The reason I chose Vertigo is that I'll be mostly watching movies I haven't seen first, and most of the ones in the top 100 are foreign ones. So, I decided to knock off one of my favorite American films.
When I first saw Vertigo a few years ago I would have called it the greatest film of all time. It has one of the great twists in history. The problem with twists of course is they only work once. You can never watch a film based around a twist the same way you did the first time. Hitchcock films thrive on the psychological drama more than anything, and when you watch the beginning of the film knowing what's really going on, it dispels a lot of the tension it had the first time.
It's still a beautiful film. Jimmy Stewart is perfect for a Hitchcock lead. He's one of the only ones who can play the sort of charismatically-in-control male that Hitchcock likes with an edge of humor. The emotional themes in Vertigo of feeling guilt over personal weakness beyond your control and both main characters' desires for redemption might be the most potent in Hitchcock canon.
Rating: *****/5
3/100
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