Kim Novak was born out of an unwanted pregnancy. Her mother tried to abort her with knitting needles, and then tried to suffocate her after she was born. As a consequence, she suffered respiratory problems all of her life. The retired actress, now a nonagenarian, feels that she’s very close to the end. and fears that she could be gasping for air in her final days. Novak’s trembling voice narrates these events and sentiments, immediately evoking feelings of compassion from audiences. This vulnerable old lady must be worthy of our pity.
Then the tone of the documentary changes completely. We suddenly see a vibrant, eloquent and indeed very beautiful woman. The heavy make-up combined with careful lighting and colour correction makes Kim look literally half her age. She then spends roughly 30 minutes talking about the movies that defined her life, her troublesome relationship with Hollywood (which “swallowed actors whole”, she claimed), her great admiration for Greta Garbo, and her passion for painting (her sole occupation since she stopped acting a few decades ago). She also reveals that she left Chicago as a completely unknown “Marylin” (her real name), that her father disapproved of her acting career, and that she never truly saw herself as an actor. Instead, she calls herself a “reactor”. Actors “pretend”, she explains. She preferred to incorporate her characters and “to react” to their obsessions, she concludes.
The second half of this concise 77-minute-film consists mostly of Novak’s recollections of Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958), which Sight & Sound elected the greatest film of all time in 2012 (an accolade that this documentary does not boast). Novak remembers being warned that the script was “terrible”, and that she had never seen a Hitchcock movie. She also confesses that the British director was “a very difficult person”, before conceding that she probably was, too. James Stewart, on the other hand, was a real gentleman, much like his character Scottie. Next, Novak shares the original film script with viewers, which survived three devastating house fires.
She discusses the identity problems that she had to grapple with after embodying both Judy and Madeleine in Hitchcock’s watershed movie. Interestingly, the Italian title of the movie (featured repeatedly in the subtitles) is La Donna Che Visse Due Volte, which translates as “The Woman Who Lived Twice”. Novak too has to live multiple lives, it seems. She discloses that she is bipolar, something of which she was not aware at the time. There are visible parallels to the predicament of Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960) star Anthony Perkins, who also grappled with identity issues because of his indelible character Norman Bates, and was later diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. Novak narrates virtually the entire film. Only very occasionally we hear the dialogues from the film clips, and a brief directorial interjection.
Cinematographer Robert Muratore and Jeff Pointer ensure that Novak is only captured from the most flattering angles, and that her surroundings are filled with poetry and beauty. The most powerful moment comes at the very end of the film, when the filmmaker presents Novak which the dress that she wore in Vertigo. Novak becomes teary and shaky as she holds the garment. She expresses her gratitude for the documentary. She feels pleasure for being appreciated as such a late stage in life. The highly sensitive and symbolic gesture elicits an emotional reaction from our film subject. The conclusion is foregone: Novak is still a great “reactor”.
Kim Novak’s Vertigo premiered in the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, where this piece was written and the 92-year-old actress received the Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award. The UK premiere takes place at the BFI London Film Festival.
