Hitchcock, Rear Window and Vertigo

Until recently, two of Hitchcock's movies, Rear Window and Vertigo, were unavailable, due to copyright problems. Yet they represent the peak of his career, containing themes and elements recurring throughout his films.

From Hitchcock's first movies to his last, he presents characters under crisis, most memorably in the crisis of madness. Back in the 30s and 40s they fit very much into the moulds of totally good, sweet heroes, yet, by the end of his career, they had developed through the ambiguity of Cary Grant in Suspicion to the anti-heroes of his later films, epitomised in Anthony Perkins' murderous schizophrenic in Psycho. In Rear Window and Vertigo James Stewart's characters are still the heroes, rooting out the murderers, yet there is something distinctly dark and almost perverted in their heroism, which arises out of either a voyeuristic or a sexual obsession.

The accusation of a particular form of sexual obsession can be thrown at Hitchcock himself. His treatment on set of his leading ladies was notoriously harsh, and this is reflected on screen. From early actresses, such as Anny Ondra and Nova Pilbeam, to Janet Leigh and Tippi Hedren, he created the image of the icy cool but vulnerable blonde, always the object of the male characters' obsessions or murderous intentions. Grace Kelly in Rear Window is warm and affectionate, but her sexuality is clearly a threat to her fiancé, as she often menacingly appears out of the shadows. In Vertigo Kim Novak is much more the victimised blonde heroine, nervous and resolute, but constantly heading toward destruction at the hands of her boyfriends, Tom Helmore and James Stewart. She and Grace Kelly, like the films themselves, epitomise Hitchcock's dazzling career.

His films are rarely to be seen on the big screen, so don't miss this opportunity to experience the 'Hitchcock magic' in the way originally intended. 

ML