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Old 02-27-2016, 11:53 PM   #33
teh b0lly!!1
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Vertigo (1958)

i've never become acquainted with much of Hitchcock's work, though he is obviously big time and hugely influential, just never got around to it. and what better time to fill the gaps and watch movies from the '50s than being a prisoner of loneliness and soul crushing depression in my apartment lol! anyway Scorsese cited this one as one of his fav films of all time so i thought i'd give it a shot.

firstly golden age era hollywood is just fucking gorgeous to experience. can't get enough of it. you can see how clear the air is, because it was before we beat the world and environment to a pulp, and everybody's so elegant and classic and upstanding. this one stars alpha manly male James Stewart (good, strong name indeed) and drop dead gorgeous Kim Novak. although she had super weird, very obviously painted on thick eyebrows for this film. no idea, was that a thing in the fifties?

anyway much of it, of course, looks very different now than it did then. but for a movie this old it held up surprisingly well, i thought. it's gorgeous to look at, and although it takes quite a bit to get things going, the third act is pretty cool and sideways, especially for a movie this old. the ending, in particular, is so abrupt and open to interpretation, it left me really on edge. basically a cliffhanger. i loved it.

also notable - the massive, massive changes in gender roles since then. i couldn't help but imagine feminists screaming in my ear about girl power the whole way through.

a weird thing for me, is watching movies from the 60's and 70's and then looking up the actors afterwards as part of my obsessive compulsive research on any movie i watch. it really does your head in, seeing people young and beautiful and at the top of their game, and then reading how they died of a blood clot in the lungs at 76 or suffered breast cancer and recovered, and seeing photos of them 40 years older, with all that youth and vigor gone away, just like it does for everybody, and you can't quite believe it'll happen to you too one day but it does. which only makes me feel worse about wasting away in this place eating brown bread with nuts in it for breakfast lol and squeezing lemons into a glass. i wish i was a hollywood star and had lots of money so i could buy me some love and a soul. to sum up: lol!

 
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