Film Theory & Analysis
Vertigo (1958)
Vertigo, directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1958, is a psychological thriller that is said to be Hitchcock’s most personal and revealing film. Vertigo was a failure in the box office, but later became to be the premier of pure cinema. Through the use of formal elements such as lighting, color, spacing, and sound Hitchcock brings the film off of the screen and into the audience’s head. The themes presented in Vertigo: love, sex, obsession, and guilt play a far more important role in telling the story than the acting. These are common Hitchcockian themes, which culminate all within this one film.
The visual elements in Vertigo are exceptionally important in the telling of the story. Lighting, color, sound, and editing play a far more dominant role then the acting because this was the way Hitchcock intended the movie to be. Throughout many of Hitchcock’s movies, such as “Rear Window” and “Spellbound”, the themes are generally......
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