Hot and steamy’s not the kind of weather you typically associate with the east coast of Scotland, but that’s what it was like this afternoon as I headed along Perth Road to Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) to see Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’ in a new 4K print released to mark the film’s 60^th anniversary.

‘Vertigo’ is kicking off a mini-season tribute to director Alfred Hitchcock here at DCA, and the other films look just as enticing as today’s offering.

It was good to get into the auditorium and out of the sultry afternoon heat.

The recent heatwave of sunshine and clear skies came to an abrupt halt yesterday, with grey blankets of cloud appearing just in time to ruin everyone’s chances of seeing the blood moon last night.

We’re now into a phase of torrential downpours, gusty winds and intermittent calmer spells of clinging mugginess.

Good weather for sitting in a cinema.

The film’s opening sequence is visually arresting. It starts with extreme close-ups of an eye before going into whirling animation and then returning to the close-up of the eye, an effective means of establishing the film’s intense and obsessive atmosphere.

What follows is an utterly absorbing and brilliantly edgy relationship between John ‘Scottie’ Ferguson (James Stewart) and Madeleine Ester / Judy Barton (Kim Novak), set against a beguiling San Francisco backdrop.

Kim Novak’s performance is wonderful – her character coming across as strong, troubled, and down-to-earth yet distant; a complex and intriguing individual.

James Stewart’s character is not as deeply layered, but still captivating, particularly as his mental stability starts to fray and his eyes assume a glittery madness.

Much of the power of this great film comes from the superb score by Bernard Herrmann.

Some lengthy scenes feature no dialogue at all, and in these scenes it is the subtly ominous music that conjures a mood of impending doom.

The abrupt emotional jolt at the end of ‘Vertigo’ sent me out of DCA slightly reeling.

Outside the weather had completely changed from when I got here.

Gone was the heat and humidity, replaced by cool and breezy conditions.

Walking back along Perth Road I admired the spectacular vistas that can be glimpsed down towards the Tay, the river churned by the wind and looking purple grey in the early evening sunlight.

Related Post: ‘Strangers On A Train’, The Phoenix, East Finchley, London

The post ‘Vertigo’, Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) appeared first on Silver Screen Cities: Celebrating city cinema-going.

What better way of spending a Thursday morning than sitting in the art deco splendour of Finchley’s Phoenix cinema watching an old Hitchcock classic?

About twenty cinephiles gathered here today for the 10.30 showing of the 1951 thriller Strangers On A Train.

The film didn’t start until a few minutes later than scheduled, but that’s fine in this cinema as it gives you a chance to take in the auditorium’s superb décor.

‘Strangers On A Train’ is captivating from first minute to last.

The opening encounter on the train between professional tennis player Guy Haines (Farley Granger) and the suave, creepy stranger Bruno Antony (Robert Walker) immediately establishes a menacing air of entrapment.

Robert Walker steals the show in this film, exuding psychopathic charm and manipulating all those who have the misfortune to come into contact with him.

As I was watching this film I was wondering why I hadn’t seen Walker in other films, as he certainly radiates star quality.

I then found out that he died at the early age of 32 in 1951, the same year that Strangers On A Train was released, thus cutting short what may have gone on to be a glittering career.

Alfred Hitchcock himself makes a cameo appearance in one scene early on in the film, heaving a double bass onto a train at Metcalf station.

All the elements of ‘Strangers On A Train’ combine to make this a highly polished and entertaining film.

There is great original music by Dimitri Tiomkin, a sharp and pithy script based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith, and some subtle cinematography, as in the tilted angle showing Guy approaching the house of Bruno’s father, the off-kilter angle indicating morality becoming unhinged.

When ‘Strangers On A Train’ ended I left the cinema and headed home, catching the Northern Line train from East Finchley station.

Back home I found out the sad news that Guy Clark, the great singer, songwriter and musician, died last month. There’s no finer songwriter anywhere.

I saw him give a solo performance in a church hall off Dalry Road in Edinburgh several years ago.

It was a thrill to see such a legendary figure playing live in a small, intimate venue. As Robert K. Oermann wrote in the 1995 liner notes to Clark’s ‘Craftsman’ collection, “The patron saint of an entire generation of bohemian pickers, Guy Clark has become an emblem of artistic integrity, quiet dignity and simple truth.”

Related Post: ‘Vertigo’, Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA)

The post ‘Strangers On A Train’, The Phoenix, East Finchley, London appeared first on Silver Screen Cities: Celebrating city cinema-going.