Trinity to Host Two Day Film Conference on Hitchcock’s Vertigo

Vertigo, considered to be legendary director Alfred Hitchcock’s magnum opus, will be the focus of a two-day film conference in Trinity College Dublin taking place in September this year.

Titled ‘Hitchcock's Vertigo: 60th Anniversary 1958-2018’, the conference will feature presentations by many international film scholars on Hitchcock participating from across the globe. Meanwhile film historian Charles Barr and renowned feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey will be the key note speakers.

Hitchcock's regular leading man, James Stewart, stars in Vertigo as Scottie Ferguson, a former detective who quits his police job due to acrophobia. Hired by an old friend to investigate his wife Madeleine (Kim Novak), whose behaviour has become erratic, the two 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 lists, topping Sight & Sound magazine’s 2012 poll of critics and filmmakers.

Upon its initial release, Vertigo was divisive due to its 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.

The conference will take place September 20-21. It includes a special screening of the 1958 film in the Lighthouse Cinema in Dublin. Tickets cost €60 and can be found at this website. Meanwhile, for updates about the event, click here and here.

See the trailer for the recent 4K restoration of Vertigo below.