Cinema Classics Seminar: VERTIGO (1958)

Tuesday, June 30, 2026, 6:30 pm to 10:00 pm
Instructor: Ray Saraceni, Ph.D., Eastern University
Scottie Ferguson has a problem—maybe more than one. A disabling fear of heights has forced him to resign from the San Francisco police department. At the same time, the wife of an old friend may be up to no good and Scottie becomes involved in a scheme to shadow her. What unfolds is a tale of mystery and violence, a film that deftly explores the space where unsettling obsession mixes with the preternatural.
Indeed, VERTIGO (1958) is touched throughout with all the menace of an exquisite nightmare. Director Alfred Hitchcock has given us a film that is both murder mystery and sexually charged romantic drama: deviant, devious, and delicious. Likewise, Jimmy Stewart offers a performance unlike any other in his career: his private investigator is a decent sort, but also aloof, compulsive, and perhaps downright pathological. Atmosphere has never been more palpable nor more important in a Hitchcock picture, and San Francisco—captured in dreamy, color-saturated cinematography—has never looked better onscreen. An inspiration for subsequent directors from Brian De Palma to David Lynch, this strange, shape-shifting movie invites you to lose your balance and rediscover your love of the uncanny.