IF YOU'VE never seen a Hitchcock film before and you want to know what all the fuss is about, you couldn't start in a better place than Vertigo.

Made in 1958, the film is as beautiful and hypnotic as ever. Based by Hitchcock on a French novel, Vertigo boasts a complex and disconcerting storyline which draws a link between a San Francisco cops fear of heights and his morbid obsession with the deceased object of his affections.

In the cold light of day, the film's plot seems nonsensical and over-complicated - but in the dream-like context of the film it seems to make perfect sense.

Among many notable features are James Stewart's downbeat performance as the disturbed policeman, a dramatic score by Hitchcock's regular collaborator, Bernard Herrmann, and some startling directorial tricks - including a near-psychedelic animated dream sequence and the dizzying camerawork Hitch employs to convey that dreadful plummeting sensation.