Vertigo (1958)

A former detective with a fear of heights is hired to follow a woman apparently possessed by the past, in Alfred Hitchcock’s timeless thriller about obsession.

So, wobbles at the top. Of all the films that could surmount this poll (there have now been four, across eight decades), it seems apt that Alfred Hitchcock’s woozy psychoromance should lose its grip as soon as it reached the summit – that this delirious maunder with James Stewart’s acrophobic, impressionable detective through an absurd murder-seduction intrigue in a winding San Francisco wonderland should place less steadily than the obdurate Citizen Kane (1941), previously enshrined on high for 40 years. Still, its fall has been less steep than that of Bicycle Thieves (1948), which sank from first to seventh between 1952 and 1962, or this year’s plunge of Jean Renoir’s La Règle du jeu (1939), previously a top-ten perennial, from fourth to 13th. Vertigo came just seven votes short of the top spot – proportionally closer than in 2002, when it missed deposing Orson Welles’s reigning champ by only four votes – while the distance between it and Kane (now third) has grown since 2012, from 34 votes to 45. This is not a film in rapid descent.

As of last year, Vertigo’s 1958 release date puts it in the first half of cinema’s history. As that history extends, and this poll grows, so the greater diversity of latter-day filmmaking stretches the voting. In 2012 the film led with 191 votes – meaning it was included in almost a quarter of the entries; this year its 208 votes amounted to half that proportion, 12 per cent. Lifting the lid of the poll, though, shows a more fluid story than just new voters moving on from the old. Vertigo lost nearly three-quarters (139) of its 2012 electors: three-fifths of them to voter attrition (those voters who for whatever reason didn’t show up in 2022), but more turned away from Vertigo (57) than stuck with it (54). Sixteen swung behind it this year after choosing otherwise in 2012. Meanwhile 140 of its 208 votes came from new – and presumably younger – recruits to the electorate.

After a decade of debate about the justices of cinematic representation, I’d wondered how Hitchcock’s frayed, pessimistic thriller of estrangement would now strike people. Filtering Pygmalion myths of idealisation and exploitation through Proustian memory games – with Bernard Herrmann’s score adding top notes of Wagnerian tragedy – it’s hardly a film that promises hope or amelioration, more a darkly, bottomlessly reflexive portrait of private vices and compulsions; a vortex of perspective-stretching, misdirection and disorientation; a whirlpool of obscure, consuming desire. It seems many of us are still plunging in.

Nick Bradshaw

1958 USA
Directed by
Alfred Hitchcock
Written by
Alec Coppel, Samuel A. Taylor
Featuring
James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes
Running time
128 minutes

Ranked in The Greatest Films of All Time poll

Sight and Sound

Who voted for Vertigo

Critics

Mo Abdi
Iran/UK
Panos Achtsioglou
Greece
Mark Adams
UK
Ian Aitken
Hong Kong
Rommy Albers
Netherlands
Thomas Allenbach
Switzerland
Tunico Amâncio
Brazil
Nigel Andrews
UK
Alberto Anile
Italy
Inácio Araújo
Brazil
Anjelika Artyukh
Russia
Mark Asch
USA
Michael Atkinson
USA
Hervé Aubron
France
Cameron Bailey
Canada
Djordje Bajić
Serbia
Miriam Balanescu
UK
Miriam Bale
USA
Juan Barquin
USA
Nemanja Becanovic
Montenegro
James Bell
UK
Abbey Bender
USA
Tim Bergfelder
UK
Leonardo Bomfim
Brazil
Clara Bradbury-Rance
UK
Rasmus Brendstrup
Denmark
Ty Burr
USA
José Cabrera
Spain
Josh Cabrita
Canada
Ramsey Campbell
UK
Lauren Carroll Harris
Australia
Noël Carroll
USA
Giulio Casadei
Italy
Jorge Ignacio Castillo
Chile / Canada
Sehad Čekić
Montenegro
Erdem Murat Çelikler
Turkey
Andrew Chan
USA
Karen Chan
Singapore
Peggy Chiao
Taiwan/China
Andrew Collins
UK
Pablo Conde
Argentina
John Conomos
Australia
Barbara Creed
Australia
Tom Dawson
UK
Nick De Semlyen
UK
Michel Demopoulos
Greece
Miguel Dias
Portugal
Jon Dieringer
USA
Hervé Dumont
Switzerland
Karoline Eriksson
Sweden
Angie Errigo
USA/UK
Miquel Escudero Diéguez
Spain/Chile/France
John Ewing
USA
Dan and Edna Fainaru
Israel
Paula Felix-Didier
Argentina
Desirée de Fez
Spain
Gemma Files
Canada
Beatrice Fiorentino
Italy
Nicole Flattery
Ireland
Mihai Fulger
Romania
Graham Fuller
UK/USA
Vigen Galstyan
Armenia
Marzia Gandolfi
Italy
Lawrence Garcia
Canada
David Garlick
UK
Kaya Genc
Turkey
Federico Gironi
Italy
Anne Gjelsvik
Norway
Lisa Gotto
Austria
Catherine Grant
UK
Stefan Grissemann
Austria
Roy Grundmann
USA
Antoine Guillot
France
Tom Gunning
USA
Roman Gutek
Poland
Hauvick Habéchian
Lebanon
Malte Hagener
Germany
Rahul Hamid
US
Fahmidul Haq
Bangladesh/USA
Eckhard Haschen
Germany
Odie Henderson
USA
Carlos F. Heredero
Spain
Sam Ho
Hong Kong
Bruce Hodsdon
Australia
Jan Holmberg
Sweden
Philip Horne
UK
Hassan Hosseini
Iran
Peter Howell
Canada
José Antonio Hurtado Alvarez
Spain
Sheila Johnston
UK
Trevor Johnston
UK
Kent Jones
USA
Murielle Joudet
France
Nebojša Jovanović
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Olivier Joyard
France
Alexia Kannas
Australia
Sten Kauber
Estonia
Cael Keegan
USA
Dave Kehr
USA
Dimitris Kerkinos
Greece
Jennie Kermode
UK
Jordan King
UK
B (Brent) Kite
USA
Chris Knight
Canada
Michael Koller
Australia
Michael Koresky
USA
Richard Koszarski
USA
Nino Kovačić
Croatia
Violeta Kovacsics
Spain
Ryan Krivoshey
USA
Jay Kuehner
USA
Peter Labuza
USA
Phuong Le
Vietnam
Isaac León-Frías
Peru
Manuel J Lombardo
Spain
José Luis Lorenzo
Argentina
Paul Lynch
Ireland
Peter Machen
Germany
Geoffrey Macnab
UK
Gabrielle Marceau
Canada
Miguel Marías
Spain
Antonio Mariotti
Switzerland
Steven Markovitz
South Africa
Andro Martinovic
Montenegro
Peter Matthews
UK
Neil McGlone
UK
Brian Meacham
USA
Roy Menarini
Italy
Thierry Méranger
France
Christoph Michel
Germany
Daniela Michel
Mexico
Jelena Milosavljevic
UK
Jelena Mišeljić
Montenegro
Wendy Mitchell
UK
Varja Močnik
Slovenia
Khalid Mohamed
India
Andrea Morán
Spain
Nathalie Morris
UK/USA
Marco Müller
Italy/China
Lynda Myles
UK
Constantine Nasr
USA
Camille Nevers
France
Hubert Niogret
France
Geoffrey O'Brien
US
Jan Olsson
Sweden
Camille Paglia
USA
Miguel Pendás
USA
Julio Pérez Perucha
Spain
Daniela Persico
Italy
David Pirie
UK
Adam Piron
USA
Nenad Polimac
Croatia
Charles Ramírez Berg
USA
Pia Reiser
Austria
Nuno Rodrigues
Portugal
Rainer Rother
Germany
Andy Rotman
USA
Mohammed Rouda
UK
Baptiste Roux
France
Martin Rubin
USA
Wendy Russell
UK
Tom Ryan
Australia
Yal Sadat
France
Mark Salisbury
UK
James Schamus
USA
Louis Séguin
France
Oron Shamir
Israel
Steven Shaviro
USA
Paulo Henrique Silva
Brazil
Kate Stables
UK
Mira Staleva
Bulgaria
Alessandro Stellino
Italy
David Sterritt
USA
Heather Stewart
UK
Eduardo Stupía
Argentina
Richard I Suchenski
USA
James Swanton
UK
Matthew Sweet
UK
Ran Tal
Israel
Brian Tallerico
USA
Amy Taubin
USA
Matthew Taylor
UK
Scott Tobias
USA
Yann Tobin aka N.T.BINH
France
Daniela Turco
Italy
Matthew Turner
UK
Ivan Velisavljević
Serbia
Éric Vernay
France
Nuria Vidal
Spain
Susana Viegas
Portugal
Pablo Villaça
Brazil
Marjan Vujovic
Serbia
Saige Walton
Australia
Sam Wasson
USA
Michael Wedel
Germany
Paul Wells
UK
Patricia White
USA
Melanie Williams
UK
Alison Willmore
Asia/USA
Jessica Winter
USA
Michael Wood
USA
Adrian Wootton
UK
Janusz Wróblewski
Poland
Kevin Wynter
USA
Hady Zaccak
Lebanon
Ramin Zahed
USA
Slavoj Žižek
Slovenia
Nicolás Zukerfeld
Argentina

Directors

Ari Aster
USA
Hanna Bergholm
Finland
Gan Bi
China
Bertrand Bonello
Fyzal Boulifa
UK
John Carpenter
USA
Yinan Diao
China
Atom Egoyan
Canada
José Luis Garci
Spain
Alex Gibney
USA
James Gray
Asif Kapadia
UK
Richard Kwietniowski
UK
Sebastián Lelio
Chile
Jackie Lentzou
Greece
Manuela Martelli
Chile
Shahram Mokri
Iran
Robert Morgan
UK
Amir Naderi
Iran/USA
Fernando Navarro
Spain
Frances O'Connor
UK/Australia
Jenni Olson
USA
Sir Horace Ové
UK
Alexandre O. Philippe
Switzerland
Sanjeewa Pushpakumara
Sri Lanka
Raymond Red
Philippines
Paul Schrader
US
Subrata Sen
India
Tilda Swinton
UK
Joachim Trier
Norway
Ann Turner
Australia
Affonso Uchoa
Brazil
Lindsey Vickers
UK
Clement Virgo
Canada
Nicolas Winding Refn
Denmark
Theodore Witcher
USA
Sergio Wolf
Argentina