I recently re-watched Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film Vertigo on 70mm. It’s one of the very few and rare opportunities to get to see a renowned Hitchcock classic on a film print – and it looked absolutely stunning. I, like many others, love Vertigo and hold it in very high esteem as among my favourite films. I could write an entire essay here that goes in-depth into why I adore it so much, that regurgitates many of the same observations and interpretations that people have on the movie. But something that came to mind almost immediately after the screening of Vertigo was a lesser known film called The Green Fog, directed by Winnipeg experimental filmmaker legend Guy Maddin with Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson. The Green Fog is both a recreation of Vertigo and a homage to it, using footage from other movies and sources without using any clips from the original Vertigo itself. Given the concept, I knew I definitely had to watch it after re-watching Vertigo while it was still fresh in my mind, so that I could make proper comparisons between the two works.

I can tell you that the combination of various clips from other films and archival footage does come across like a CliffNotes summary of the movie. It may not be the most accurate and minute retelling especially given its one hour-long length that does not fully stack up to Vertigo’s much longer runtime that lasts over 2 hours, but the vision is very bold, and fun to watch unfold! It manages to recreate the most significant moments of Vertigo‘s story from the beginning rooftop chase, to Scottie’s first meeting with Gavin, him following Madeleine around driving from place to place, her buying flowers to visiting the art gallery, then visiting the cemetery, then the Golden Gate Bridge, to fishing her out of the water back to his place. The main plot points are all there! And somehow, all these clips coming from many different sources that you wouldn’t think would fit together actually end up creating something that is so recognizably Vertigo despite it being clearly not a 1 to 1 recreation. It does make it a far more interesting project in contrast with Gus van Sant’s shot-for-shot remake of Hitchcock’s Psycho.

Much of this really serves to put into context Vertigo‘s place in cinematic history, in terms of the general visual language that it probably pulled from in the case of earlier films and possibly Hitchcock’s own inspirations, as well its impact and influence on later films. It’s almost like pulling back the cover to reveal the inner workings of a movie, deconstructing it down to its various parts and understanding how they all connect together in relation to other films. But it also simultaneously works both as a celebration of San Francisco as a cinematic landmark, a place that so many films end up returning to time and time again, as well as the general visual motifs that we see coming up time and time again in cinema. From the numerous rooftop chase sequences, the restaurant dinners, an older man getting together with a younger woman, the kissing scenes, and so forth.

Some of the wide range of clips that it uses can make for a nice guessing game, like that meme of Leo pointing at the TV whenever I was able to recognize something from somewhere else, and can be absurdly funny in the way you’d expect from Guy Maddin’s style of comedy. We’ve got footage from Michael Bay’s The Rock, an *NSYNC music video, as well as the use of Chuck Norris clips with his deadpan facial expressions and his constant wandering around as a recreation of Scottie’s own state of mind after his release from the institution.

Overall I was glad I remembered to watch it immediately following Vertigo, as that was probably the best way to benefit from a viewing of this movie. It’s quite brilliant as a experimental collage work of old footage, and an absolute must-see for fans of Vertigo.