Guillermo del Toro and Kim Novak lined up for Vertigo finale doc
Alexandre O. Philippe’s two-part The Fall will examine the famously elusive belltower ending of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo.
By Poppy Nakagawa · Culture Writer
2 min read
Alfred Hitchcock’s most slippery belltower moment is getting the true-crime treatment, cinephile style.
Guillermo del Toro, Kim Novak and Ari Aster are among the interview subjects already lined up for The Fall, a two-part documentary feature from writer-director Alexandre O. Philippe, Variety reported. The project is set to be presented July 22 at Fantasia’s Frontières International Co-Production Market in Montreal.
The working title points straight at the ending of Hitchcock’s Vertigo, where Judy falls to her death from a belltower. The film does not show viewers exactly what happens in the moment of the fall, instead cutting to 57 frames of Scottie’s face as he watches, according to the report.
Philippe has called the Vertigo finale Hitchcock’s “biggest mystery,” Variety reported, and his new film is being built as a film-noir-style investigation into that unanswered screen moment and the ideas it stirs up.
A 2028 anniversary plan
The Fall is in production, with about a year of work still ahead, according to Variety. The film is being produced by Medianoche Productions, the company behind Philippe’s 2025 Venice-premiering documentary Kim Novak’s Vertigo.
Medianoche producer Terri Piñon and Philippe are again working with France’s Tell Me Films, which also partnered with them on the Novak documentary. France’s Thunderbug Productions is also involved in the new project.
A pre-sale to France’s Cine+ has already been secured, Variety reported. At Frontières, Piñon and Philippe are looking for an international sales agent and additional financing partners.
Piñon told Variety the team is shaping The Fall as “a two-part event,” with separate premieres planned for Part I and Part II around the 70th anniversary of Vertigo in 2028. She said the team is aiming to use the anniversary attention around Hitchcock’s film throughout that year.
Philippe returns to movie obsession
Philippe’s recent work has dug into landmark films and their afterlives. His Chain Reactions, which examines the impact of Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 50 years after its release, won the Venice Classics Lion in 2024, according to Variety.
For The Fall, Philippe told Variety he is less interested in closing the case than living inside it. He said each interview subject offers “a different version of the truth,” and that each version reveals something personal about the person describing it.
The director also told Variety the project is the culmination of what he has pursued for 20 years, calling it “the film I was born to make.”
Fantasia’s Frontières Market runs July 22 to 25 in Montreal.
This story draws on original reporting from Variety.