‘Vertigo’ Turns 50
By Craig Kennedy - May 9th, 2008; 4:52 pm
GreenCine Daily reminds us that Alfred Hitchock’s Vertigo premiered in San Francisco on this day in 1958. Perhaps Speed Racer can learn a thing or two from a film ahead of its time that opened to less than stellar reviews and box office, only to be reappraised more favorably (thanks to the French) in later years.
Filed under: Miscellaneous
I’m going to shamelessly plug my blog–but in a good cause–by saying that I just posted a review of Vertigo there no more than forty-five minutes ago or so to celebrate its 50th birthday.
Happy Birthday, Vertigo! :-)
Yes, Hitch was definitely ahead of his time and his brilliance was terribly misunderstood.
Comparing Speed Racer to Vertigo? Take it easy buddy :-)
No comparison, just a reminder that box office and sometimes even critical reception means jack shit. If a film like Vertigo can be underestimated, surely so can one like Speed.
On the flip side, a fantastic critical reception can often mean jack shit, too. Many things that the critics love end up being completely overrated when they’re looked at 50 years later. Like The Greatest Show on Earth.
I hear ya, Craig. I loved Blade Runner from the get-go but it wasn’t strongly embraced by critics or the general public upon release. SR could still be a box office hit.
Ironically, I just watched The Greatest Show on Earth for the first time last month and, thanks to it having been so critically derided in recent times, I thought it was surprisingly decent; and I still think Blade Runner is a terribly overrated movie.
Back to Vertigo, it’s not really a surprise as to why it would have been underrated at the time of its release – it’s slow-moving, intensely internal, and doesn’t offer the same pleasures that Hitchcock had become known for in movies like Rear Window or The Man Who Knew Too Much – quick-moving suspense, sexy banter, action. But it truly is a masterpiece and when something like it can be made as a mainstream studio movie we should all rejoice.
I just saw The Greatest Show on Earth a few days ago for the first time, and, like Jeff, found it surprisingly decent after reading countless assaults on it.
A.I. is my pick for the Vertigo of this decade, but that’s just me.
How many of you have seen it on a big screen? I caught it at a midnight screening a couple years back. It’s astonishing. It’s at Days of Heaven-level in terms of lucious beauty. It’s one of the five or so most beautiful films ever made. RIght up there with Speed Racer.
The reason that it wasn’t appreciated in its own age is pretty obvious, I would think. The necessary post-modern, metafictional intellectualism had not been widely circulated at the time. You can’t really get the film unless you have that framework.