
The movie that I watched for this semester was Vertigo which as the poster correctly states is the masterpiece of Alfred Hitchcock. This movie is a visual work of art. This movie in the hands of a lesser director would not have nearly been as amazing. Hitchcock is the main reason that this movie is a great movie. Sure to some extent the acting in this movie (James Stewart, and Kim Novak), but behind the scenes the credit is all for Hitchcock.
Right out the gate Hitchcock shows his directing in the scene when we first see Novak and the painting. Hitchcock takes over our sight and guides our attention in a subjective shot. it shows James noticing the similarities between the painting and her. He makes sure that there is no possibility for mistake on the viewers parts, he makes sure that you know what is going on. When Scotty (Stewart) realizes finally realizes the twist, which I won't tell you what happens, but it shows his realisation in quite the same way that it shows he knows in the same way that it shows the connections between Novak's character and the painting.
Also in the movie there comes a time when the narration stops being restricted to only Scotty and becomes unrestricted to show us the twist, and we have a huge shift from the surprise before to the suspense after of when is Scotty going to find out what is happening. Hitchcock seems to know in all his movies the perfect time to break from the anticipation of surprise to the tension of suspense.
The most interesting thing that Hitchcock did for this film was to create a way to cause the plane of the scene to deepen. He had noticed that when you zoom in and pan backward the field of view deepens. so he experimented with the process and it ended up being one of the defining sequences of the movie, and it really shows you what is going through the mind of Scotty when he is put in these situations.
All in all it was an amazing movie. the only thing that could have been done without was the never ending slow car following scenes which added nothing to the film and probably should have been shortened up somewhat. Other than that the directing by Hitchcock was extraordinary, and the film was the same.