Vertigo's Obsession

Critics now consider Vertigo Hitchcock's masterpiece because it exposes his own obsession with controlling women. The film follows a man who tries to remake a woman into his dead lover, and the camera makes you complicit in his disturbing desire.

Vertigo was a commercial failure in 1958 but topped the Sight and Sound greatest-films poll in 2012. Some art needs audiences to catch up with its emotional honesty — and Vertigo waited decades for viewers ready to confront what it reveals.