Showing all 13 items
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- Certification
- Sex & Nudity (3)
- Violence & Gore (2)
- Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking (2)
- Frightening & Intense Scenes (3)
- Spoilers (3)
Certification
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Sex & Nudity
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- There is no sex or nudity. However, the plot may be considered suggestive for viewers due to the fact it revolves around themes of voyeurism, stalking, and sensuality. (The man is unmarried; the woman is his friend's wife).
- The protagonist's obsession with a dead woman makes his actions in the second half of the film seem necrophilic. But this perversion is never made explicit.
- The main character cajoles a woman into changing her appearance in order to look more like his dead lover. There is nothing explicit in the scenes but the director described it as a "reverse strip tease" since there is a clear sexual component to his desire.
Violence & Gore
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- In the opening scene, we see a policeman fall to his death from a rooftop. The impact is not shown but the aftermath is shown from a high distance.
- Madeleine (the female lead) attempts suicide by jumping into San Francisco Bay. Again, the violence of these scenes is in no way explicit.
Profanity
Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking
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- Little drinking and smoking is shown.
- Early in the film, Scottie (the protagonist) makes a joking reference to drowning his troubles in alcohol. As the film progresses, there is an unstressed suggestion that he really does.
Frightening & Intense Scenes
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- The nightmare sequence is very frightening.
- At the opening of the movie, we see a woman's eye with the swirling vortex of terror in the pupil.
- The film is very atmospheric, with music heightening the suspense throughout. There are intense, hallucinatory dream sequences, and a disturbing supernatural theme, of a living woman becoming possessed by a dead one.
Spoilers
Violence & Gore
- Judy, as Madeleine, fakes her death and the real Madeleine is pushed off of a church tower. We see her falling, hear a crash, and see her sprawled body on the rooftop in a wide shot.
- At the end, Judy, frightened, accidentally backs off of the church tower and falls to her death. We only see her back out the frame and hear her scream as she falls.
Frightening & Intense Scenes
- Vertigo (especially for it's time), is a very mysterious, surreal and disturbing film. The second half of the film is mostly about Scottie's obsession with his dead lover, and how he wants to make his new lover look like his dead one. This is quite disturbing due to the lengths Scottie actually goes to so his lover will be similar to his dead one.
