Obsession

In 1959, affluent businessman Michael Courtland (Cliff Roberston) and his wife (GeneviFve Bujold) are celebrating their tenth anniversary when his daughter and wife are kidnapped and held for ransom. The effort to rescue the girl and her mother ends tragically, and Courtland merely exists, his days consumed with guilt. Many years later, still grieving over his loss, he returns to Florence - the city where he first met his wife - where he meets a young woman who bears a remarkable resemblance to her. Set largely in New Orleans, this incredibly atmospheric thriller has a southern gothic feel with it's dreamlike photography (by cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond) and deliberate pacing. Often compared to Hitchcock's Vertigo because of it's protagonist's obsessive attempt to recreate his lost love and the score by the incomparable Bernard Herrmann, director Brian de Palma's (Scarface, the Untouchables) undeniable obsession with cinema results in a thrilling approach to a hauntingly familiar subject.