Philippe connects with Hollywood legend in ‘Kim Novak’s Vertigo’

Cinema | October 13th, 2025

By Greg Carlson

Dream-factory documentarian Alexandre O. Philippe connects with a Hollywood legend in “Kim Novak’s Vertigo,” the latest in a series of features exploring the filmmaker’s many movie-related passions and obsessions. In my 2022 review for the fascinating and accomplished “Lynch/Oz,” I wrote, “Philippe has continued to develop a confident storytelling voice somewhere between the accessibility of Laurent Bouzereau and Jamie Benning and the erudition of Mark Rappaport and Thom Andersen.” The Novak exercise falls squarely in the Bouzereau school (not a bad thing at all), missing some of the headier Rappaport-style scholarship of his most penetrating work. On the other hand, wouldn’t you like to hang out with Kim Novak?

With few exceptions, including a surprise appearance at the 2014 Oscar ceremony to co-present with Matthew McConaughey and the recent in-person acceptance of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, the largely private star has remained away from the public eye for decades. She expressed disappointment in her unhappy experience making “Liebestraum” with writer-director Mike Figgis in 1991, walking away from onscreen work to concentrate on painting and writing poetry from the quiet of her Oregon ranch. Her husband of 44 years, the veterinarian Robert Malloy, died in 2020.

Clearly, Philippe earned the trust and confidence of Novak, who welcomes the filmmaker into her home and her life. They sit together for several intimate conversations that invite viewers to eavesdrop on all sorts of revelations and reflections on a glorious career that peaked in an era when young women faced grim harassment and misogyny just doing their jobs. Valued primarily for box office potential driven by perceived sexual attractiveness to the powerful men inside the film industry and the common men purchasing tickets, pinups and fan magazines, actors like Novak were commodified. Clearly, little has changed (see Novak’s post-Oscar telecast open letter, in which she called out the bullies who commented on her physical appearance).

Unlike Philippe’s earlier Hitchcock deep-dive “78/52,” which closely examined the “Psycho” shower scene in microscopic detail, “Kim Novak’s Vertigo” doesn’t stay trained on the impact and influence of his 1958 masterpiece for the duration of the documentary’s tidy 76-minute running time. In some sense, it’s a missed opportunity, especially in comparison to work like “Chain Reactions” and “Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist,” since superfans of the Master of Suspense are ready to gobble up any and every new morsel. Both Novak and Philippe refrain from any negative takes on the controversial auteur.

Even though Novak has not acted in a film for more than three decades, she clearly applies many well-earned lessons to the construction of this new “performance” for Philippe. In what could be the most memorable single sequence in the documentary, Novak unboxes her iconic gray Edith Head-designed wool pencil skirt and single-breasted jacket, drinking in its aroma as Philippe emphasizes its powerful aura as one of cinema’s enduring costumes. It’s a theatrical moment that links together Novak, Hitchcock, Philippe, and the viewer. And even if our once-and-forever Madeleine/Judy lays it on a little thick, “Kim Novak’s Vertigo” reminds us exactly why certain movies make us dizzy.

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