Shows:
Sun, 2/26, 1:00 pm
Mon, 2/27, 7:00 pm

James Stewart stars with Kim Novak in director Alfred Hitchcock’s most delirious and romantic thriller, filmed extensively in the Bay Area.

Scottie Ferguson is a San Francisco detective, retired from the force due to acrophobia, who takes on a private case, shadowing a college acquaintance’s beautiful young wife suspected to be suicidal. Stewart delivers one of his most complex, passionate and anguished performances.

Music by Bernard Herrmann. (US 1958) 129 min.

In 2012 Vertigo took the top position from Citizen Kane. (It had joined the top ten in 1982 and continued to ascend the poll in 1992 and 2002.) The pool of participating critics this time had expanded to 850. In addition, 2012 was also the first poll conducted since the Internet had become the primary medium of communication about films.

More Vertigo Fun
Stretch your legs after the film… STERLING’S SF VERTIGO WALK

Find out who is responsible for the iconic Vertigo poster and opening titles: THE ART OF SAUL BASS

Sight and Sound - Greatest Films of All Time

‘Tis the season for “10-Best” lists, as virtually every critic and pundit in the country has assembled an annual honor roll of film releases from 2022. But the “top-ten” list that has captured the imagination of the international film community this particular year is one that appears only once a decade, assembled by Sight and Sound, the venerable periodical of film criticism published by the British Film Institute.

In 1952 Sight and Sound published their first poll of film critics, and these polls have continued every ten years since. Each invited participant submits a personal top-ten list of “The Greatest Films of All Time,” and over the years the list of participants has expanded dramatically. Each list can stand as a bellwether of trends and fashions in criticism. This short series highlights the number one film polled from every decade: Bicycle Thieves, Citizen Kane (multiple years), Vertigo, Jeanne Dielman.

Visit the BFI website to see the ranking of 250 films in the latest poll.

While it’s difficult to say what these results may ultimately prove, the ranking of film classics can present an irresistible exercise for cinephiles. If nothing else, film lists provide meaty topics for discussion and debate.