San Francisco of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (eBook)

This collection of essays examines the relationship that Vertigo enjoys with the histories and cultural imaginations of California and, more specifically, the San Francisco Bay Area. Contributors to this collection explore the specificities of place and the role such specificities play in our comprehensive efforts to understand Hitchcock's most critically acclaimed film.

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In Sight and Sound magazines 2012 poll of the greatest films of all time, Vertigo placed at the top of the list, supplanting Citizen Kane. A favorite among critics, it also made the American Film Institutes 100 Years, 100 Movies where it ranked in the top 10. Often regarded as Hitchcocks most personal work, the film explores such themes as obsession, exploitation, and voyeurism.In The San Francisco of Alfred Hitchcocks Vertigo: Place, Pilgrimage, and Commemoration, Douglas A. Cunningham has assembled provocative essays that examine the uniquely integrated relationship that the 1958 film enjoys with the histories and cultural imaginations of California and, more specifically, the San Francisco Bay Area. Contributors to this collection ponder a number of topics such as the ways in which Vertigo resurrects the narratives of San Franciscos violent past; how sightseeing informs the act of watching the film; the significance that landmarks in the film hold in our collective cultural memory; and the variety of ways in which Vertigo enthusiasts commemorate the film. The essays also ask larger questions about the specificities of place and the role such specificities play in our comprehensive efforts to understand this layered and seminal film.Because of its interdisciplinary approach, The San Francisco of Alfred Hitchcocks Vertigo will have a broad appeal to scholars of film, anthropology, geography, ethnic studies, the history of California and the West, tourism, and, of course, anyone with an abiding interest in the work of Alfred Hitchcock.