Change of times for Sight & Sound and the British Film Institute. His new survey to determine the best films in history based on the criteria of various critics and filmmakers has a new winner. The Belgian ‘Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles‘, by Chantal Akerman, has reached the top of the list and will keep it for the next 10 years.
Thus, it dethrones a less cult film and a more widespread celebration throughout history. Certainly, it does not need to repeat a first place to be remembered, because time has placed it as an essential of its author, Alfred Hitchcock. It can be argued whether it is her best work or not (whoever signs it here certainly believes so), but she had already earned her place in history before she was crowned in 2012. However, it is worth remembering that ‘Vertigo ( from the dead)’ is the kind of movie one should have seen before dying.
dizzying image
The British director was chaining successes that were masterpieces, but he still kept a new level of excellence with this film that we can see on Filmin. James Stewart returns under his wing to play a detective with a balance disorder when he sees himself at considerable heights, who comes across a strange case from an old friend. He must keep an eye on Madeleine (Kim Novak), the wife of his friend, whose obsession with the past leads her down dangerous paths.
But this is just warming up for the most suggestive part of the movie. Stewart will become so obsessed with her that when he meets another woman, he will try to mold her in his image and likeness. The hairstyle, the hair color, the perfume, the clothing, the attitude. A whole manipulation exercise to which she agrees, first for money but then for love.
This involves an even greater mystery that is better not to comment and discover for yourself. Although, despite its intrigue, the true power of the film lies in the emotional vortex that these characters live. Not so much for those complex and fascinating emotions, but for all the layers that are revealed with Hitchcock’s career already in mind.
Alfred was certainly a master of tension and rhythm. To always have you hooked on the narration. Also a visual master, not only for the beauty of his images but for all the subtext they contain. They contain multitudes, one might say. For this film to sustain itself through a man obsessed with an idyllic image is the most Hitchcockish thing he has been able to do in his entire career.
Here’s a fascinating dissertation (intentional or not) of his obsession with blondes, for twisting them to his will. In that regard, Stewart’s character is an interesting avatar of himself. Although this character can also be observed as someone obsessed by an image that another has created, giving a more interesting metatext layer which reveals more perversion on the part of the filmmaker.
‘Vertigo’: the masterpiece that is still revealed before you
However, despite the fact that there are tangible elements that make ‘Vertigo’ an excellent work (its characters, the story, the photography Robert Burks, the excellent music by Bernard Herrmann), there is also a inexplicable mystical factor that makes it captivating. More than a few of us will have seen it as young people through a revival or other means, and we will have been captivated by it even if there were layers of meaning that escaped us.
That cinematographic strength makes it a highly recommendable piece at any age. Even though it’s convenient to start with some pure adult film exercises like ‘With death on our heels’ or the visceral terror of ‘Los pájaros’, ‘Vertigo’ has the ability to absorb the young and curious mind. A mind that, as an adult, can return to the film and find a different and totally magical experience, discovering itself before you in the most honest and human way despite being a work, with abstract qualities.
Almost like the enigma of the Mona Lisa’s smile, ‘Vertigo’ can be planted before us like a museum piece in which we can pour whatever we want and it will leave us just as mesmerized. Something that in a certain way is experienced in the film, showing that it has an infinite number of ways to expand and continue to be a powerful and essential film.