On February 22, join Alec Baldwin as he hosts Hamptons International Film Festival’s special screening of Vertigo, Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece of paranoia and obsession, presented in cooperation with Guild Hall.
Once you’ve seen all the award contenders, winter can be Dullsville for new movies—but we’ve got a classic cure. Two years ago, Vertigo—which stars Hitchcock classics Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak—unseated Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane at number one in the lauded British film journal Sight & Sound’s Greatest Films of All Time poll. This was no small feat, given Kane’s 50-year run at the top of a poll that, once a decade, challenges leading film critics, academics and film distributors to rank their enduring favorites. We invite you to revisit this 1958 gem on February 22.
Set in San Francisco, Vertigo is the story of police detective John “Scottie” Ferguson (Stewart), who is forced into retirement due to a debilitating fear of heights. Soon hired by an acquaintance as a private investigator, Scottie begins to trail the man’s wife, a mysterious blonde (Novak) named Madeleine. What follows is a psychological thrill ride, as Scottie is drawn into a world of paranoia, deception, obsession, and, of course, dramatic heights, all set against a visually stunning Bay Area backdrop. What’s more, Hitchcock’s 45th film (!) introduced new techniques in camerawork—including the dolly zoom—used to dizzying effect to unsettle the audience.
Bonus: Read Roger Ebert’s “Great Movie” review from 1996
Tickets are on sale now for this special screening on February 22 at Guild Hall in East Hampton. Bonus: Alec Baldwin and HIFF Artistic Director David Nugent will engage the audience in a post-screening discussion of the film.
Our winter classics series, programmed by host Alec Baldwin and HIFF Artistic Director David Nugent, dates back to 2010, when we screened Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets. Other films in the series have included John Frankenheimer’s Seconds, David Lean’s Oliver Twist, and Bernard Rose’s Immortal Beloved.