Close-Up: Vertigo, 1958

What makes a film a classic? In a new column, film scholar Bruce Isaacs looks at a single sequence from a classic film and analyses its brilliance. He starts here with Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958) – recently voted the greatest film ever made in a Sight & Sound poll. In this fabulously stylised scene, set at Ernie’s restaurant, Scottie (James Stewart) lays eyes on the enigmatic Madeleine (Kim Novak) for the first time.