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Post by mhynson27 on Aug 19, 2018 15:51:56 GMT
Thoughts?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 19, 2018 17:15:53 GMT
Hitchcock's best film and I am not opposed to the consensus that it's one of the greatest movies ever made.
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Post by countjohn on Aug 19, 2018 17:45:50 GMT
All time great performance from Novak, one of the best looking studio Technicolor films, and a nice case study on obsession. Maybe Hitchcock's best film, athough both Rope and Psycho are around the same level for me.
I would probably call it a touch overrated, though. I don't think it's nearly as good a movie as Citizen Kane, despite it passing it in the latest Sight & Sound poll for instance. It belongs on any top 100 list of classic films, but I don't really think it belongs in the top 10-20. A film critic in the midst of calling it the best film of all time once approvingly said it was "pure artifice". I think that's about right, but it's kind of a backhanded compliment.
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Post by pacinoyes on Aug 19, 2018 17:56:55 GMT
It's my favorite Hitchcock and I certainly love it and would put it on the list of GOAT films just for its thematic strengths alone but here's what we have to admit...........it's preposterous, ridiculously plotted and convoluted, the Midge character I want to (at least) punch (repeatedly) in the face and it's wayyyyyyyyyy too long. You can love it and Hitch and say that.
Polanski, Chabrol, Argento, De Palma and others who practised the "Hitchcockian film" often bettered him at it with individual films because when Hitch played the game .............well the game was conservative and safe and restrictive - he's from a different era and the later eras could go places he couldn't and would have.
But .......... yeah Vertigo is awesome.
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Post by theycallmemrfish on Aug 19, 2018 18:00:33 GMT
Not a fan. Like, at all. Well I'm outta here... I know what's incoming.  |
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wattsnew
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Post by wattsnew on Aug 19, 2018 19:49:21 GMT
Not a fan. Like, at all. Well I'm outta here... I know what's incoming. Hm. Well you have to explain why you don't like it if you're going to make a stupid comment like that. |
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Post by theycallmemrfish on Aug 19, 2018 20:05:24 GMT
Not a fan. Like, at all. Well I'm outta here... I know what's incoming. Hm. Well you have to explain why you don't like it if you're going to make a stupid comment like that. Well now I don't! |
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Post by cheesecake on Aug 20, 2018 1:26:43 GMT
It's one of those classics that I've seen countless times -- including a 50th anniversary screening, but it just doesn't click for me. The music is iconic, great costume design and cinematography as well. The performances are fine, I guess, but it's never come together for me. I find the story really lacking. :/
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Post by urbanpatrician on Aug 20, 2018 2:15:44 GMT
It's strange that this production is the one named the greatest film of all time.
I can see Citizen Kane being named the greatest of all time because that was in the era where studio films were starting to be criticized. Welles, one of the biggest "critiquers" of the old Hollywood system seeked to make Citizen Kane admist the drama surrounding the climate of the time - that some people felt Hollywood was the center of the film universe. And Welles just wanted to throw it in the faces of people because his ideas of art is not shared by most of Hollywood at the time. For this reason, Citizen Kane instantly captivated one branch of the film watching audience. And generally it was liked well enough by certain people, even though the moviegoing audience favored Sergeant York and How Green Was My Valley.
I can see 2001 being named the greatest because it was a landmark direction Kubrick decided to take and it's such a "giant" motion picture - and a small pop culture phenom. It's the epitome of an IMAX picture... that must've been largely the appeal of going to the cinemas to see it.
I can see The Godfather being named... because.... duh.
I can see Gone With the Wind being named.... because... again..... it's the height of moviegoing.
But Vertigo did not seem to have the original ambitious intent which those feel like. It is a Hitchcock film and Hitchcock films were high on anyone's anticipation back then, but did anyone expect it to be the greatest film of all time? Just like nobody thought Casablanca would've been the greatest film of all time... who thought that of Vertigo?
Anyways, this is a highly read experimental film - and nobody tells me they understand it unless they read the main catalogue of Freud books, because it taps into areas of human desire, high figmentations of the mind, living in a state of perpetual denial, and all the stuff that Scottie creates in his head to replace his reality. All that psychological stuff that is laid really really thick. You can argue this film is an exercise of all of those components... and it is indeed somewhat of a product of the psychological pop culture of the era (that split personality thing, and etc.). Has anyone seen The Three Faces of Eve? It's clearly influenced from 50s psychological pop culture.
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wattsnew
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Post by wattsnew on Aug 20, 2018 5:38:33 GMT
It's one of those classics that I've seen countless times -- including a 50th anniversary screening, but it just doesn't click for me. The music is iconic, great costume design and cinematography as well. The performances are fine, I guess, but it's never come together for me. I find the story really lacking. :/ The story is the least important part. Like Scorcese said! It doesn't really matter. It's the craft of the film that makes it so brilliant. |
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wattsnew
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Post by wattsnew on Aug 20, 2018 5:42:30 GMT
It's strange that this production is the one named the greatest film of all time. I can see Citizen Kane being named the greatest of all time because that was in the era where studio films were starting to be criticized. Welles, one of the biggest "critiquers" of the old Hollywood system seeked to make Citizen Kane admist the drama surrounding the climate of the time - that some people felt Hollywood was the center of the film universe. And Welles just wanted to throw it in the faces of people because his ideas of art is not shared by most of Hollywood at the time. For this reason, Citizen Kane instantly captivated one branch of the film watching audience. And generally it was liked well enough by certain people, even though the moviegoing audience favored Sergeant York and How Green Was My Valley. I can see 2001 being named the greatest because it was a landmark direction Kubrick decided to take and it's such a "giant" motion picture - and a small pop culture phenom. It's the epitome of an IMAX picture... that must've been largely the appeal of going to the cinemas to see it. I can see The Godfather being named... because.... duh. I can see Gone With the Wind being named.... because... again..... it's the height of moviegoing. But Vertigo did not seem to have the original ambitious intent which those feel like. It is a Hitchcock film and Hitchcock films were high on anyone's anticipation back then, but did anyone expect it to be the greatest film of all time? Just like nobody thought Casablanca would've been the greatest film of all time... who thought that of Vertigo? Anyways, this is a highly read experimental film - and nobody tells me they understand it unless they read the main catalogue of Freud books, because it taps into areas of human desire, high figmentations of the mind, living in a state of perpetual denial, and all the stuff that Scottie creates in his head to replace his reality. All that psychological stuff that is laid really really thick. You can argue this film is an exercise of all of those components... and it is indeed somewhat of a product of the psychological pop culture of the era (that split personality thing, and etc.). Has anyone seen The Three Faces of Eve? It's clearly influenced from 50s psychological pop culture. I haven't read any Freud and I understand the film perfectly fine. |
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Post by Pavan on Aug 20, 2018 6:55:12 GMT
My favorite Hitchcock film and one of my all time favorites. It's visually hypnotic and the score by Bernard Herrmann is GOAT level.
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Post by idioticbunny on Aug 20, 2018 16:42:42 GMT
In my top 10 favorite films of all-time with the greatest score and (probably) cinematography of all-time as well. The first couple of times I watched the film I didn't get the love, it felt like a decent movie but as others have said the story was lacking and kind of... weird. But seeing it on the big screen about four or five years ago truly changed my perspective on it. Hitchcock was always one for pushing the envelope cinematically, but he also loved throwing his experiments on audiences of millions rather than thousands. He strove to make box-office hits in the way Fincher wants to make hits - to exploit the fact that people are inherently perverts. And then Hitchcock makes his most perverse film yet. The reason I love it, though, is because it's also his most intimate. This is Hitchcock letting his guard down and showing who he truly is underneath the darkly comic facade. His obsessive nature and love of perfection (particularly in regards to his women, but how about that crime?) comes with consequences, and Hitchcock sort of comes to terms with that here. That what's in his nature will ultimately be his downfall as it is for Scottie. It just so happens that Hitchcock's direction remains both intimate and entertaining/thrilling at the same time which is such a rare feat and I feel like very few, if any, films are made the same way today. I think of The Secret in Their Eyes as a good example, and it also happens to be one of my favorites of the last decade, but again that film is rarity in the thriller market. And that's why I was so iffy on Vertigo for the longest time - because it's so different and off-the-beaten-path, but in essence that's what made me appreciate it all the more. A dialogue-less sequence of Scottie driving the hilly roads of San Francisco to follow a client are just as thrilling as sequences of Scottie walking through the Redwood Forest with Madeleine who may be haunted by a spirit. It's oddly romantic, but beautiful and exciting and if you want to understand the undercurrent of the story, it's best to listen to Bernard Herrmann's score on its own because he truly captures the internal struggle that Scottie faces throughout the entire film. And you'll understand why it's my favorite score of all-time for one of my favorite films of all-time. |
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