Ranked as one of the best films in the history of cinema, this Vertigo Poster will bring the world of Alfred Hitchcock to your home!
- Paper Feature:
- 🎨 Canvas: global standard in terms of printing and imitating a “painting canvas” look.
- By default, the poster contains a 4cm white border for framing (frame not included). If you don’t want it, please choose “without white border”.
- ✅ Size: Multiple choices available. ✅
- High UV resistance.
- Color vibrancy maximum, glare-free.
- recycled paper, guaranteeing environmental friendliness.
- Poster packaged carefully and delivered in a protective tube for Total protection.
- FREE STANDARD DELIVERY.
⚠️ Frame not included. ⚠️
Description of this Vertigo Poster
Vertigo is a 1958 American film noir, a psychological thriller directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock. The story is based on the novel From the Dead by Boileau-Narcejac (1954). The screenplay was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel A. Taylor.
The film stars James Stewart as former police detective John “Scottie” Ferguson. Scottie is forced to take early retirement after an incident on the job causes him to develop acrophobia (an extreme fear of heights) and vertigo (a false sense of spinning motion). Scottie is hired by an acquaintance, Gavin Elster, as a private investigator to follow Gavin’s wife, Madeleine (Kim Novak), who is behaving strangely.
The film was shot in San Francisco, California, as well as at Mission San Juan Bautista, Big Basin Redwoods State Park, Cypress Point on 17-Mile Drive, and Paramount Studios in Hollywood. It is the first film to use the dolly zoom, a camera effect that distorts perspective to create disorientation, to convey Scottie’s acrophobia. Due to its use in this film, the effect is often referred to as “the Vertigo effect”.
Vertigo received mixed reviews upon its initial release, but is now often cited as a classic Hitchcock film and one of the defining works of his career. Attracting significant scholarly criticism, it replaced Citizen Kane (1941) as the greatest film ever made in the British Film Institute’s 2012 Sight & Sound critics’ poll.[4] The film is often considered one of the greatest films ever made. It has appeared several times in the American Film Institute’s polls of the greatest films,[5] including in 2007 where it was ranked as the ninth greatest American film of all time. In 1996, the film underwent a major restoration to create a new 70mm print and a DTS soundtrack.
In 1989, Vertigo was one of the first 25 films selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry because of its “cultural, historical, or aesthetic significance.”
After a rooftop chase, where a fellow officer falls to his death, San Francisco detective John “Scottie” Ferguson retires due to his fear of heights and vertigo. Scottie tries to overcome his fear, but his ex-fiancée, underwear designer Marjorie “Midge” Wood, claims that another severe emotional shock may be the only cure.
Gavin Elster, a college acquaintance, asks Scottie to follow his wife, Madeleine, claiming that her mental state is abnormal and could endanger her. Scottie reluctantly agrees and follows Madeleine to a florist where she buys a bouquet, to the Mission San Francisco de Asís and the grave of Carlotta Valdes (1831-1857), and to the Legion of Honor Art Museum where she contemplates Carlotta’s portrait. He sees her enter the McKittrick Hotel, but upon investigation, she does not appear to be there.
A local historian explains that Carlotta Valdes committed suicide: she had been the mistress of a wealthy married man and had borne his child; the otherwise childless man kept the child and rejected Carlotta. Gavin reveals that Carlotta (whom he fears possesses Madeleine) is Madeleine’s great-grandmother, though Madeleine knows nothing of this and cannot remember the places she has visited. Scottie follows Madeleine to Fort Point and when she jumps into the bay, he saves her.
The next day, Madeleine stops to deliver a letter to Scottie, who has just pulled up in his car, and they decide to spend the day together. They go to Muir Woods and Cypress Point on 17-Mile Drive, where Madeleine runs toward the ocean. Scottie catches her and they kiss. The next day, Madeleine visits Scottie and tells him about a nightmare. Scottie identifies it as Mission San Juan Bautista, Carlotta’s childhood home. He takes her there and they tell each other that they love each other. Madeleine suddenly runs into the church and climbs the bell tower. Scottie, stopped on the steps by his acrophobia, sees Madeleine plunge to her death.
The death is ruled a suicide. Gavin doesn’t blame Scottie, but Scottie breaks down, becomes clinically depressed, and is sent to a sanitarium, nearly catatonic. After his release, Scottie frequents the places Madeleine visited, often imagining he sees her. One day, he notices a woman on the street who reminds him of Madeleine, despite her different appearance. Scottie follows her to her apartment, where she identifies herself as Judy Barton, from Salina, Kansas.
Judy has a flashback revealing that she was the person Scottie knew as “Madeleine Elster.” She was posing as Gavin’s wife in an elaborate murder plot. Judy writes a letter to Scottie explaining her involvement: Gavin deliberately took advantage of Scottie’s acrophobia to substitute his wife’s freshly killed body in the apparent “suicide jump.” But Judy tears up the letter and continues the charade because she loves Scottie.
They begin seeing each other, but Scottie remains obsessed with “Madeleine.” He asks Judy to change her clothes and dye her hair to look like Madeleine. After Judy agrees, hoping they can finally find happiness together, he notices she is wearing the necklace depicted in Carlotta’s painting. Scottie realizes the truth: that Judy was Gavin’s mistress before being rejected, just like Carlotta. Scottie then insists on driving Judy back to the Mission.
There, he tells her he must piece together the event that led to her madness, admitting that he now understands that “Madeleine” and Judy are the same person. Scottie forces her up into the bell tower and makes her confess her deception. Scottie reaches the top, finally overcoming her acrophobia. Judy confesses that Gavin paid her to pretend to be a “possessed” Magdalene. Gavin faked his suicide by throwing his wife’s body from the top of the bell tower. Judy begs Scottie for forgiveness because she loves him. He kisses her, but a shadow—actually a nun investigating the noise—emerges from the trapdoor of the bell tower and surprises her. Judy suddenly throws herself backward and falls to her death. Scottie, once again grieving, stands on the ledge of the tower while the nun rings the mission bell.