Hitchcock Classic Returns to Irish Cinemas This Week

Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 classic Vertigo will return to select cinemas this week in a 4K restoration.

Hitchcock's regular leading man, James Stewart, stars as Scottie Ferguson, a former detective who quit his job at the police due to acrophobia. He is hired by an old friend to investigate his wife Madeleine (Kim Novak) whose behaviour has become erratic.

James and Madeleine fall in love. However, it ends in tragedy when the detective's acrophobia kicks in, preventing him from saving Madeleine jumping off a church tower. Following the loss, Scottie becomes fascinated with a woman he sees one day who resembles his lost love. Striking up a relationship with her, he tries moulding her into an exact replica of Madeleine.

The psychological thriller is a regular entry on best-of film lists, topping Sight & Sound magazine’s 2012 poll of critics and filmmakers.

Upon its initial release, Vertigo was divisive on account of it's complicated plot and deviation from the romantic-thrillers with which Hitchcock made his name. However, its dreamy atmosphere, dark themes of obsession and the against type casting of the typically wholesome Stewart as a disturbed individual has fascinated filmmakers and academics.

Recent documentary Hitchcock/Truffaut devoted some of its running time to Vertigo where directors David Fincher, James Gray, Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader discussed its merits.

Vertigo will screen in Dublin cinemas The Lighthouse and the IFI from July 13. The release is to mark its 60th anniversary.

The trailer for the restoration is available to watch below.