Vertigo Revision

Vertigo Revision

Obsession is clearly shown for the characters of Madeleine and Judy through Scotties perspective throughout the narrative allowing the audience to experience the voyeuristic scopophilia over Madeleine.
1. The spectator’s relationship with Scottie helps to impact and give depth to some of the themes explored through Madeleine/Judy as the majority of the film is through Scotties perspective.
Transformation scene also links to auteur theory as this scene could relate to Hitchcock’s personal issues with women for instance Tippi Hedren from The Birds and Hitchcock’s obsession for blondes.
1. Pure Cinema is a recurring attribute for Alfred Hitchcock. This relates to the critical debate “significance of a Hitchcock film” and auteur theory.
Recurring motifs also play a key part in showing the themes explored through Madeleine; spirals seen most noticeable in her hair, shown in the art gallery scene. By using a shot/reverse shot of Carlotta’s painting and madeleine it makes the audience aware of her supernatural possession and shows the theme of control that Madeleine has over Scottie.
1. The spirals are also used in Scotties dream sequence, juxtaposing with the previous spirals and darker more surreal motifs; this can connote the changing of the narrative as well as the Madeleine/Judy split, as it has gone from a soft subtle tone when Madeleine was alive and innocent to a bold spiral after her death showing how motifs are explored through Madeleine and Judy.
In the title sequence the use of spirals are used heavily, this reflects Hitchcock’s auteur style as it was created by Saul Bass who has worked with him on multiple films. The spirals are narrative devices as they introduced the main theme of dizziness and acrophobia that are associated with protagonist.
To portray the acrophobia Hitchcock uses a ‘dolly zoom’ which is created from zooming in as the camera pans out, this is stylistic to Hitchcock and is used in the opening establishing scene on the rooftop during the police chase, in Midge’s apartment and at the top of the bell tower in the final scenes.
The stairs of the bell tower are spiralled which supports the recurring motifs. The bell tower is a set piece as a contemporary audience we are familiar with it as it is a San Francisco landmark, Mission San Juan Bautista.
The spirals are used to disorientate the spectator as well as Scottie, Madeline wears her hair in a tight spiralled bun which mirrors Carlotta Valdes’ which is the women she is supposedly possessed by; this is shown through the scene in the Palace of the Legion of Honour.
The recurring motif of the bouquet of flowers is also reinforced in this scene as the bouquet is featured in the painting with Carlotta Valdes. Madeline is a plot device; she is the main culprit to Scottie’s demise despite this, much like the audience, Scottie is manipulated by her charisma and angelic persona.
When Scottie follows Madeline they almost go around in circles, this enforces the circular narrative – this is supported by the real Madeline and Judy’s death at the bell tower.
Vertigo is a hybrid-genre film and the spirals help portray that particularly in the dream/nightmare sequence as this scene has elements of fantasy and supernatural due to a spiralling bouquet of flowers and the colour green which is used throughout the film as an indicator of the ghostly nature of the narrative.
1. The use of tunnels, flowers and colour in particular help to shape audience readings.
Judy ultimately dies the same way ‘Madeline’ did earlier in the film. This presentation of a circular narrative which emphasises the spiralled narrative.
When Scottie constructs Judy to appear as Madeline, she appears out of a green haze which gives the scene an element of supernatural qualities. She seems to float out of the bathroom like a ghost, where the light from the room forms a tunnel of light. This could be symbolic of the tunnel of death, which merges Madeline and Judy into one person.
She is the only person wearing bright colours (artificial connotations) in the restaurant. Upon second viewing it is obvious to audiences that her choice of attire was deliberate as she was putting herself on display for Scottie to reel him into the strategy constructed by Elster.
1. Ernie's restaurant is covered in red decor. This is jarring to the audience as it juxtaposes the dull outfits of its customers. The colour red strongly connotes love and lust which foreshadows the films narrative and Scotties relationship with Madeline. Red is also associated with danger which plays its role as a forewarning to Scottie to not get too involved in the case set out by Elster.
Motifs; Each aspect of the film plays its part in the overarching narrative and its subliminal messages. They give the film greater depth and often give warnings to audiences and the characters within the film as to their fate.
There are three falls within the film: the policeman, Madeleine and then Judy. This links to Hitchcock’s narrative structure as each fall forces Scottie into a new predicament that eventually leads to his downfall.
Midge defies the stereotypical “Hitchcock blonde” due to the fact that she is an independent woman living in a patriarchal time. Midge is desexualised due to the fact that she talks about a bra like it is a piece of machinery, and manages to desexualise a sexual object, which shows her character as high contrast to Madeline.
Madeline is presented to the spectators as having some traits of the typical Hollywood Femme Fatale; blonde and breathtakingly stunning, when first watching the film it is clear that she is a hegemonic representation of typical female character.
The spectator’s relationship with Scottie forms rapidly over the course of the film. Hitchcock uses elements such as the three way look, a point of view change and pure cinema in order to steer the audience’s response to Scottie’s character.
1. Hitchcock causes the audience to feel sympathy for Scottie instantly as the film begins with Scottie suffering the trauma brought on by his incident with vertigo. This helps to form a connection between the audience and Scottie efficiently.
Hitchcock implements “the three way look” (The idea that the audience, the director and the protagonist are all observing the scene’s events.)
Scottie seems to have sinister intentions as he shapes Judy into his version of beauty. This can be seen when Scottie pressures Judy in to wearing the clothes of Madeleine. Scottie creates a lie just as Hitchcock creates a character. This changes the audience’s feelings towards Scottie from sympathy at the start to feelings uncomfortable at what Scottie has become.
Many believed Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’ (1958) caused confusion, and judged the film to be somewhat nonsensical, as have reviewers of the film at the time of its release.
The representation of women throughout Hitchcock’s films have been debated throughout his career. Vertigo has a fairly pluralistic representation of women with a clear contrast between Judy and Midge however the fact that it challenges some stereotypes does not mean that it isn’t largely a film by a man for men.
1. The first woman we meet is Midge – a single working woman who, through her self-employment, portrays a progressive 1950’s woman. She embodies two very contrasting roles in Scottie’s narrative; the mother and the flirt. Scottie himself proclaims “Midge, don’t be so motherly!”
  1. Midge's casual dress and apartment décor all connote a motherly presence. In contrast, though, is her profession and flirtatious nature around Scottie that both convey a sexualised personality that would be deemed excessive at the time of the film’s creation. Either interpretation would ultimately lead to the affection for Scottie
Exploring the voyeuristic nature of scopophila, Scottie begins to fantasise over her ‘perfect’ image. The case soon becomes less investigative, and more pleasurable for Scottie – a conflict which only makes the exploration of his fantasies more challenging. In addition, this foreshadows the illusive and deceptive behaviours of the women in the film’s narrative; something that only antagonises them more.
The ‘following’ scene has no dialogue, but constant non diegetic sound by Bernard Herman who Hitchcock has worked with in a number of his films.
Throughout Vertigo, Hitchcock uses his leading ladies to propel his plot into a multitude of different scenarios, thus allowing him to explore many different themes and ideas through these characters and expand upon the world he is creating. The film perpetuates the feminine form as a catalyst for the inevitable downfall of the protagonist and therefore a figure of permanent distrust for the audience.
At Ernie's, Madeleine protrudes from the background
In the finale of the film as Scottie loses yet another love of his, portraying Madeleine, a symbol of pure beauty, as an allegory for the hopelessness of Scottie’s and all males’ attempts to strive for perfection.
The futility of life is ever-present throughout the film, and is demonstrated from the very beginning, with Scottie metaphorically suspended over a great abyss. This ideology becomes a staple in the film and therefore foreshadows everything that is to come, further solidifying the cyclical nature of the narrative. Madeleine continuously battles with her own personal conflict, juxtaposing her obsession with death and her seeming love for living, shown through her description of the sequoia trees as “ever-green, ever-living” thus stressing the psychological nature of the film.
The theme of falsity/deceit is portrayed continuously throughout Vertigo every character is hidden behind their own personal masks, an obvious example being the Madeleine and Judy split. The scene where Scottie takes Madeleine back to his apartment after saving her from San Francisco Bay reflects the spiralling lies within each character. Nobody portrays their true selves, thus hiding behind their own masks because internally they are unhappy with themselves as they lie to each other.
One day after attempting to drown herself in the San Francisco Bay, Madeleine and Scottie wandered among the ancient Sequoia trees and she expresses a dread of death. “I don’t like it, knowing I have to die,” she tells him
1. Madeleine is the embodiment of Scottie’s fear of and attraction to death. Supposedly possessed by a woman who took her own life, Madeleine wanders San Francisco, drawn to the idea of suicide and yet fearing death.
  1. The confusion of impulses manifests itself on a more figurative level when Scottie attempts to mold Judy in Madeleine’s image. While Judy initially fights the annihilation of her real self—a kind of death—she eventually embraces it as a way to claim Scottie’s love, saying, “I don’t care anymore about me.” Scottie enacts these contradictory impulses when he drags Judy to the top of the bell tower with the apparent desire to kill her, and then reacts with horror and despair when she plummets to her death.
The Impenetrable Nature of Appearances (relates to fantasy versus reality) The mask-like qualities of appearance are suggested during the opening credits of the film, which feature a woman’s expressionless face and a shot first of her lips and then of her nervously darting eyes. The depths of emotion and experience in this woman are unknowable to us. In the scene in Midge’s apartment, Scottie appears to be a balanced man on the mend from a traumatizing experience, but it does not take long to realize that his healthy exterior masks a burgeoning madness.

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	Created by Mia Norman over 8 years ago