Vertigo

In Brief: I'm going to make a potentially controversial statement here, but before you jump in the comment pool to argue with me, be forewarned that I'm prepared to defend this assertion: Vertigo is the best film Alfred Hitchcock ever made. As I was programming this month's AFS Big Screen Budget presentation, I was shocked to find that Vertigo hasn't been shown in Asheville for over twenty years — a particularly glaring oversight, considering it surpassed Citizen Kane as the best film of all time in last year's Sight and Sound magazine decennial critics' poll. Many of you may have seen this film, but it's one that requires multiple revisitations — and as Hitchcock's most visually ambitious work in both color and VistaVision, it demands to be seen on a big screen. It's the darkest, most psychologically complex outing in an oeuvre defined by both, and Hitchcock would never again attain the heights (or depths, considering your perspective) of emotional realism that he delves into here. Don't miss your chance to find out why it's my favorite, or to tell me in person why it shouldn't be (as my illustrious predecessor often did).