Vertigo

It's Valentine's Day. When I was a little kid watching old movies on tv, I thought this scene from the Alfred Hitchcock movie Vertigo was so sadly romantic. You really have to know the story to appreciate the significance of the scene.

TThe movie is set in San Francisco and the main character, Scottie (Jimmy Stewart) is a cop who failed to save another officer from faling to his death from a tall building. The trauma gave him a fear of heights and he had to quit the force and become a PI instead.

He was later hired by a man to follow his wife, Madeleine (Kim Novack), who had been behaving strangely and self-destructively. Scottie did so, eventually falling in love with her after saving her from a suicide attempt. Some days later, she climbed a bell tower of the Mission San Juan Bautista, and threw herself off. Stewart's character was unable to climb the stairs to save her due to his vertigo.

He was crushed and deeply depressed after this (and in the nut house for a time). After he had recovvered somewhat, he saw a woman who looked like Madeleine. She had a different personality, different hair, different style, but Scottie began dating her. Slowly he worked to get her to change, to be more like Madeleine. At first she resisted, but finally, she did all he asked to make herself look exactly like the dead woman he still loved.

The clip from the movie is when Scottie first sees her after she has changed herself, wearing the same clothes Madeleine died in. It's so disturbing and heart-breaking, bringing a dead loved one back to life ... but not really. The movie has a twist ending, which I won't reveal. It's worth a watch.