An enthralling, illuminating and warm-hearted examination of the life and work of actress and artist Kim Novak, this lyrical film is no simple by-the-numbers, chronological film-by-film, relationship-by-relationship, look at a Hollywood icon. Rather, it is a swirling portrait of a woman who was self-aware of her image and abilities, but who defied the expectations of the tinsel town system, ultimately charting her own course away from the movie world.
The title of Alexandre O. Philippe’s film makes it clear that Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 Vertigo plays a key role in her life. Only in the final third of his film, however, does Philippe immerse Novak, and the audience, into the dark complexities of the Hitchcock masterpiece.
Swiss filmmaker Philippe is, of course, an old hand at films about filmmakers and practitioners, having made films such as You Can Call Me Bill, Lynch/Oz, Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on the Exorcist, Memory: The Origins of Alien, Doc of the Dead, The People vs. George Lucasand most recently Chain Reactions, and while this new film underlines again his astute use of film extracts and intellectual rigour, there also feels like a greater sense of warmth and compassion here, perhaps due to Novak’s famed reticence to intrusions into her life in recent years, and the clear strength of their friendship.
In the film – expanded upon in the production notes – Philippe talks about the importance, to him, of the Hitchcock classic. “I’ve been obsessed with Vertigo — my all-time favourite film — for as long as I can remember. As a child in Switzerland, I watched movies surrounded by damask wallpaper nearly identical to the one at Ernie’s, where Judy (as Madeleine) makes her entrance,” he says. Adding: “My earliest memory of cinema is Kim Novak walking toward me in her black and green satin dress. That image — wallpaper on wallpaper — etched itself into my mind and made me hopelessly fall in love with movies.”
Interviewing her at her house in the Oregon city of Rogue River, and allowed to delve into boxes that are filled with film prints, images, scripts and books, Philippe provides a safe space for Novak to talk about her life and work.
She talks bluntly about her childhood (saying her mother tried to abort her, and her father kept a foetus of her aborted ‘brother’ in his workshop), adding that she felt like a disappointment to her father who was against Hollywood. She talks of her great admiration for actress Greta Garbo; about being under contract with Columbia head Harry Cohn (who, she says, called her “the fat Polack’) and how she approached – and was perceived in – her early roles in films such as Picnic (1955), Pal Joey (1957) and Jeanne Eagels (1957).
At first, Philippe’s film circles around Hitchcock’s masterpiece, but it is when that film is front and centre that Kim Novak’s Vertigo really comes alive. Novak reads from her own bound script (when it was originally titled From Among the Dead); reacts emotionally to certain scenes as they are edited into the documentary; talks about how her film characters of Judy and Madeleine still haunt her (and admits that being latterly diagnosed as bipolar allows her to view her performance differently). Eventually – and movingly – she opens up the box that contains the iconic grey suit from the film, that she hasn’t seen since she last wore it in on set.
The film offers fascinating insight into her life post-Hollywood. Such as how she initially found her house in Big Sur, overlooking the ocean, where she painted and surrounded herself with animals (including horses, goats and a cat called Pyewacket, named after her feline friend in the 1958 film Bell, Book and Candle). We are also told how fires badly damaged other of her homes, and how ‘art rescued’ her.
At the heart of the film is the warmth of the relationship between Novak and Philippe, culminating in her poignant reflection that exploring her past gave her “permission to appreciate myself.” This could be perceived as schmaltzy, but Novak is a woman who opened up for the film and used the experience to re-examine her life and dwell on past moments alongside the realities of aging (she is now aged 92). The closing scene sees her painting at a canvas, with the classic Vertigo grey suit on a tailor’s dummy in the foreground.
Philippe’s doc is very much about a life coming full circle (even if the spirit of Hitchcock still lingers), and how Kim Novak morphed from Hollywood beauty and acclaimed actress into painter and artist. It is a compassionate and insightful film, and an open and revealing analysis of a complex life. It is clearly also cathartic for Novak who clearly appreciates Philippe as much as he does her.
US, 2025, 76mins
Dir/scr: Alexandre O. Philippe
Production: Gull House Films, Medianoche Productions
International sales: Dogwoof
Producers: Terri Piñon, Alexandre O. Philippe
Cinematography: Robert Muratore, Jeff Pointer
Editor: David Lawrence
Music: Jon Hegel
With: Kim Novak
