Vertigo at the Movies

Hitchcock's Vertigo is undoubtedly one of the greatest films ever made on the nature of obsession, guilt, and identity. Its themes and narrative techniques have been hugely influential on many later films. After a detailed analysis of Vertigo, we will view and discuss Brian DePalma's thriller/mystery film Obsession followed by the brilliant 2014 film Phoenix directed by Christian Petzold, which incorporates elements of Vertigo into a drama about the holocaust and Post World War II Germany. At the end of this dark journey into the recesses of the psyche, we will end on the sunny shores of Mel Brooks' spoof of Hitchcock, High Anxiety.