Obsession

1976, US, Brian De Palma, 98 min.
With Cliff Robertson, Geneviève Bujold, and John Lithgow

De Palma’s interpretation of Vertigo, replete with a seductive score by Bernard Hermann: Years after his wife and daughter are kidnapped and killed, a man still obsessed with the deceased meets a woman with a striking resemblance to his wife while on a business trip to Italy. He urges her to make changes so she is even more of a replica of his wife. She is kidnapped immediately after they are wed, and he finds a ransom note that is eerily familiar”¦

“…Exquisite entertainment”¦The film also throws into high melodramatic relief certain recognizable human truths: the shock of sudden loss, the panic of the effort to recoup, the mourning and guilt that blind the protagonist to a multitude of suspicious signs as he seeks expiation and a chance to relive his life. In a sense, the movie offers viewers the opportunity to do the same thing—by going back to a more romantic era of the cinema and the simple, touching pleasures denied the audience by the current anti-romantic spirit of the movies.” ““Richard Schickel, Time