VERTIGO (1958): Film opening. This film is very beautiful and very strange. As you will see, the opening titles have a dreamlike quality (who is the woman? why can't we see her whole face?) Beyond that, the first action scene has no explanatory context and is not discussed at all later on. Is it real or a dream? How does the hero extricate himself from the way he is hanging onto a roof edge? We never find out—the film simply cuts to a more "normal" scene before much stranger things start to happen.

• VERTIGO (1958): Film opening. This film is very beautiful and very strange. As you will see, the opening titles have a dreamlike quality (who is the woman? why can't we see her whole face?) Beyond that, the first action scene has no explanatory context and is not discussed at all later on. Is it real or a dream? How does the hero extricate himself from the way he is hanging onto a roof edge? We never find out—the film simply cuts to a more "normal" scene before much stranger things start to happen.