Filmmaker reacts to Vertigo (1958) for the FIRST TIME!
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
- Hope you enjoy my filmmaker reaction to Vertigo. :D
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Original Movie: Vertigo (1958)
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What do would you say..the color green represents in this film?
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Have a great day everyone! Jacob's Ladder next.
When Kim Novak's character comes out of the shower in the room with her hair already as Scottie wants, it is a metaphor that she has completely undressed, she has taken off her panties according to Hitchcock in Truffaut's book. Green may be between ghostly and desire here, I really don't know. But this movie is visually orgasmic for the eyes.
What if I am clear that this movie is about obsession. Hitchcock was obsessed with blondes and dressing his actresses in his own way, and Scottie here does the same, he is obsessed with finding a woman who only exists in his head. It is Hitch's most personal movie, it gives for hours and hours of psychoanalysis.
Yeah, I'd say green is the color of longing/obsession in this story. The idea that it's a feeling that becomes SO intense that it's almost a sickness, a queasy feeling that drowns out everything else.
When ole girl appears as Stewart expected there towards the end, she seems to appear out of a green cloud... like a ghost coming back to life. Amazing.
Haven't seen Jacob's Ladder yet, but I heard its really out there...
Green signifies in this film both mystery and sensual obsession and how that combination is what really creates vertigo in Scottie because he's in the beginning of the film very distant and uninvolved shown by Hitchcock in very subtle ways, but it's his terror of almost falling off a building that unleashes this buried fear, but it's his relationships with others where the color green begins to send singles that he wants to be passionate and involved and green signifies that yearning, but the color green as he experiences it is also haunting and ghostly and in the end he ends up haunted by ghosts just as Judy as Madeline claimed to be.
By the way, my friend Dorothy's father composed the music for this film.
Hey, James. Here’s a general rule of thumb. Once Kodak developed a 35mm color stock in 1953, that was fast enough (ASA 25) and clean enough to put through a camera, the arduous three-strip Technicolor process, started in the mid-thirties, was pretty much abandoned. So, roughly, if a film was in color in 1952 or before, it was the Technicolor process - and if it was in 1954 and beyond, it was shot on actual color film with all the color layers on one strip of film. Vertigo was filmed in 1957.
Confusion comes in because the lab that processed most Hollywood movies was named Technicolor and still exists.
Vertigo was shot on Eastman 25T 5248 ASA (ISO) 25, and ran through the camera horizontally instead of vertically, so each frame was to the left or right of each other. The shutter was modified so it could shoot 8 perforations across, using more of the negative and creating a Wide Screen movie - AKA VistaVision.
In regards to the ending, there is a quiet element in Vertigo of a person or persons being haunted. It's part of the plot to make Scottie become a witness to a phony suicide, but this sense of haunting or of being haunted begins to enter both Scottie and Judy's interactions, Judy because of her guilt of falsely portraying a haunted woman and Scottie recreating Judy into Madeline as if bringing her back from the dead. After the feverish ascent of the tower at the finale and Judy's emotional rawness in her confession of love for Scottie, Judy actually thinks a ghost has entered the tower as a shadow and she is so frightened that she steps away from what she thinks is a specter and falls.
A good storyteller leaves thought provoking questions in your mind a the end of telling his tale
@@billolsen4360 And sir Alfred was such a good storyteller !
Dude, if you love the way Hitchcock uses space, you MUST watch Rebecca!
Hey there James, being in Film School for 2 years now and an avid Hitchcock fan, I wanted to answer some of your questions. I hope I won't be too long :)
So, Hitchcock being a cinematic formalist, he has, throughout his career, adapted the filmmaking of his films to geometric shapes in accordance with the themes of these films. In Psycho, for example, it was a broken line in the middle (because Marion Crane dies at the middle of the film). Vertigo refers to the spiral that represents the plot in which James Stewart's character sinks as the film progresses. His real vertigo is a parallel to the fact that he falls in love, as if bewitched by the character of Kim Novak. Since it's this, at first, that prevents him from rescuing her at the top of the church, it represents the fatality of his "bewitchment". This is why Novak's character is blonde during the first half of the movie. The blonde woman in Hitchcock movies represents fatality. She always the one who pushes the man into vice when she doesn't represents the vice herself (Marion Crane in Psycho for example). The music composer, Bernard Hermann (the goat), has always adapted to Hitchcock's formal system in all his films. This created a tangle between the two, towards the end of Hitchcock's career, because many critics said that half of the success of his movies was due to his music compositions. Here, to match the spiral, Hermann created short patterns of musical loops. This is visionary since it is pre-minimalist.
Yes you are right, it's indeed technicolor, a process overused by the big studio productions of the 1950s. The green, here, represents temptation or "bewitchment" and then, fear when she "came back" to life. The red represents the danger. This also matches other Hitchcock themes such as drive (often sexual and metaphorized because, at that time, Hollywood cinema was still, although less than before, under the aegis of the Hays code), fetishization or desire.
His style, in general, is to infuse an undesirable situation into everyday scenes. Hitchcock always makes sure to tell the viewer something extra (usually dark) about his characters: for example, their murder or robbery intentions, previous crimes and misdemeanors, or their potential ghostly possession when they go to a museum to look at paintings. He always uses dramatic irony and forces these characters to hide something in everyday situations. This is where the Hitchcockian suspense comes from. This suspense is always intensify with a lot of camera movements and a time dilation of his scenes . It's brilliant because it changes the relationship that the viewer has with what he sees on the screen. Hitchcock forces us to root for these characters. In other words, he perverts our point of view. For example, many of the scenes with John Stewart in this film border on or even totally embrace voyeurism (another of his favorite themes). Which, by the way, didn't give him a good reputation with the American critics of the time who considered him as an average entertainer, using only cheap effects to entertain the audience. Eventually, he has been rehabilitated later by critics of the French New Wave who considered him as an "auteur".
There, sorry, it was long. But it's really cool to see you continue your journey through Hitchcock's filmography. I strongly recommend North by Northwest, Rear Window and Strangers on a train which are 3 masterpieces (for the Patreon members if u read this comment :))
@@MsAppassionata mb
In my opinion, green is most associated with Madeline and represents rebirth--Judy is reborn as Madeline twice in the film. Red is associated with Scottie and represents caution---as in Scottie should be cautious dealing with Madeline. Midge also wears red in the scene with the painting. I think blue may represent guilt---Scottie wears a blue suit to the hearing and a blue sweater in the hospital. Purple is Judy trying to assert her own identity. Finally, yellow is Midge's color representing her sunny personality and her motherly, nurturing ways. If you ever watch it again, watch for towers, emphasizing the idea of heights, and spirals---Madeline's hair and the way Scottie is always following her downhill and turning like a spiral. Maybe symbolizes his descent into his obsession and the fantasy world created by Elster and Judy.
I have such a weird relationship with this movie. I've been a Hitchcock fan since I was a kid. Rear Window was one of my favorite movies when I was young (it's still amazing). But for some reason, I didn't get around to watching Vertigo until I was in my 20s and I really didn't like it. Years later, in my early 30s I guess, I watched it again and was totally blown away. I loved it. Another decade, in my early 40s, I watched it again, this time getting a chance to see it on the big screen, and I hated it again. How crazy is that. I'll have to watch it again in my early 50s and see how it goes.
Thanks for saying this. I too have, let's say a mixed relationship with the movie. I do find it memorable (hard to forget, once seen), with a unique look and mood. The cinematography and music are justly praised as all-time movie achievements. It didn't do great, either critically or financially, on first release, and then it was one of the batch of Hitchcock movies that was kept out of distribution for years, and had been essentially impossible to see. It started to become "legendary" thanks to a few essays by those who had seen it, reinforced by the reactions when it was finally restored and rereleased. And now it's become enshrined as one of the greatest films of all time, which I think it isn't quite. For me, it's become as overrated as it was once underrated. I don't put it at either extreme. I admire it a lot, I think it's a really fine achievement, and I rewatch it occasionally. I dare say filmmakers are rightly fascinated by it. But there's other Hitchcock (not to mention movies directed by others) that means more to me, I guess. We each have our own perspectives.
@Joe Bloggs Yeah, Rear Window is fun and a technical marvel, but I think what makes Vertigo stand out to me is that it's one of the few Hitchcock films where the film doesn't really have a straight forward A to B narrative, or at least does until it suddenly doesn't. The final act elevates the film into much weirder territory where the typical Hitchcock suspense plot has been solved, and the rest of the movie is about this creep recreating a dead woman. It's a stranger, darker, more surreal, more bitter film than anything else Hitchcock did, Psycho included, and that's why it's special among them for me.
I 100% agree with your statement ! @@ericjohnson9623
My husband is a huge film buff, so on our honeymoon in SF we actually went to some of the places this was filmed (Mission Dolores, Muir Woods etc) and recreated some of the scenes for pictures. :)
Indeed, the mission San Juan Bautista is just beautiful, and preserved so well. It's like stepping back in time. Even the graveyard that slopes down off the hill behind the main church is pristine. As you found out too, there is no bell tower, as it was a matte painting for the movie.
Vertigo is one of my favorite movies of all time, and I think one of the aspects (of many) that elevates it is the amazing soundtrack. I still listen to the soundtrack a lot, despite having first watched Vertigo 25 years ago.
I'd love to see a reaction to Rebecca, an earlier Hitchcock film!
an all time favorite of mine! the way Bernard Herrmann's score mimics the theme of obsession in the way the strings swirl and spiral is absolutely perfect
Let me recommend Hitchcock’s Notorious from 1946.
San Fran / the Bay Area was Hitchcock's favorite film location. The thing that gives Technicolor it's unique look was that 3 separate film strips, each exposed for their own unique color spectrum - red - green - blue - each were then run thru a dye solution specific to their color and then all three processed strips were exposed onto a single film stock to make the master copy. In the early days it was done in camera using a split prism behind the lens to separate the colors and expose them onto 3 seperate film strips - later they figured out how to expose one strip in camera, no longer needing to split the light using a prism and then that camera master was exposed onto 3 separate film strips separating the RGB - then those strips were run thru the dye and then exposed onto a single stock to combine the color info.
True,but by 1955,Technicolor discontinued the 3-strip process,and they adapted Eastmancolor negative to the printing process.
@@anthonymunn8633 Not trying to get in a pissing match about it, but, I am correct in what I wrote. In the 50's they found a way to use a single color negative strip in camera. Then that camera negative was struck to 3 separate strips to separate the colors, RGB, and then struck those 3 RGB separated strips back to a single final master strip. But you correct in the timetable of adopting that new process and Eastman was responsible for this advancement.
And the sky is clear there, no L.A. smog. Air pollution from the San Francisco Bay area blows down into the Central Valley of California where it sits permanently between two mountain ranges.
I hope you check out Shadow of a Doubt. It’s my favorite Hitchcock film, and I feel it goes under the radar a lot. Notorious is another incredible one!
I love how dreamy this film looks at times, cause it draws you in like something supernatural is happening. Then it’s just like, nope.
Yes! I'll cast another enthusiastic vote for Shadow of a Doubt and for Notorious, two more of my favorite Hitchcocks. And let me also suggest The 39 Steps, from 1935. Not many have seen it, but it's totally great.
I agree the dreamlike look is incredible.
Two of his best. Daughter, Patricia Hitchcock and Hitch himself said ‘Shadow Of A Doubt’ was his personal favorite. Notorious is flat-out great.
Shadow of a doubt is fantastic
North by Northwest (1959) is another all time great of Hitchcock.
Yes but "funny", not that amount of drama......
Saw this on the big screen at a revival. A totally different experience than a PC monitor.
That is perhaps the greatest ending in cinema history - for maybe the *greatest film* in cinema history! Thanks for a superb reaction, James. You were totally under the Master's spell from start to finish.
As for the meaning of the ending... I think Judy, already unstable emotionally and psychologically, is startled by the nun/apparition and steps back, then trips and accidentally falls to her (second) death. As you mentioned, the Stewart character, Scotty, has just overcome his vertigo and might be ready to move on, perhaps even to forgive Judy. But now it's "too late" (a line echoed several times in the film). It's too late for Judy, for Scotty, and certainly for the real Madeline. So what does the story mean at this point? Why did it all happen? What's the purpose of anything?
I believe this is Hitchcock's most eloquent statement of our existential condition. Many of his films contain this underlying theme, but in Vertigo it is laid bare in devastating fashion. Look at Scotty's pose in the final shot - almost identical to his posture in the dream when he was falling into the grave. That's no accident. No matter what you or I do or how hard we try, in the end, for all of us, there is nothing but death and the grave.
I'd love it if you did some of his early film classics...39 Steps or The lady vanishes.
It would be great to hear your thoughts.
I would put Spellbound in there as well, and Rebecca, also.
The Lady Vanishes!! I loved that film.
The 39 Steps is one of my top five Hitchcock films. Absolutely brilliant!
Before Hollywood and Los Angeles, the early film center was NYC with some of the leading figures living in mansion is nearby Larchmont, NY. San Francisco was a choice location because it is so scenic, and atmospheric, not because it was a center of the film industry.
one of my five favourite film of all time...( singing in the rain , vertigo , in the mood for love , hanna-bi ,kuch kuch hota hai ..) this is my personnal list :)
San Francisco wasn't the capital of Hollywood. It was always LA and most movies/shows still for the most part took place in LA across all decades. But there's just this interesting trend where certain decades are obsessed with specific locations outside of LA. In the 50's and 60's it was SF then in the 70's and 80's it was NY, in the 90's it was NY and SF again, in the 2000's it was mostly NY too, and now it seems every show and movie takes place in LA county.
If you want to see what are considered the two most beautifully photographed Technicolor films of all time…look into Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes, by British auteurs Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, from the mid 1940’s. Both are considered the best of the best. Check ‘em out.
I would add "Tales of Hoffmann" (1951) by Powell and Pressburger to the list (though it's not quite as consistently great as "Black Narcissus" and "The Red Shoes," and probably wouldn't make for a great film reaction video, it is on the same tier as them in terms of being visually stunning)
Another favorite of theirs for me is 1950’s Gone To Earth, with Jennifer Jones. It was influential to Kate Bush for her album and especially the title song Hounds of Love. Also technicolor.
There is an interesting interview with costume designer Edith Head (a true Hollywood legend who worked with Hitchcock many times) who says that she dressed Madeline in gray because the color does not go well with her light blond hair color. This should make the audience feel subliminally that something is 'not quite right'.
The camera blocking in this film is phenomenal. Also, you're correct about the green, which is associated with sickness, nausea and... vertigo! But also, the colour red as an opposite to green, and all that red usually represents as a colour. And yellow with Midge as Joy and Serenity.
Notorious is a fantastic early Hitchcock that doesn't get mentioned enough xxx
My 2nd favorite of his after this
Vertigo in my opinion is a 100/100.
In my opinion one of the best movies ever made. Hitchcock did it again.
You gotta do Notorious 1946 next as far as Hitchcock movies 🍿
Have you seen Dial M for Murder? Such a great Hitchcock film! One of my favorites. The star of that film Ray Milland is a great actor and did a great job playing a horrible person lol
Possibly James Stewart’s best performance. He’s best remembered for his aw-shucks, good guy persona. But his character in this movie is both emotionally damaged and creepily obsessive. A great psychological thriller.
One of the only times he broke that type cast, so so good
I'm not sure if you caught it, but, this was the first film to use the dolly zoom.
Well, you finally did it. You watched my all time favorite film. I think there is one single truth about this movie: every single frame of this movie is a painting.
You have to do strangers on a train ( perhaps the most nail biting climax ever committed to film ) and Rebecca, 2 absolute stunners
FYI, Mel Brooks did a movie spoofing Hitchcock films including Psycho, the Birds, and Vertigo. It was called "High Anxiety." I think it's his third funniest movie after Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles. You are probably now in a great position to watch it / react to it.
IT'S ANOTHER MEL BROOKS ' JEWEL
North By Northwest!
Were you trying to remember Psycho at the beginning?
21:25 is the famous dolly zoom shot used for the first time ever.
Did they shoot it horizontally? Thought I saw that in a documentary.
Shockingly far into the comments before any reference to the dolly zoom. 😮
I think you would enjoy Rope, by Hitchcock, it's filmed like it's shot in one piece without cuts. It starts with a murder, (literally in the first minute, so not a spoiler) so the audience know at all times what's going on, but the characters on screen are none the wiser, it's an incredibly tense movie :)
"What is happening with our mystery woman? Is she just taking on a persona?" - You caught this right from the beginning, James.
Filmmakers love San Francisco because it has so many interesting locations. Unfortunately, shooting there has gotten so expensive that few films are made there any more.
You didn't mention the score by Bernard Hermann. He used a whole-tone scale for the main theme, which gives it an unsettling, rootless feeling. Hitchcock used Hermann for several of his other movies, including Psycho and North by Northwest.
Kim Novak did an excellent acting job in Vertigo. She played two characters who were really the same character. Her mannerisms, voice, facial expressions, etc. were different for Madeleine than for Judy. She did a gradual transition from Judy back to Madeleine that was seamless and believable.
The dolly zoom/trombone shot when Scottie was going up the stairs to the bell tower is one of the two best-known examples of this technique. The other is in Jaws, when Chief Brody, while sitting on the beach, sees the shark attack on the boy.
It's classic Hitchcock to show the audience the plot twist before he lets his main character in on it. This was one of the main ways Hitchcock built suspense, that he used in many of his films. Most other filmmakers would have kept the murder plot and Judy's identity secret from the audience as well.
"Always green, ever living." ;)
"Vertigo" goes in quite a different direction relative to most Hitchcock movies--it is focusing mostly on a mood and emotion, rather than concerns of plot, action, etc. (for those concerns, the excellence lies in films like "Rear Window" and "North by Northwest"). The screenwriter of "Vertigo," Samuel Taylor (in the accompanying DVD documentary) said it quite well: "In those first talks, we decided that the more emotion there was in the man [Jimmy Stewart/Scotty], the stronger the picture would be...and he [Hitchcock] found without even thinking about it, that he was making a picture that went much deeper than most of his pictures. Just because the basic story--not the plot!--but the basic story, had a true human emotion." It is interesting here that Taylor distinguishes between 'story' and plot. I find there is a real darkness underlying it: its themes of trauma and guilt, trying to resurrect and recover a profound loss, trying to 'fix' the past and make it right again, and the irony that who Scotty pined for, the wellspring of all this infatuation and obsession--Madeleine--was an illusion that never really existed in the first place.
excellent analysis !
I've always preferred North by Northwest. James Stewart and Kim Novak appeared in another film in 1957, Bell Book and Candle. I don't think a film has a more sensual performance than Novak in Bell Book and Candle
This is my favorite Hitchcock film. I just really love the camera effect used during the vertigo scenes, such a simple technique but so effective.
I think you've seen enough Hitchcock at this point to appreciate Mel Brooks' _High Anxiety._ It's often overlooked because it's really for Hitchcock fans.
Color is subjective but I would consider "jade" to be a slightly more bluish green, that of copper oxide. I was going to call the shade here as "apple green" but that tends to be brighter and a bit more yellow. Now I'm thinking "emerald."
Too bad you saw Twelve Monkeys before this one.
Terry Gilliam took some direct influences from Vertigo.
When Bruce Willis and Madeleine Stowe are hiding in the movie theater, Vertigo is the movie playing on the screen. When Bruce Willis wakes up later in disguise and first sees Madeleine Stowe again, the movie briefly turns into Vertigo.
Everything in this film is about falling: Scottie 'falls' for Gavin's scheme, then falls for his 'wife', then falls into the open grave and into a white field during his crack-up. Madeleine (who is really Judy) falls for Scottie. Midge fell for Scottie a long time ago (and still wants him). Gavin's real wife is thrown from the tower. Judy falls from the same tower. Within moments of the film's opening, a police officer falls from a roof top. The jury falls for the story given out during the inquisition. Perhaps the last fall, not shown to us, would have been if Scottie decided to leap himself, after Judy fell off the tower. Vertigo is a perfect title.
As this is my personal favorite movie of all time and I'd argue (strongly) that it's the greatest American film ever made, I cannot describe the levels of happiness that overtook me when I saw this thumbnail
Next Hitchcock: North by Northwest ⬆️↖️
SO FUNNY AND THE WAY CARY GRANT PLAYS HIS CHARACTER ! @@50ShadesofJoGray
Love to see people react to oldie movie. You should try watching La Strada from Federico Fellini.
We’ll cry….
The fact that Scotty took off all of Madeleine's wet clothes, including her bra and panties, so he could hang them up to dry, was MAJORLY scandalous to audiences in 1958. Also, being from the SF Bay area and having worked there for 15 years, the scenes where he is following her in the car all over San Francisco are so cool to see.
I think that SF was used more in films because it has more beautiful architecture than LA has (I believe). I never lived in LA, so I'm no expert, but much of the architecture in SF is really beautiful. Plus the hills, the redwoods, the bay, the Pacific, the bridges.... all of it is so much more visually appealing than the landscapes around southern California, which is naturally an arid area. I think there may be more film noir filmed in SoCal, but those are usually in black and white, and often filmed at night, so beautiful scenery would be out of place.
the city of san francisco lovingly rendered and the beautiful cinematography
We in Los Angeles are jealous of San Francisco because they are what we are not. San Francisco is a true city, with its own soul and personality(no matter how weird and disfunctional those maybe), while LA is a collection of hundreds of suburbs looking for a city center (and collective soul. )
Please give North by Northwest a shot.... it's one of Hitchcocks best, and such an amazing comedy!
You might want to take a look at the somewhat remake by the great filmmaker Brian DePalma, Body Double. Not his best work and not 10 percent of the film Vertigo is, still has its moments and worth a viewing.
Hitchcock also worked with Jimmy Stewart in 'The Man Who Knew Too Much' which in my opinion is a masterpiece, definitely check that one out. ✌
I grew up thinking that Rear Window was my favorite Hitchcock because it really was the movie that got me into old movies and didn't think all that much of Vertigo, but it managed to completely blow me away when I re-watched it a couple years ago. There's so much symbolism that lives in it and gives it such a suspended ethereal quality that's like I'm watching it outside of time. Green seems to me to be at least partly symbolic of possession/obsession; Madeline overcome or possessed by a specter of who she was in the past and her being the object of Scotti's obsession because of the glimpse into and rush of infinity he feels when he not only is in her presence, but also when he's overcome with vertigo or the feeling that his perception is extending into infinity with a fear of falling endlessly into the infinitesimal unknown, yet he succumbs to his desire to chase the infinitesimal unknown in the form of his anima figure, Madeline.
Amazing! the next Hitchcock movie I would love to see you react is Rear Window (1954) another movie starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly, you will enjoy this one more than Vertigo.
San Francisco is a beautiful mysterious city, that’s why and I think the shade is kelly green.
If you REALLY want to see how Hitchcock utilizes "space", watch Rope. The entire movie takes place in One room and shot in One continuous take.
This is right up there with Mulholland Dr, Chinatown and Sunset Boulevard as my favorite noirs and some of my favorite American movies ever.
Yes, you also have a green background. It’s all connected.
I'm not sure but I think there was a 3d version of this. If I'm wrong commenters don't murder me.
Thanks for reacting to this! Among the contributors who made it the unforgettable movie it is, let's not forget the cinematography of Robert Burks and the music of Bernard Herrmann, two masters of their crafts. And the acting of that great actress Barbara Bel Geddes as Midge -- I love her character as much as you do (smart underappreciated women in glasses recur in Hitchcock, as you'll see when you get to Strangers on a Train).
As for San Francisco... no, it was never a "center of moviemaking." But Hitchcock liked to shoot there, as did other directors when they could and it was appropriate. At a manageable distance from LA, it provided a very camera-ready, unique cityscape conducive to the telling of interesting stories.
I hope you'll watch Rear Window. It's gradually climbing to the very top of my Hitchcock pantheon, and it offers you another James Stewart performance, other good acting, some nice bits of humor, a new approach to music, and a unique shooting "location."
A second for Rear Window 🙂
Thanks for your reactions James. It's not just green that is important but red also. The stop and go of vertigo, wanting to give in to it but also wanting to fight it. The red and green lights in the background of the opening scene, the red room with the green dress when he first sees her, both characters switching colors throughout the movie and many more examples can be found. When he follows her for the first time, right and left turns as he spirals down the streets of San Francisco (at least one of the reasons the city is chosen). The other theme is the question "Do you think the dead can possess the living?". Scottie's answer is no but he is possessed by MADeline. There's much more to this brilliant film which I consider his best. Hitchcock disagrees, he preferred "Shadow of a Doubt".
Not the same kind of movie ! Shadow is a simple thriller/criminal movie shot in a small provincial town North of San Francisco !
@@Fanfanbalibar It's not just a simple thriller like North by Northwest. It's deeper than that. Simple but done so well.
Your content is always such a joy to watch and this is no exception, great stuff, never change man, the passion and fun you have is infectious.. as always, stay awesome and stay geunine... much love
One word for this film: Masterpiece. And Jimmy Stewart is such an underrated Actor. How many times have people said "Jimmy Stewart plays the same character every time". Not in this movie! Hitchcock so admired Stewart's acting that he chose him to carry in his masterwork! I think green was used for the weird, ghostly effect of lighting Kim Novak as a dead woman or ghost.
Watch the great performance of Stewart as a lawyer in Otto Preminger's "Anatomy of a murder", if he isn't a great actor I am the Pope !
You missed so much of the film due to talking over it so much
Thats his trademark
This was a good one. Rear Window is one of my favorites.
How are you able to follow the movie and digest the dialogue while chattering all the while? I don't think I could do that.
It’s not that difficult for me :)
Apparently Kim Novak's performance was criticized at the time for being "stiff" - but critic Roger Ebert said in a later review: "Ask yourself how you would move and speak if you were in unbearable pain, and then look again at Judy."
P.S. There is a great commentary on the driving scene (where Scotty is trailing 'Madeleine' through the hilly San Francisco city streets) and Hitchcock's deliberate use of editing on RUclips called 'Spot the movie subliminals - Hitchcock's Vertigo (driving scene)' by the user Collative Learning. It is quite revelatory--I myself always wondered, over the years and the many times I had seen the movie--what the purpose of that prolonged scene was and why Scotty became frustrated!
One of my favourite Movie🙏🏽
San Francisco was the capitol of "let's get paid to take a vacation" for Hollywood filmmakers like Hitchcock. PS. The smog in LA was terrible in the fifties. Some filmmakers went elsewhere for exterior shots. And SF enjoys cooler summers than LA.
MARK TWAIN WROTE "THE WORST WINTER I HAD WAS A JULY IN SAN FRANCISCO" !
This makes a fantastic double feature with Marnie (1964) both are truly psychological thrillers. As for the color green, I always associate it with the initial cause of his vertigo. Falling in love and falling to his death are both fears for this guy. Vertigo has a lot of rewatch value because it's so densely packed. My favorite scene is the red bar scene. It's a room without an entrance or an exit -- Novak seems to vanish into the wall. The burning intensity of the light as she poses in perfect profile. And there's no heed paid to the 180-degree rule because we're not meant to pay attention to the physical placement of the characters. It's all about their emotional state. A great film.
Hitchcock's masterpiece
Technicolor just didnt capture color better than any other system before it or during olden age Hollywood, but also retained kt better as well. Eastman had a terrible issue with fading and degredation. There is an awesome documentary on Technicolor on the extras disc of the Adventures of Robin Hood blu ray. The 1938 film with Errol Flynn and an absolute classic film.
Stewart and Novak reunited, years later, for Bell, Book and Candle, Stewart's last film as a leading man. Bell, Book and Candle was a much more lighthearted film, and it was lots of fun.
it actually came out the same year!
one of the best films ever made in my opinion, there’s not much films as deep and thought provoking as this one
Alfred Hitchcock was, throughout his career, heavily influenced by the few years he spent in Germany, during the silent era, at UfA. He of course built on that early experience, but the German expressionism and other techniques show in his films. He had the advantage of using colour to denote mood or plot points in his later films, and he used them very well.
Yes, instead of stuffing our brains with useless words, words, words!
It is based on a French novel (English title The Living and the Dead) by the author duo Boileau-Narcejac.
In the book, the murder plot only gets revealed at the very end. He strangles her to death and waits for the police to arrest him.
Another Boileau-Narcejac novel was made into the 1955 French movie Les Diaboliques (titled either The Devils or The Fiends in the US). Alfred Hitchcock had plans to film an adaption, but director Henri-Georges Clouzot outran him in optioning on the filming rights.
Robert Bloch, author of Psycho (the novel), stated Les Diaboliques being his all time favourite horror film.
In 1996 there was an American adaption titled Diabolique, starring Sharon Stone, Isabelle Adjani, Chazz Palminteri and Kathy Bates.
you're wrong, it's "From among the dead"
@@Fanfanbalibar I'm not, the English language edition of the book is titled "The Living and the Dead", although later reissues used the movie's title Vertigo. "From among the dead" is the direct translation of the French original title but there never was an edition of the novel with that title.
You won't teach me, a French woman, not knowing what wrote the tandem Boileau and Narcejac, the tithes of their books and the translation that was made at a time your Mom hadn't conceived you (yet)!@@BadMoonHorrors
@@Fanfanbalibar I already did that.
Its The Living and the Dead, you can hear the radio play here on youtube
Love your commentary, as usual... Love the fact that you're thinking like a director, and I feel I learn a lot from your thoughts.
Some other classic films you'll love: "A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH" (by the brilliant British directing duo of Powell and Pressburger), "FAIL SAFE" (incredible Nuclear showdown film starring Henry Fonda and directed by Sidney Lumet), "SEVEN DAYS IN MAY" (another brilliant turn from Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster & Ava Gardner, directed by the great John Frankenheimer), ...speaking of Frankenheimer... he directed one of the truly great films in "THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE" (It's AMAAAAAAAZING... Frank Sinatra in his greatest role... and a plot that will blow your mind)... Finally... a couple of more contemporary films that are brilliant: "PLEASANTVILLE" and "STRANGER THAN FICTION"... Cheers!
hey James have you seen North by North West??? another Hitchcock classic and a brilliant performance by Cary Grant , one of my favourite all time actors.
This one is funny with a sarcastic Cary. Grant !!!!! The mother! Hitch may have had something against the mothers (Psycho, North by Northwest and other ones (in Notorious)!
Very happy to see you including more older films. I'd like to see your reaction to 3 of my favorites...
Rear Window - Stewart and Hitchcock again...
Sullivan's Travels - Comedy with a message
The Best Years Of Our Lives - a good choice to recognize Veteran's Day (November 11).
The one with Redford and Streisand???????????
I wish, I wish, I wish there was a way to bottle up the feeling I had watching this for the first time. Halfway thru the movie and one of the main characters seemingly kills herself? Wha? Are you kidding me? J Stewart wasn't the only one with vertigo. Hitchcock gives it to the audience, you have no idea whose gonna do what till the end even as you're fed little tidbits here/there, and his vertigo is cured in shocking fashion. Masterpiece...
To also see the funny side of Alfred H., I suggest to watch the fantastic "The trouble with Harry" 😀
The top one classic film by Master Hitchcock. James Stewart and Kim Novak bearing the film as the protagonistic dynamic duo. The plot is so extrordinary builded up not only in script but to the cinematography. The vertigo effects ( dolly zoom ) at camera so brilliant performed . The subtle soundtrack of Bernard Herrmann makes the film so captivating. Credits to Saul Bass for his brilliant opening visual titles. Bass , Hitchcock and Herrmann did it again 2 years later, with Psycho. 1960!
I totally agree with this analysis since the 1st time in 1959 in Parus (France) when at age 15 I watched it for the first time !
Read "PARIS", not the wrong spelling !
Okay! First of all, I REALLY have enjoyed several of your reaction videos, man!
Next… I’m sorry that I’m piss-poor broke, & unable to financially support your channel.
Thirdly… Not sure if you’ve already done so, but… After your venture through Hitch’s flicks (Especially “Psycho”, “The Birds”, “Vertigo”, you should continue the vibe, but in a somewhat sillier way, by watching Mel Brooks’ tribute flick, “High Anxiety”!
REALLY, man! I believe it to be a fitting close to your Hitch trip!
ALSO…
Been waiting for some time for you to go through all five of the Indiana Jones flicks!
Don’t listen to the naysayers out there, & as a student/maker of film, they all should definitely be on your list!
(Just the same with all five of the, “Pirates of the Caribbean” series!)
Thanks for all you do, & best regards, always!
😁
I first saw this as a midnight movie, in the early '80s. The theater and the late hour seemed perfect for the bizarre story unfolding before my eyes.
Great
perhaps the best HITCHCOCK ever....perhaps. But there's so many great movies - one of the greatest filmmakers ever with silent films and black and white sound films and colour films and even that freaky bates movie....
I’m going to add a bit more color & background on the Bay Area (native).
1. Hitchcock and his family kept a house in the Santa Cruz Mountains (45 miles south of SF, maybe?) and was up this way on a regular basis. Shooting on location would have been easy for him!
2. While SF was never an epicenter of filmmaking, about 30 miles SE was Niles. Niles was one of the shooting locations of the Essanay Film Co (its other locale was Chicago) from roughly 1915-1919, before rolling up and everyone moving down to LA. In Niles you’d see Charlie Chaplin, Bronco Billy Anderson, Norma Talmadge, Mary Pickford, etc. it was in Niles that Chaplin introduced his Tramp persona.
3. Niles, incorporated into Fremont about 65 years ago, has the Essanay Silent Film Museum & Theatre, showing silent films and special programming from the 30s in their original 1916 theatre on the weekends. They’re currently in post-Covid recovery!
4. Niles has a cottage industry built around the silent film era, with weekend-long festivals for Chaplin and Bronco Billy, plus they’re involved with the annual SF Silent Film Festival. I’ve even attended a Buster Keaton film festival there!
As both a movie lover and from SF, I don't completely know why more movies back then took place in SF. My guess is a change in scenery and nice backdrops and only being a 6 hour drive or 1 hour flight away from LA was probably a factor too. Plus I'm guessing shooting in SF was more financially doable then as compared to the past couple decades where most people know it's more expensive nowadays unfortunately
Brian De Palma may have “taken” from Hitch but man did he use Hitchcock’s elements well, Especially in “Blow Out” underrated unsurprisingly. It’s quite sexist but on purpose. Hitch used Janet in Psycho for an incoherent yet precise scene. Early even though she’s on the Cover of the movie gets killed, not so gruesomely but with a perfect choice of sound & music
Brian did a great job of being scary, believe-able to a degree an goddam amazing. Which you’ll have to see Blow Out (1981) to amidst yourself in the story to believe. Love sir Hitchcocks work & the many he inspired to make and produce their own great films.
San Francisco being used in films probably goes back to Charlie Chaplin having his studio located in Niles, along with others. Niles is now incorporated into the city of Fremont. Which is at the bottom East side of the San Francisco bay. Scenes for "Rebecca of Sunny Brook Farm" & "It Ain't Hay" were film in Pleasanton, north east of Niles. The film "When Harald Meet Maude" was shot in the Bay Area. There's a tourist map made in the '80 showing filming locations for major movies in the City, Bay Area, and down to further out locations. Like San Battista where the church tower is in Vertigo.
Its strangle seeing Barbara Bel Geddes (Midge in this), growing up with her as Miss Ellie from the tv show "Dallas" seeing just how pretty she was back then, Also Ellen Corby (Grandma Walton) as the hotel manager....
Now you need to watch 12 monkeys again. It heavily references this film.
Blow Out 1981
Takes homage from this film plus many Hitchcock films it’s about a sound designer (John Travolta) that edits and captures sounds for b-movies. while capturing the sound of wind on a bridge, he captures a car accident that involves a presidential contender. As he re listens to the tape
He discovered something quite shocking…
For Hitchcock Technicolor check out The Man Who Knew Too Much (also a Jimmy Stewart film). North By Northwest also.
Rest assured, San Francisco was not the capital of films before Hollywood. In America at least, the original capital was Fort Lee, New Jersey. Many early studios, the competitors to Thomas Edison, parked in the vicinity of his lab.
The main thing is that San Francisco is kinda pretty; you can shoot it at wacky angles and get dynamic light/shadow contrasts in your frame which (for anyone working in the noir genre) is a paradise of atmosphere. It's one of the many trends set by "The Maltese Falcon" a decade and a half before Hitchcock finally gave the city a spin.
I love this film. However, when it displaced Citizen Kane as the #1 film in the Sight and Sound once-per-decade poll of world film critics, Alan Arkin opined that it is not the best film of all time, not one of the 500 best films of all time, not Hitchcock's best film, etc.
I'm not crazy about this one, I love Psycho. But last film I watched with Jimmy Stewart was A Philadelphia Story, and that was amazing! One of the best rom coms