Vertigo

In 1958, sixteen-year-old Louise DeSalvo saw Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo eleven times in one week, transfixed by the lead character's fainting spells (which she too suffered) and by the image of woman-as-imposter falling to her death. The film seemed to embody all the confusing and contradictory messages she was receiving as a young woman. Born to Italian immigrants and coming of age during the 1950s, DeSalvo found herself rebelling against a script written by parental and social expectations. In her memoir, Vertigo, she vividly recounts her attempts to transcend the limits of her…