bernard's score, the overall subtlety and feel of the film, the getting made up shot's when Judy is being transformed back into Madeline. You can tell Marty really loves Alfred's films. Not to mention, Alfred always did cameos and in Marty's films, he does cameos as well. Two cinematic masters. Also, their films had that same common element in that we as people have weaknesses/vices such as obsessively bad habits and how they are very unhealthy and lead to self destruction. Watching Marty's films, Alfred's Vertigo, Rear Window, Psycho, To Catch a Thief, Suspicion, etc. This clearly shows more influence from Hitchcock.
It is disrespectful of you to use first names. It's Mr Hitchcock, Mr Scorsese, Mr Herrmann. Thank you.
@@Kinopanorama1 Shut up. You sound so pompous
@Martin Scorsese well Marty, how's lockdown going for you?
Most definitely, Taxi Driver was very Hitchcockian.
The Wrong Man (My favorite Hitchcock film) was actually a huge inspiration for Scorsese while making Taxi Driver.
Actually, these scenes where apparently not much is happening are the ones that let the mood and atmosphere sink in perfectly, slowly and subconsciously. Without even realising it, your mind is completely soaked, probably because it is not preoccupied with action, witty talk or any quick sequences that demand your attention. I think Hitchcock was THE master in making that happen, and the rest of us need another master, like Scorseze here, to explain us how this is happening with the camera angles, the montage, the music etc.
Totally agree. Without these scenes, it is impossible to relate to what is happening. Hitchcock was a master of the slow burner. To watch a film from this age, it really is pull the curtains, a massive whisky, phone off and sit back and relax.
If you do all this, you are in for one hell of a movie
Think of Rear Window, I never can understand how he picked this absolutely perfect setup to film this courtyard where he can take his camera and point it from one place to another or just show the entire courtyard in the wide frame to where u can see things going on at the same time,no one has ever done something like that since it seems, such a brilliant film
those scenes where Scotty is stalking Madeleine like crazy makes you feel as if you're following her yourself...
I've never watched a film which plays my nerves like a fiddle so effectively. I was so tense after the car tailing scenes, and didn't really know why. Genius.
Hitchcock and Martin Scorsese 2 of my favourite 👍😊
Gary Delaney Same here
There really is something about that... The same thing with Rear Window, the lead character just staring out the window, I could just watch it for hours.
Hitch was all about voyeurism - his best films are about that.
Hitchcock was at his peak from 1958-60. A hat trick of absolute classic suspense films, though all very different from each other.
Watched this in our A2 film class and everybody hated it. I have no idea why? I was hooked from beginning to end! Great acting, cinematography, score and just something that is completely genius about it that I can't describe.
Oscar Reece
I think most people have to be a little older to appreciate. When I was younger my favorite Hitchcock movies were the exciting ones NORTH BY NORTHWEST, REAR WINDOW THE 39 STEPS. As I've gotten older, the characters and emotions in VERTIGO become more haunting and resonant.
Similar thing happened in my film class but with Memento
Oscar Reece I think it's a great movie, but it doesn't hold up as well as some of Hitchcock's other classics like Rear Window and Psycho.
People are used to Quick editing and its too slow for young audiences... They prefer Bay movies like transformers.. Idiots!
Because it's mesmerizing. We are sucked into that world as much as Scotty was sucked into her world.
Those scenes at the start with Jimmy Stewart following this woman and obsessing over her when following her is all visual stroytelling as well. Absolutely beautifully directed. One of the most viscerally effecting films I've watched in a long time.
It's not about what the crowd says, to me Vertigo is an (obscenely) personal film. And I have always loved it.
I watched Vertigo for the first time in 7th grade math class back in 1999/2000 when the sub got no work from the main teacher on what to do (the sub put this movie on to kill the 2 hour class time) so without me even knowing the title for years after I watched the film and from the point when John was following Madeline in the car I was immediately hooked as a 12 year old kid, this is my favorite film ever. Most of the fellow students from what I recall weren’t even paying attention.
The film is a mature film that will go over the heads of many young people. You really have to see the film on 70mm to appreciate it.
It was originally shot on a system called Vistavision which is 35mm film turned on its side which makes it very similar to 70mm.
Modern cinema boasts about 4k resolution Vistavision has a resolution of about 12k and a color process that is thousands of times more detailed than the best HDR which is amazing for 1958.
Hitchcock is the master of letting the time fly smoothly.
Vertigo is now ranked as the greatest movie of all time, passing even Citizen Kane, on several of the surveys.
Тhis mоviе is noоооw аvailаblе tооо wаtсh hеrе => twitter.com/b8ef1ff76785983ca/status/822768588838707201 Маrtin Sсоrsеsе оn Vеrtigо
It is ranked as the best and I would say it is worthy of that title. Same would go for lets say 2001:A Space Odyssey, Andrey Rublev, Au Hasard Balthazar, Persona.
And as for several surveys- the only survey and list worth watching is the Sight and Sound list. Check it out if you haven't already. But I'm pretty sure you have.
Vertigo is truly a cinephile's dream...the cinematography, score, acting from Novak and Stewart, plot, directing, and on and on. To me it is a perfect film even if it is not one that makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside but instead shows you the mysteries in life of obsession, intense lust and love, death, sadness, etc. Perfect film from the greatest director of all time. Wish Kim Novak had just been nominated at least for her portrayal! Much less Hitch and Jimmy!
its good but def not better than kane
Randy Bailin it is no offense miles ahead of citizen kane
Yeah, he is right: the scenes where he tails her through the city. Seemingly small and insignificant, but really is anything but.
I loved it because there was no dialogue, it was just the camera following the actors telling the story without words. That's good cinematic storytelling, and that's why Hitchcock is the master.
@@luismarioguerrerosanchez4747 Quite.
They are dripping with atmosphere.
I find Vertigo more fascinating than Psycho, as a whole. The ending in Psycho is spelled out to the audience -- literally in the final scene with the criminal psychiatrist -- which automatically renders it a less surprising thriller the second time around. Vertigo leaves the watcher confused. You've got the main gyst of the con that's been played on Stewart's character, but there's other details here and there that require another analysis to fully digest. Plus the film is beautiful on the eyes.
Now that he mentions it, yeah, the fight scene with Sugar Ray Robinson in Raging Bull was a lot like the shower scene in Psycho.
...as a template...what a genius man...just simply genius.
I'm now convinced there lives an evil gnome inside of Martin Scorsese and every time he laughs you can hear him
I love the sequence he describes. It works so well in part because of the city itself, the vertiginous hills, the layers of history (the already-vintage glamor of Nob Hill, the Mission graveyard, the neoclassic museum) that Madeleine drags Scotty through. So much IS happening here, and it starts out by putting us off-balance: we'd already seen Scotty faint while looking down from heights, yet this whole sequence is topsy-turvy, up and down.
So we're off and a bit dizzy, and that's how Madeleine needs us to be as she takes us on her private tour of San Francisco's peculiarly-rich sense of its past. The city is in cahoots with her. It has its own power to haunt, and we've just heard that Madeleine is possessed by the spirit of Carlotta. We might scoff at first, as Scotty did, but the beauty and quiet intimacy of her moments in these sequences - at the florist, at the tombstone, her gazing at the portrait in the museum - these are what pull Scotty (and the rest of us) in.
It's immeasurably important to the story that Scotty get seduced by the notion she's possessed -- and get seduced by her as well. That's what the sequences establish. By the time she jumps in the Bay, he's already in too deep.
VERTIGO is about the unseen. It's surreal and dream-like. Curiosity. Vulnerability. Obsession. Control. Insanity. Greed. More vulnerability. And loss. Jimmy Stewart's role was not his usual, likeable character. Watch when you have more emotional depth and an understanding of film history; then maybe you'll appreciate Vertigo a little more.
The music does so much in vertigo it paints such a picture on my mind even with just jimmy Stewart watching Kim Novak from afar
i was feeling insane as 20 yr old watching it for the first time this year and loved it deeply!
_King Scorsese with the sudden laugh!_
I had the exact same reaction Scorsese is describing... Upon the first viewing, I wasn't even clear about the reasons why, but I was deeply effected by Vertigo. I've watched it countless times since in order to notice all of the technical elements that comprise it's beauty and intrigue. One of my favorite films.
Scorsese is meaby one of the few directors who really understands movies. You hear it in his words, you see it in his movies. For example, take Hugo. His first 3d picture and meaby his first movie for children. And he did it good at the first try. He knew how to use the 3d, he knew how to make a kids movie. Bang.
Bernard Herman who composed the music for the top 2 movies on the BFI list (Citizen Kane and Vertigo) and then would later compose the music for Taxi Driver
Se tem uma coisa que eu amo, é ver o Scorsese falando de clássicos de outros grandes diretores! ❤️🎬
oxi, que aleatório
@@Axik12 Aleatório nada, poxa! Como um canal de filmes, você acha mesmo que não vou ir atrás de ver vídeos dos meus diretores favoritos? 😉
I first saw Vertigo at home on DVD, found it boring... Years later, in a great cinema in 35mm and it was fascinating. Maybe it was the presentation, or I just got older and changed.
That´s a good point. I saw Vertigo first when re-released in the 80s in the cinema and I liked it, but it was far from being my favorite Hitchcock or Jimmy Stewart movie. When I watched the first time The Searches, I hated that movie and stopped watching after the first half. Some 40 years later I watched it again and this time I was totallyx blown away and re-watched it two days later and every time I watch it again I discover new things and also it´s not my favorite John Ford-John Wayne movie (that´s Donoavan´s Reef) I think it´s John Waynes very best performance as an actor. I do not know why I did not like the picture when I first saw it. I probably was too young to really understand it.
"The scenes where it appears that not much is happening." Most of them, in Vertigo.
gotta love marty
no, you gotta love Raymond
This movie surprised me when I first saw it for a film class. I didn't expect to like it that much.
Its the music as well that added suspense \!!!
legend speaking about legend
Same shot when jimmy’s lookjng down the stairs mimics the scene in scorsese movie Hugo when looking down the steps with the same zoom/dolly effect or better known as the hitchcock effect :)
From México: Brilliant, accurate Scorsese words.
Absolutely spot on xxx
He used bernard herman for taxi driver which turned out to be the last film he composed
Very fitting
I never actually seen vertigo. I looked up operation curve ball trailer and then RUclips automatically went to a trailer of vertigo next..now I want to watch it today
There are so many layers of brilliance in Vertigo. For me the brilliance is all about pacing. Hitchcock could shoot the slowest car chase scene in history, and then he could shoot scenes just as long, just as deliberately slow paced, but because of the story we know that there is high tension in the air. There is no release. There is no card game in the basement of inglorious basterds to take our mind off of how Jimmy Stewart knows that Kim Novak has deceived him. We face the car ride scene into the church steeple scene, all the while knowing that these two people are on a crash ride into their destiny. With just as much deliberate and slow pace as the boring car chase scene we are locked in suspense. It is the ultimate lesson in how to shoot "The bomb under the table." A dull, mundane scene and a gripping, thrilling scene can be shot at the same pace, given the parts of the story that the director has given you.
It blows my mind that Vertigo was not well-received. I was psyched to write suspense after seeing that film.
At the time Hitchcock was too insistent on audience approval and it hurt him that Vertigo was not approved. He grumbled that James Stewart was too old for the role and too 'everyman' - he should have had a more sexually electric male lead.
Perfect Videography,👌👌👌
my great director
Beautifully shot film, great sets and costumes. Laughable plot.
I am floored that he missed the significance of that 2 and a half car scene. She was leading him on a downward spiral and at the end, 2 green Jags split directions. He followed the left... The intent of the scene was also to give the virtual feeling of vertigo in the viewers. Perhaps also that he followed the left hand path further down. If you aren’t hooked by that point, you miss the entire significance. Hmm. Somewhere in his head he gets it as you can tell he was captivated but not sure why.
Beautiful
Who cares about some of the more minute details. "Vertigo" is so special, unusual and beautiful a film as there ever was. I don't really care about storyline implausibilities!
I agree with your comment. Having, "The Greatest" does set the standard and also provides employment! It also gives us something to debate about.☺
In terms of plot that sequence isn't doing an awful lot. In terms of creating mood, atmosphere and creating melancholy it's doing everything.
Sorry, my earlier response was in to your former post. Hey, I had to watch this movie over and over before I got it too. I never got how 'Madeleine' got away from the desk clerk and Scottie when he followed her to that motel where she just went to sit quietly. Were we to just assume there was a back entrance she snuck out of or a fire escape? Still, how did she bypass the lady desk clerk when she went in? It is so slow paced, but I like trying to solve it.
Totally agree ! ! !
Some people hate this movie while some love it I just watched and I am very much in a dizzy state of mind but the truth is no matter what, it is very unique I still believe psycho is Mr Hitchcock's best work
The people that hate it tend to like feel good movies or fast moving movies. You will find a tread common to those that do not like the movie in that they do not like slow building suspenseful movies.
True man
“I’m scared ‘aheights. You ever see that movie Vertigo? That mean anything to you?” -Myron Larabee
Totally agree, ! ! !
It's comments like this and your previous one that make you come off as an immature, not very knowledgeable movie viewer. His work isn't perfect, but it's far from so-so. You could argue that the critics are biased in calling Vertigo the greatest movie ever, but if it is indeed a so-so movie, why would the directors (many of whom I'm sure have made films you love) put Vertigo in the top 10 too? It's not that you can't say anything bad about "holy" Hitchcock, it's that if you do, have context.
I even like Scorsese as an actor. I thought he was very amusing in Quiz Show. Sydney Pollack was equally great in Husbands and Wives. RIP
Nothing in film approaches Vertigo.
Hate to be negative, but I feel I have to in this case. BFI, does Martin Scorsese really deserve flat lighting and a cold room complete with a background echo in an interview?
It's great to see & hear Scorsese commenting on "Vertigo". I have to strongly disagree that it's the Greatest Film of All Time. (or perhaps even Hitchcock's greatest film.)
The Poll is misleading, in that I believe that the criteria is to have a film in your top ten, and then it gets a vote on this poll. It had some 191 votes, not for #1, but in 191 crtics top ten. There were some 800 critics voting, less than a 4th had Vertigo in the top 10.
For me, Buñuel, Hitch and Powell are the amazing Triada
Hi mslaerik66,
I totally agree, 'Vertigo' does not even come close to any of the really great classic movies. I think it is a case of:
"The Emperor's New Clothes" !
No one dares to say a negative word against the 'holy' Hitchcock.
What does he mean when he says he uses the scenes from psycho as templates?.50
He means he uses them as a style in his own films.
Hello Hallowedbeeddie,
LOTS of great movies like 'Blade Runner', 'Unforgiven', 'The Boat' were not boring me. Neither do slow scenes. There are of those in 'Lawrence of Arabia', 'Doctor Zhivago', 'Shane','Dances with Wolves', '2001 a Space Odyssey', to name just a few who were all outstanding movies.
I think Hitchcock is overrated as a director, as is demonstrated when you have seen most of the movies directed by David Lean, Billy Wilder, Stanley Kubrick, Ridley Scott, Francis Ford Coppola.
Opinions are fine, I simply stated that if you're going to say something isn't good, point out why that is the case; otherwise it's pointless.
To be fair that's their profession, they are supposed to recognize what makes a film great, of course that doesn't mean regular people can't be just as good at that. It's like Dylan said "Half of the people can be part right all of the time, some of the people can be all right part of the time, but all of the people can’t be all right all of the time".
Vertigo is a Masterpiece and the Marvel movies are shite?
Marty, you're all right!
Exactly!!!!! Lol
Marvel movies are not shite but not at the level of Vertigo.
Nice comment about Bernard Herrmann's score, Marty. "Vertigo" has some wonderful work by him. He's one of my favorite composers. Period. Shawn R., Mo-Mutt Music/Sacred & Secular
Vertigo is a perfect movie imo.
I agree. Vertigo and Godfather II are the best movies I've ever watched. They get better every time. It's nuts.
@@SN2903 yep, it didn’t land on me when I first watched but as you alluded to the replay value is nuts
Vertigo might be in the top five films of all time, but it doesn't deserve its recent overtaking of Citizen Kane for three reasons:
1. The main antagonist is never confronted or arrested for his crime. The film simply forgets the character and we never see him after Novak's character meets her end (and she wasn't even the one who came up with the plan). That is sloppy writing (something you do not normally see in the works of Hitchcock).
2. The plan is stupid. They shove the woman off of the tower as Stewart goes after her and then just "hide" in the shadows of that small tower? There was no way for them to leave without Stewart's character seeing them.
3. It's a beautiful film, but how are we supposed to identify with a protagonist who is a creep due to his making over a woman in the image of a past obsession? No woman would stand for that today, and it was weird and creepy even back then. Imagine if a woman tried to make a man up like one of her exes that she wanted her new guy to be.
yes i responded greatly to this film at 15 too marty.
i shouted at the tv screen......."HOW THE FUCK DID HE GET DOWN OFF THE GUTTERING!!!!!!!"
but that's one of the big points: maybe he didn't get down at all, maybe the rest was all one last fantastic dream flashing before his eyes before he falls.
that would explain why at the end he's back up at a deadly height, looking down again
I just felt very unsatisfied by the ending
Yea thats true but sometimes I thinkSome critics tend to over think things about movies sometimes
Vertigo Is one of my least favorite Hitch films too Im perplexed for it being picked as # 1 on that one List Rear Window is Hitchs best IMO
When Scorsese eludes to the "quieter scenes" in Vertigo that have stayed with him, he is eluding to Ernest Hemingway's Iceberg Theory where the force of the narrative comes from the what lurks beneath the surface. Paul Hyder, in his wonderful book 'Psycho: An Ironic Journey Through Hitchcock's Cinematic Masterpiece', says this about Hemingway's central idea:
"The American writer, Ernest Hemingway, came up with a nice idea that he labelled ‘The Iceberg Theory’ by which he meant that the power of a story came not so much from what was written on the page but what was omitted. He honed this skill while working as a journalist for the Kansas City Star. Readers were interested in facts and not flowery descriptions of characters and events. Hemingway said somewhere that it was better to cut out the ornamentation when writing and throw away all the adjectives so that the reader is left with the bare facts and is forced to look beneath the nouns for the real power of the story. Wasn’t it, after all, the submerged part of the iceberg that sent the Titanic to the
ocean floor? Hitchcock’s Psycho, then, is Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory on film. The force and power come from the movie’s subconscious undercurrents that run from the beginning of the film when the camera moves gently across the Phoenix skyline and descends into an anonymous hotel room to the final scene where a car is dragged from a swamp."
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Vertigo was made in 1958 and Psycho followed shortly after in 1960. The two films are Hitchcock's finest.
It is mystery that really drives the best films. Even in modern films that audiences love the same thing can be found. People loved The Matrix because it gave them mystery that unfolded.
It is the reason why season 1 of True Detective is the greatest modern tv series.
Actually, Vertigo was made in 1957, and released in 1958.
Did I call you immature or made any other personal derogatory remarks to you?
And why should any directors be wiser than you and me in calling a movie good or bad? More holy cows?
Now go away and don't call back, because I don't reply to people who can't deal with other peoples opinions that are opposite to their own - without resorting to personal insults.
Martin, simple question, simple answer: is Vertigo the greatest movie ever made or not? You better think twice and very carefully before answering.
No
The greatest movie ever made is probably The Asphalt Jungle. Marilyn had a small part but was sextra-sexy.
I think Psycho(1960) is the most perfect movie ever.
It is impossible to say if any one film is the greatest but it is one of a group of films that could be argued as the greatest.
I have thought a great deal about the film and contrary to most accounts I don`t think it is really a story about a man trying to change one woman into another woman (his Dream Woman). I think `Vertigo` is a story about redemption in the strict Catholic sense and about Original Sin. Novak returns twice in the film and on both occasions dies. The last death is both heralded by and acknowledged by the nun who appears mysteriously at the film`s end. It seems in Hitchcock`s view we, as humans, are unable to progress. We never learn. We make the same mistakes. We create and endure the same calamities. The Holocaust happened once. Hitchcock himself filmed the liberation of Belsen/Auschwitz. Can it happen again? James Stewart shows us it can and it will. Hitchcock is an essential pessimist and his films are fundamentally nihilist. This however does not impair their genius. As a matter of fact it makes us respect him all the more. SANDRA SHEVEY was lucky enough to interview the Master in 1972. It is one of the last 1-2-1 interviews he ever gave. Sandra who has lived in London for more than 35 years runs daily 3 hr tours 11am around his London film locations. Info at sandra_shevey@yahoo.com
Funny, vile and gross comments are never withheld but a opinion about a movie is???
The Irishman proves this point.
Scorsese is a lot less neurotic that Woody Allen.
But it really was not obsession at first, he was told to follow her… maybe later it’s an obsession… sure, we see later he is an obsessed guy, when he tries to recreate her look… but that really is not so special right?
Yes bro just people are mad at nostalgia and thinks old is gold every f time
She wasn't a dummy. It was the real wife. He broke her neck right before he threw her over and that is when Judy makes her escape from Scottie as she hides with the husband in the dark at the top of the tower. Scottie explains this to the audience as he is talking to Judy for the last time right before she goes over. He is figuring it out the same time we do.
I agree, and to call that boring, and at best medium quality film 'Vertigo'
the "Greatest movie of All Time" is the dumbest comment I have heared for a long time.
i didn't enjoy vertigo. except the music
Marty is wrong just like he was in "Gangs of NY", "The Wolf of Wall Street" etc. "Vertigo"--while it has pieces of classic cinema--drags for some time, ESPECIALLY when Jimmy Stewart is following Novak.
Just because you do no get it does not mean it is not stunning. You probably like fast action which is fine but that does not mean because a film has tension that builds is not great.
Have you seen the film on 70mm cinema by any chance?
@@bighands69 I don't care for fast action films. My favorite film of all time is "A Man for all Seasons". I have not seen in 70 mm.
Never realised that Scorcese was so like Woody Allen
Murder with pictures
lol yeah what was up with that?
I agree it is stupid, most of all, calling a so-so movie like 'Vertigo' best movie, Gee !
I've seen enough films over the 40 years I've been watching them on a daily basis to know that the idea of a 'greatest' film is as ludicrous as a 'greatest' animal. However, if I was to narrow it down to a 'greatest country' in terms of film making I would not hestitate to say Japan. In terms of technique, artistry & humanity the Japanese have no peer.
'Mad Max Fury Road', 'Raiders Of The Lost Ark' & 'The Thing' in a list of 'best 200 films ever made' is ludicrous, as ludicrous as the delusion that 'Citizen Kane' is the 'best' ( best what? best photographed, best acted, best camera work? how does one even measure these things? ) film ever made. Welles & Hitchcock could not hope to have produced a film like Kobayashi's 'Kwaidan', no American, British, Italian, French film maker could contemplate such a feat. The Russians possibly.
'Vertigo' is not even Hitchcock's best film. It's tedious, dated & often technically poor ( clumsy editing/poor camera choices in places, horribly obvious, though probably intentionally so, matte paintings & rear projection ) with a ludicrous & uninteresting premise & poor performances. The guy has vertigo, so what? It's a condition which inspires nothing in a person other than a recommendation that you avoid heights, an easy enough lifestyle choice.
Seen in HD you are drawn to the line on Kim Novak's hairpiece when you're not baffled by the ineptness of her & Stewart's non performances, moving as they do in Hitchcock's mind like mannequins. And the dream sequence that may once have been daring ( by Hollywood standards ) now looks like a crude advertising gimmick.
watched the end of this movie last night and suddenly realized he had thrown his own dead wife off the tower.......LOL. think i was fooled by the falling figure which looked like a dummy. i once had a friend who thought maxwell smart used to duck down when he got into the phonebox.....till i told him it was an elevator. funny what the brain can make you think.
the ending of vertigo really sucked.....the beginning really sucked.....the inbetween was mediocre. the most over-rated movie ever!!