No doubt obsessed with "Vertigo" (and who among us movie buffs aren't?), DePalma and screenwriter Paul Schrader constructed "Obsession", their own loving tribute to the film.......duplicating its story of a tormented man who attempts redemption by resurrecting a lost love.
Since the BQ recently indulged in and thoroughly enjoyed a throwback double feature of the Hitchcock's masterwork and DePalma's copycat......a few side by side impressions.....
The Tortured Soul Years later, in retrospect, Hitchcock bemoaned James Stewart's advanced age as part of the reason for the film's initial failure (he was over 20 years older than the two women in the cast, including Barbra Bel Geddes' character, supposedly a former college classmate).
Stewart's age never bothered us for one second......in fact, it's his very presence and persona in the film that' a key to why it still resonates today. Though afflicted with a fear of heights, he starts the film as good old, drawling, friendly-guy-next-door Jimmy Stewart that we all know and love......... so when he succumbs to obsessive infatuation and shocking loss, the destruction of his heart and mind become all the more powerful.........and while you ache for him, you tend not to examine the overall craziness of the villainous scheme in which he's been ensnared.
Cliff Robertson's soft spoken Southern real estate mogul in "Obsession" is another animal altogether. In keeping with the dreamlike atmosphere that DePalma creates, Robertson's performance stays at low boil....introverted, quiet, contemplative. While Stewart edges toward hysterical mania in "Vertigo", DePalma has Robertson communicate his character's torment mostly through close ups of his saddened, stunned blue eyes. Playing men who've been horribly victimized, Stewart radiates his pain outward for us, Robertson internalizes it.
The Girl Presumably DePalma picked the actress he preferred in Geniveve Bujold while Hitchcock unhappily wound up with Kim Novak only after his own choice, Vera Miles, became pregnant........
In the case of "Vertigo", we don't mind speculation about Novak's suitability.......she had severely limited range as an actress and her typical 1950's full-figured frame, noticed and criticized by Hitchcock's wife, had the director clothing her heavily from head to foot. Her reappearance in the film's second half (as working class 'Judy Barton') has always looked to us like a garish Halloween costume....,,not helped by her barely competent performance. But in profile, she fulfilled the film's (and Hitchcock's) main requirement......portray an unattainable goddess.....
DePalma takes full advantage of the young Bujold's elfin quality in "Obsession"......it's actually vital in accomplishing the script's major plot twist. She's remarkably both worldly wise and childlike......and DePalma even takes a wild leap of faith with the actress.......in a traumatic flashback sequence, he forgoes the use of a child performer and films Bujold as her ten year old self. A nutty, daring move, but in the context of the film, it works.....
The Villain "Vertigo" may be the only Hitchcock film where the villain himself functioned as the 'MacGuffin'.......nothing more than a convenient prop to set the main story in motion. Hitchcock displayed an unusual indifference to the villain.....extraordinary, since this guy's grand plot staggers the imagination in its pure evil and cruelty. (Supposedly the script threw in a final scene describing his offscreen fate, but never made it into the movie itself.)
"Obsession"s villain, fully equipped with armed minions, positions himself front and center throughout the film. Like the "Vertigo" schemer, his plot hinges on a ridiculous level of contrivance and fanciful optimism about its outcome.........with a 1970's addition of unsettling sexual deviancy. . But unlike Hitchcock, who forgets about his villain, DePalma metes out stern justice, as if he still worked under the crime-must-not-pay guidelines of the old Hollywood Production Code (which Hitchcock frequently skirted around)..
The Bernard Herrmann Scores The deep irony: due to a musicians' strike, Herrmann's most achingly romantic score had to be recorded in England and conducted by Muir Mathieson instead of Herrrmann. Mathieson's lyrical, lighter conducting touch definitely lacks Herrmann's aggressive power.........which, in "Obsession", you can hear with full, thunderous force throughout the entire film.....recorded in an English church and employing pounding organ notes and a wailing angelic chorus, the composer's last great symphonic score before the jazzy "Taxi Driver" theme....
The Visuals No contest at all.......we will always choose to immerse ourselves in "Vertigo"s gorgeously ripe VistaVision Technicolor.......especially when Hitchcock chooses to drench the palette to make a point....(as in Stewart's nightmare and Novak emerging from Stewart's makeover in a soft greenish haze) "Obsession"s hazy, soft focus imagery, courtesy of Vilmos Zsigmond, covers the whole film like a gauzy, translucent curtain. Combined with Herrmann's score, it does successfully keep the film in a dreamy state.......(and keeps us from paying any real attention to the irrational plot)
Truly, a one-a-kind double feature......for "Vertigo", naturally 5 stars (*****)....for "Obsession", Brian DePalma's own 'haven't I see this somewhere before?' version, 4 stars (****)
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