Martin Scorsese Calls This Film “One of the Greatest Ever Made”

Legendary director Martin Scorsese once shared his admiration for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 classic, Vertigo, calling it “one of the greatest films ever made”.

The psychological thriller stars James Stewart as a retired detective struggling with vertigo and Kim Novak as the woman he becomes obsessed with while investigating her behavior. Scorsese highlighted the film’s intense focus on obsession and its striking use of color, particularly greens and reds.

“I saw it on its first run in VistaVision. It was perplexing at first, but I liked it and couldn’t say why. It was quite different from what people expected of Hitchcock, and the story was so odd, so purely emotional,” Scorsese said, according to an interview with film outlets.

He also discussed the film with fellow director David Fincher, who described Vertigo as “odd, perverse and almost poetic,” though Fincher personally favors Hitchcock’s Psycho and Rear Window.

For Scorsese, however, the power of Vertigo lies in its immersive story and atmosphere. “I never care about where I am in the picture. These are probably the things that bother Fincher; I get lost in the story, in the atmosphere and the images, just like Stewart does. I look forward to that each time I see the film,” he explained.

Vertigo was adapted from the 1954 novel D’entre les morts (From Among the Dead) by Boileau-Narcejac, with a screenplay by Alec Coppel and Samuel A. Taylor. The film was shot on location in San Francisco, Mission San Juan Bautista, Big Basin Redwoods State Park, Cypress Point on 17-Mile Drive, and at Paramount Studios in Hollywood.

It is famous for being the first film to use the dolly zoom, an in-camera effect that distorts perspective to show the main character’s fear of heights, which has since been nicknamed the “Vertigo effect.”

While Vertigo received mixed reviews when it was first released, it is now widely regarded as Hitchcock’s masterpiece. In 1989, it became one of the first 25 films chosen by the U.S. Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” It has repeatedly appeared on American Film Institute lists of the greatest American films, ranking ninth in 2007. In international polls, Vertigo replaced Citizen Kane as the greatest film ever made in the 2012 Sight & Sound poll and ranked second in the 2022 edition.

Vertigo’s reputation has only grown over the decades, thanks to its haunting story, revolutionary filmmaking techniques, and timeless performances. Scorsese’s praise highlights why the film continues to captivate audiences and filmmakers alike.

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