Using a single scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo you can explore how a film-maker brings together camera technique, sound, mise en scene and script to tell a story. Dissecting a scene enables us to see how the director controls the flow of information and manipulates the cinema audience. Learning to ‘read’ a film in this way is the first step to a wider understanding of narrative film. Kiri Bloom Walden is a published film author and teaches film and cultural studies at the University of Oxford’s Department of Continuing Education.