My lecture will explore the theme of the return of the dead woman in two films–Hitchcock's "Vertigo" and David Fincher's "Gone Girl"–in relation to a classic text that stages such a return, Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. Moving between literature, film, and philosophy the lecture explores the conversation between Shakespeare and Hollywood cinema proposed by the philosopher Stanley Cavell 's in his work in moral and aesthetic philosophy, so as to interrogate not only the fascination the tragic imperative continues to hold but also what it might take to avert tragedy.