That’s right, Orson Welles fanbois and Mercury Theatre apologists, suck it! The real greatest film ever made has finally been recognized as such. Come on down, Vertigo! You deserve it, you really do!
(In 1996 the newly hand-restored print of Vertigo got a limited release, and I got a chance to see it at the Hi Pointe theater in St. Louis County, one of the great old, big movie houses left in the area. It remains to this day the single greatest movie-going experience of my life. Full disclosure: I go back and forth between Hitch here and Malick’s Days Of Heaven as my all time favorite, but in the past year I think Vertigo has won out.)
Great scene. But saying that Rear Window is a better movie because of that scene is like saying that Let It Be is better than Revolver because of “Get Back”. Vertigo’s story, acting, and cinematography are Hitchcock at his very peak.
Agreed, even if Vertigo is my favorite Hitchcock film on some days, especially today while I’m in San Francisco right near so many of the classic set pieces from the movie.
It’s always a matter of taste but, the dream sequence, the rooftop vertigo death plunge - both cool stuff. I mean, do you prefer voyeurism or obsession? Hitch liked extended anxiety scenes to ratchet up tension - another is the assassin scene in The Man Who Knew Too Much.
Also, I’ll take Bernard Herrmann scores over Franz Waxman.
Anyway, not surprised the British saying an English director made the best film over some upstart American. Personally, North by Northwest is my favorite Hitchcock film, with Vertigo right behind. And for my money, I like them both better than Citizen Kane, though Casablanca tops my list.
I would agree Vertigo is Hitchcock’s masterpiece. I don’t consider it to be better than Kane, although I do consider 2001: A Space Odyssey to be. And Black Narcissus gets more and more weird and interesting the more I watch it.
They are all worth seeing, anyway. But this is surprising news.
