Vertigo Revision

Vertigo Revision

1. Scottie is completely immersed in the illusion when they wander to the shore, embrace and kiss for the first time.

   • He sees Madeleine as a perfect woman, his utopia, his cure for vertigo. He is living in a fantasy world not bound by the forces of nature.

2. Midge makes another subtle attempt to bring Scottie back to reality with a painting of herself in Carlotta’s position. She is trying to get Scottie’s attention back on her, back on reality.

   • Midge makes her exit from the movie here, ruling out any possible return to safety for Scottie.
   • When Scottie first suffers Vertigo, Midge says 'There's no losing it.'

3. Scottie's nightmare while emotionally scarred from 'Madeleine's' death emphasizes this with the surreal animations, a living Carlotta, and cycling colors symbolizing the past repeating itself.

4. We revisit the same locations as the first part of the film. The apartment with the green car out front, Ernie’s, the art museum, and the flower shop. Scottie finds Judy and begins transforming her into Madeleine, destroying Judy in the process.

   • In the climactic scene when Judy’s transformation is complete, she stands in the green glow from the neon light, appearing like a ghost. She walks toward Scottie and gradually takes on solid form. They embrace and kiss, and the camera circles around them showing that the cycle is complete.
     • He begins his journey back to reality by reenacting an earlier event: walking up the bell tower staircase. As he gets more factual information from interrogating Judy, he makes it higher up the stairs. This shows how he is beginning to overcome vertigo both physically and mentally. He is finally escaping the world of illusion, and it appears that he may finally find his balance.
       • The credits sequence introduces the primary motifs and symbols which drive the narrative throughout the film. The spirals, for example, are indicative of the ‘never ending’ cyclical narrative and Scottie’s obsession which can never be satisfied.

5. The film is revered as having a canonical status; A film canon is a limited group of films that serve to set the standard for the highest quality in film making and therefore are seen to exemplify the achievements of film production, mastered film form, especially the use of film making techniques such as editing and cinematography, demonstrate complexity of the narrative, plot and themes

6. The opening scene in Vertigo establishes the film as a conventional thriller, with the rooftop chase sequence also reminiscent of classic detective stories. The noticeable shift in mood for the next scene in Midge’s apt. is the first indicator of the genre hybridity in Vertigo. Elements of noir exist in the film (Madeleine = femme fatale) as well as supernatural and melodrama.

   • The film draws inspiration from the psychoanalysis and film-noir alike.
   • Bernie's: Scottie watches Madeleine intensely, as does the camera and by extension the audience. In this three way look, Madeleine to an extent is being objectified. The supernatural element to the story is helped along by the aforementioned colour of her dress, which is commonly associated with the uncanny. She is objectified as an item of desire and fuels Scotties obsession as she is the only woman wearing colour.
     • Bernard Hermann’s score punctuates the scene; the non-diegetic music draws attention to Madeleine with a crescendo reached as she walks into the centre of the frame, the colour illuminating her profile.

7. The film opens with a chase scene between Scottie, a detective and a criminal. This chase is the catalyst of the film as it leads to the first fall beginning the narrative. Scottie is seen hanging from the guttering in which we see the famous trombone shot, another stamp of Hitchcock’s auteur status. This is the trauma that gives Scottie his acrophobia, a theme present throughout the narrative; these falls help bookend the acts.

   • Madeleine is also the victim of these falls as she trips into the San Francisco Bay, and from the San Juan Bautista bell tower twice. The first fall from the tower ends the act and facilitates the transition to Judy’s story, as Scottie perceives that madeleine is deceased. This also symbolises Scotties fall from obsession as his object of desire is gone.

8. Scottie’s symbolic fall is apparent in his love for madeleine, falling instantly for her in Ernie’s. Madeleine puts herself on show for Scottie, just in the same that Hitchcock puts her on show for the audience.