As part of its acclaimed Science on Screen series, the Coolidge Corner Theatre will present Alfred Hitchcock’s classic psychological thriller VERTIGO at 7:00 pm, Monday, April 21. Catherine Kimble, MD will join us before the film with a special presentation on the realities of vertigo and anxiety.

VERTIGO is frequently listed among the best films ever made. During a rooftop chase, police detective John “Scottie” Ferguson (James Stewart) is grossly overcome by his acrophobia (a deep fear of falling) which ultimately brings about the death of a fellow officer. After Scottie retires from the police force, his life takes another unusual turn when an old school acquaintance asks him to shadow his wife, Madeleine (Kim Novak), a woman obsessed with death. Scottie’s vertigo prevents him from saving Madeleine’s life, bringing his one chance at perfect love to a crushing halt. When he sees a woman walking down the street who looks exactly like Madeleine, his world once again becomes a dizzying battle between illusion and reality.

Dr. Catherine Kimble is a psychoanalyst and psychiatrist whose areas of expertise include anxiety disorders. She is on the faculty of the Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital Adult Psychiatry Residency Training Program, the Psychiatry Department at Harvard Medical School, and the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. She has a private practice in Lexington, Mass.