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Vertigo

1958

Alfred Hitchcock

James Stewart, Kim Novak, Henry Jones, Barbara Bel Geddes ...

8.2

72,305

Mystery San Francisco police detective Scottie Fergusson (James Stewart) develops a fear of heights and is forced to retire when a colleague falls to his death during a chase. An old college friend hires Scottie to watch his wife Madeleine (Kim Novak) who has reportedly become possessed by her ancestor's spirit named Carlotta. Scottie follows her around San Francisco and is drawn to Madeleine and her obsession with death. He unwittingly becomes ... [+]

	Media	Author	Review
		Janet Maslin The New York Times	"With less playfulness and much more overt libido than other Hitchcock classics, 'Vertigo' was always anomalous"
		Roger Ebert rogerebert.com	"It is about how Hitchcock used, feared and tried to control women (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"
		Variety	"James Stewart, on camera almost constantly, comes through with a startlingly fine performance as the lawyer-cop who suffers from acrophobia"
		Desson Thomson The Washington Post	"Do yourself an aesthetic favor: Take the plunge"
		Bosley Crowther The New York Times	"[A] fascinating mystery"
		Peter Stack SFGATE	"In its dark heart, the film is a sorrowful contemplation of love and the veils that manipulate sexual passions"
		Mike Clark USA Today	"You watch this guy going slowly over the brink and realize, good grief, this is Jimmy Stewart"
		Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"The best movie ever made about romantic obsession (...) Stewart never gave a riskier, more riveting performance"
		Dave Kehr Chicago Reader	"[An] extraordinarily dense and commanding film, perhaps the most intensely personal movie to emerge from the Hollywood cinema."
		Tim Robey Telegraph	"There’s a special intensity to 'Vertigo', and a very personal kind of power (...) It’s an experience that gets correspondingly more deep and dreamlike with every viewing"
		Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"Still spinning its dizzying magic (...) Hitchcock’s masterpiece, rereleased after 60 years, combines his flair for psychological shocks with a genius for dapper stylishness (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"

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