(Vertigo, 1958, Alfred Hitchcock)Well hello, Alfred Hitchcock. I get the feeling I'll be seeing a lot of you on this journey. Perhaps because you have 10 films on The List. But that's okay, I'd rather watch 10 Hitchcock's than 10 Lars von Trier's.
So, here I go into the realm of Hitchcock. I started with Vertigo because it's been on a lot of lists like this (it's on all of the AFI lists that they could logically put it on), and pretty much everyone I know who's seen it has enjoyed it. So, after watching the Ducks stomp all over the New Mexico State Lobos, I sat down to watch Vertigo fully prepared to be completely floored by it. Well... I wasn't. But that isn't to say that I didn't like it.
The first Hitchcock film I ever watched was The Birds. It was at least 9 years ago because we were still living in Arizona at the time, and even then I knew I'd just watched something pretty incredible. Since that viewing, I had seen a total of zero Hitchcock films in their entirety until now. Don't get me wrong, Vertigo was good. It just wasn't The Birds, which for some reason I hold as the ultimate Hitchcock film even though 100 film scholars would probably want me pecked to death by ravens for it. I guess it's just that it was my first Hitchcock, and when I sat down to watch it with my parents I had no idea what was coming. And not knowing made it incredible. Which brings me back to Vertigo.
I went into Vertigo knowing entirely too much. Sure, I didn't know the big twist that happens about three quarters of the way in, but I knew about the protagonist's crippling fear of heights, and I knew about his obsessive love for Kim Novak's Madeleine. I wish that I hadn't, because I may have been more affected by the plot developments if I'd been completely unprepared for them. Then again, maybe not. As I mentioned 14 posts ago, the first time I saw Fight Club I knew exactly what was coming in the end, but Fight Club still stands tall as one of my favorite movies ever. Vertigo, on the other hand, does not. So maybe preparation wasn't the problem. But I'd like to believe that if I hadn't seen any of it coming I would have enjoyed it a lot more.
This in no way means that I didn't enjoy watching Vertigo at all. I really did. I can already see that Hitchcock was clearly one of the great innovators of cinema, and I'm excited to watch more of his films (particularly the ones that I've never heard of and know nothing about). I guess that I expected a lot because of how much scholars and critics love this film, but what can I say? It just wasn't my thing. Then again, neither was Citizen Kane.
So, here I go into the realm of Hitchcock. I started with Vertigo because it's been on a lot of lists like this (it's on all of the AFI lists that they could logically put it on), and pretty much everyone I know who's seen it has enjoyed it. So, after watching the Ducks stomp all over the New Mexico State Lobos, I sat down to watch Vertigo fully prepared to be completely floored by it. Well... I wasn't. But that isn't to say that I didn't like it.
The first Hitchcock film I ever watched was The Birds. It was at least 9 years ago because we were still living in Arizona at the time, and even then I knew I'd just watched something pretty incredible. Since that viewing, I had seen a total of zero Hitchcock films in their entirety until now. Don't get me wrong, Vertigo was good. It just wasn't The Birds, which for some reason I hold as the ultimate Hitchcock film even though 100 film scholars would probably want me pecked to death by ravens for it. I guess it's just that it was my first Hitchcock, and when I sat down to watch it with my parents I had no idea what was coming. And not knowing made it incredible. Which brings me back to Vertigo.
I went into Vertigo knowing entirely too much. Sure, I didn't know the big twist that happens about three quarters of the way in, but I knew about the protagonist's crippling fear of heights, and I knew about his obsessive love for Kim Novak's Madeleine. I wish that I hadn't, because I may have been more affected by the plot developments if I'd been completely unprepared for them. Then again, maybe not. As I mentioned 14 posts ago, the first time I saw Fight Club I knew exactly what was coming in the end, but Fight Club still stands tall as one of my favorite movies ever. Vertigo, on the other hand, does not. So maybe preparation wasn't the problem. But I'd like to believe that if I hadn't seen any of it coming I would have enjoyed it a lot more.
This in no way means that I didn't enjoy watching Vertigo at all. I really did. I can already see that Hitchcock was clearly one of the great innovators of cinema, and I'm excited to watch more of his films (particularly the ones that I've never heard of and know nothing about). I guess that I expected a lot because of how much scholars and critics love this film, but what can I say? It just wasn't my thing. Then again, neither was Citizen Kane.
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