Critical Reviews and Writings about VERTIGO

Past Exam question to consider this lesson:

How far has particular writing by critics been important in developing your understanding and appreciation of your chosen film?

So, obviously, Vertigo wasn't always considered to be the greatest film ever made.

Alfred Hitchcock's psychological thriller Vertigo has been named as the best movie of all time by the British Film Institute (BFI). The 1958 film replaced Orson Welles' movie Citizen Kane as the greatest film of all time, a position it had held for an incredible 50 years. The BFI poll has taken place once every ten years since 1962. Its panel is made up of 846 international film critics, movie directors, academics and writers. They voted for 2,045 different movies in this decade's survey. Nick James, a BFI spokesman, said the voting "seems to be not so much about films that…use cinema's entire arsenal of effects to make a grand statement, but more about works that have personal meaning to the critic".
Hitchcock called Vertigo his most personal. It is about a retired police detective suffering from acrophobia (a fear of heights) who is hired as a private investigator to follow the wife of a close friend to find out the reasons for her bizarre behaviour. The film received mixed reviews upon its initial release, but has gone on to amass considerable acclaim over the decades. 

The BFI said: "Vertigo is the ultimate critics' film because it is a dreamlike film about people who are not sure who they are but who are busy reconstructing themselves and each other to fit a kind of cinema ideal of the ideal soul mate."

Task 1: Produce a Powerpoint Presentation 5-10 slides based on reviews of Vertigo and give consideration to this past exam question:

Often, different critics and reviewers respond very similarly to a film. How far is this true of your close study film?

Consider: 
A critical debate relating to Vertigo
Exploring the relationship between knowledge of a critical debate and personal response to the film
Taking issue with the debates around the film's value and applying your own approach/conclusion
The role of James Stewart in Vertigo's popularity

Original 1958 review in Sight and Sound

Is Vertigo the best film ever? (Daily Telegraph 2016)

Critical transformation

Read more: http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1208/120802-movies_films.html#ixzz4f5J9JCMS

Task 2: Read the reviews of Vertigo on the handout provided

Task 3: Attempt the exam question below:

How far has particular writing by critics been important in developing your understanding and appreciation of your chosen film?

Level 4 (A – A*)

·  An excellent, detailed and sophisticated knowledge and understanding of the chosen film.

·  Sound knowledge and understanding of critical writings generated by the film, whether among reviewers, academics or both.

·  An ability to explore the degree to which an awareness of critical debate has deepened the candidate’s understanding and appreciation of the chosen film.

·  (The very best candidates) … will demonstrate a sophisticated use of critical reading and may well play off one piece of critical writing against another in developing a more complex argument.

Key Points Vertigo

›Initially received as a failure
›Now considered to be a masterpiece
›American Cinema’s supreme treatment of romantic obsession
›On one level a Gothic Romance
›Scottie is psychologically ‘crippled’ and tormented by guilt
›Scottie is a questionable ‘hero’

›Scottie is a sympathetic character but he is also pathetic (Midge mothers him)
›His condition of acrophobia (fear of heights) is an emblem of his crippling guilt – first over the death of a fellow policeman, then over the suicide of the woman he was hired to follow and with whom he fell in love.

›Vertigo is a self-reflexive, dark commentary on the process of image-making from both sides of the fence
›Scottie is first the victimised spectator of an illusion, then the ruthless creator of one.
›The concept of the femme-fatale is examined and under-cut – the film is explicitly about how men, out of their own anxieties, and for their own convenience, create mythic images of women

›Vertigo draws on the traditions of the hard-boiled detective, film noir thriller
›It starts as a detective thriller and becomes a psychological crime thriller
›Vertigo is part of Hitchcock’s more ambitious and mature works that became the focus of a major re-evaluation of his status as an auteur

›The title is a reference to the physical effect of acrophobia. Vertigo is dizziness or spiralling (falling, descending, in circles) – a metaphor that is underlined in the stairs to the bell tower, Madeleine’s bun, the age lines on the sequoia trees and the posy of flowers held first by Carlotta Valdez in the painting then bought by Madeleine – also the flowers on the wallpaper in the restaurant where Scottie falls into the beginning of an obsessive love (a descent into madness) that spirals out of control

›Hitchcock’s Vertigo has influenced subsequent thriller specialists such as De Palma in Obsession (1984) and Jonathan Demme in Last Embrace, 1979.

Colurs Symbolism and Motifs in VERTIGO

Past Exam question to consider this lesson:

VERTIGO - The significance of this as a “Hitchcock” film 

- Recurring motifs and the possible symbolic patterning of the film

The development of key themes and ideas in VERTIGO

Past Exam question to consider this lesson:

Explore the importance of narrative structure in the development of key themes and ideas in Vertigo.


Starter: 
Define the term foreshadowing.

Answer this question:
In the opening credits, the mysterious woman’s face drenched in red is a foreshadowing of what in Vertigo?

Themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

Common Hitchcockian themes –

The world is unstable and unpredictable (intensifies post Holocaust) and things are not what they seem – Scottie as an obsessive voyeur. Nobody is innocent, no one is morally good – dark impulses exist in us all. Hitchcock extends this to the audience so that we question it in ourselves. 

Controlling, manipulative cinema.

How does 'Vertigo' address the conventions of a Thriller?

The first shot used in the opening is a close-up of a females face which steadily moves to an extreme close-up of her eye. The face reveals expressions of fear, worry and uncertainty which indicates the genre. During this part the music adds suspense and builds tension. The eye eventually fades to red symbolsing the idea of danger, blood and death which addresses the genre through the themes that the eye creates.

During the opening credits the moving, optical shapes that spin in blue and purple give a vivid sense of madness and craziness, which could be related and hint to the audience the narrative of the movie - Vertigo. For the audience the shapes used are visually interesting and would keep the audience engaged.

The characters used are both antagonistic and protagonistic, as there is a man running away from a police officer which inidcates the theme of crime. The audience know that this scene will be significant throughout the movie as it is shown to be important through the fast action being used and the tense music that intensifies at this point. The music implies the idea of a chase/escape which relates to the genre.

THeme 1: DEATH AS BOTH ATTRACTIVE AND FRIGHTENING

In the opening scene of Vertigo, Scottie is moments away from death as he dangles from the roof of a tall building. His fear is palpable, and while he is overcome with terror watching his comrade fall, letting go seems to be the only way out of the situation. Madeleine is the embodiment of this 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. One day after attempting to drown herself in the San Francisco Bay, she and Scottie wander 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, and she pleads with him to take her into the light.

This confusion of impulses manifests itself on a more figurative level when Scottie attempts to mould 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.

THEME 2:THE IMPENETRABLE NATURE OF APPEARANCES

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. And while Midge is pragmatic, unromantic, and controlled in her responses, her exterior hides the soul of a passionate person. After her failed attempt to break into Scottie’s dream-world by painting her own head on Carlotta’s portrait, she flies into a surprising rage, flinging paintbrushes at her own reflection in the window—an attempt to shatter the mask that Scottie sees and mistakes for her whole identity.
Madeleine’s character is nothing but appearance. She is a fabrication loosely based on the legend of a dead woman, and Scottie’s attempt to understand and penetrate that appearance is what leads to his downfall and the downfall of Judy/Madeleine. After assuming Madeleine’s appearance at Scottie’s insistence, Judy has difficulty penetrating her own mask. By the time Scottie drags her up the steps of the bell tower, she no longer has a firm grasp on her true identity and alternates between speaking as Judy and as Madeleine.

THEME 3:THE FOLLY OF ROMANTIC DELUSION

While Scottie’s acrophobia is his most apparent Achilles’ heel, his true tragic flaw is his penchant for romantic delusion. He fools himself, and is easily fooled by others, into believing in illusions that are romantically gratifying to him. Hitchcock presents Midge as a highly sympathetic character and prompts viewers to root for her in her vain attempts to woo Scottie. Midge is the antithesis of romantic delusion, firmly grounded in the real world and able to offer Scottie a mature kind of love. But this is the kind of love that Scottie rejects in favor of the illusive, dreamlike love he finds with Madeleine. And it is his decisive submission to delusion that ensures the film’s tragic ending. Judy pleads with Scottie to accept her as she is, to try to move beyond the dead Madeleine, but this is something he cannot do. Judy’s startled fall from the bell tower is the film’s final example of the folly and danger of romantic delusion. When the shadowy figure of a nun appears behind Judy and Scottie in the tower, Judy seems to be overtaken by the romantic notion that it may be the ghost of the real Madeleine returning to the scene of the crime.

Foreshadowing

In the opening credits, the mysterious woman’s face drenched in red is a foreshadowing of the murderous role a mysterious woman will play in the film. When Scottie faints in Midge’s arms while attempting to conquer his acrophobia on a stepstool, it prefigures his more significant incapacitation when his acrophobia prevents him from stopping Madeleine’s suicide. A close-up shot of Madeleine’s tightly wound hair—a spiral—hints at the chaos into which she will lead Scottie.

Past Exam question (general) to consider this lesson:

How far has an awareness of the filmmaker as auteur influenced your response to your chosen film?

VERTIGO - The significance of this as a “Hitchcock” film 

- Recurring motifs and the possible symbolic patterning of the film

How does VERTIGO illustrate love and/or madness?

Past exam question:

Vertigo is a challenging exploration of male fantasy. How far do you agree with this view?

Starter: List the names of the main characters and the actors who played them.

Name of Film: Vertigo
Name of Director / Year: Alfred Hitchcock (1958)
Names of Main Characters / Actors who play them:

1. Scottie (James Stewart)

2. Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak)

3. Judy Barton (Kim Novak)

4. Midge Wood (Barbara Bel Geddes)


THE FOLLY OF ROMANTIC DELUSION

While Scottie’s acrophobia is his most apparent Achilles’ heel, his true tragic flaw is his penchant for romantic delusion. He fools himself, and is easily fooled by others, into believing in illusions that are romantically gratifying to him. Hitchcock presents Midge as a highly sympathetic character and prompts viewers to root for her in her vain attempts to woo Scottie. Midge is the antithesis of romantic delusion, firmly grounded in the real world and able to offer Scottie a mature kind of love.

But this is the kind of love that Scottie rejects in favor of the illusive, dreamlike love he finds with Madeleine. And it is his decisive submission to delusion that ensures the film’s tragic ending. Judy pleads with Scottie to accept her as she is, to try to move beyond the dead Madeleine, but this is something he cannot do. Judy’s startled fall from the bell tower is the film’s final example of the folly and danger of romantic delusion. When the shadowy figure of a nun appears behind Judy and Scottie in the tower, Judy seems to be overtaken by the romantic notion that it may be the ghost of the real Madeleine returning to the scene of the crime.

Film sections covered today: 1:38:00-2:04:00 – Scottie makes Judy’s appearance match Madeline’s looks exactly.  He recognises Judy’s necklace as the necklace from the Carlotta Valdes painting.  They return to the Spanish mission; after a brief struggle, a nun appears from the shadows and Judy falls from the bell tower to her death. 

Task 1:  Finish watching the movie. Make notes and consider the following:

To what extent is Judy willing to give up her identity in order to have Scottie’s love, and what does Hitchcock seem to be suggesting about relationships in general? Why does Hitchcock show the audience shots of Judy that directly parallel past scenes of Madeline?

Task 2:  Use the handouts provided to discuss and make notes on the following:

• -When Scottie is in Judy’s apartment, she sits down in front of the window. We see her face in profile, shadowed, and highlighted by a green light. What shot does this remind you of? What does it remind Scottie of?

• - What is the reason for the overwhelming green color in the room when Judy emerges from the bathroom with her new blonde hair pinned back, wearing the grey suit?

• -Why is there a green haze over Judy when she walks towards Scottie?

• -During their long embrace, the camera begins to turn 360 around them, but the background changes to the inside of the horse stables from the Spanish mission. Why?

• - When Scottie sees the necklace, why is there a shot that starts on Judy’s necklace, switches to the painted necklace, tracks outward to show the entire painting of Carlotta, and then tracks out again to show Madeline looking at the painting?

• -What is Scottie thinking about during the drive to the mission? Why does Judy seem so nervous?

• -Note Scottie’s body as he looks down from the top of the bell tower at Judy. His arms are spread, his palms open, his face pained. What is this image reminiscent of? Why does Hitchcock include this iconic reference?

Students should be able to match up scenes of Madeline with scenes of Judy. They should note the disturbing, unhealthy obsession Scottie has with Madeline and begin to critique the objectified way women are presented in Vertigo.

Feminist Theorists - Analysis of Midge, Madeleine and Judy (Femininity)

Past Exam question to consider this lesson:

The representation of women in Vertigo demonstrates how far this is a film by a man for men.’ How far do you agree?

Key Terms: 
Patriarchy
Voyeurism
Male Gaze
Misogynistic

Starter: Define the above terms

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“…cinematic codes create a gaze, a world, and an object, thereby producing an illusion cut to the measure of desire.” –Laura Mulvey, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema

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“The “cool blonde” and her role in Hitchcock’s films point to a recurrent (and some would say misogynistic) pattern in the treatment of his heroines. Consistently, one of these women is reduced to a dishevelled, panic stricken mess, or reveals some unexpected depth of sexual ardor. Hitchcock liked to quote nineteenth century French playwright Victorien Sardou’s advice, “Torture the women!” though he added “The trouble today is we don’t torture the women enough”

-The Women of Hitchcock – E.Wennerberg (2003)

Task 1::

Do you agree with this quote? Do you think Hitchcock's portrayal of women is misogynistic? 
Use the handout provided to make notes.

Consider:
Is Judy a sympathetic character?

Does Hitchcock’s obsessive camera make Novak impossible to see in a negative light simply?

She is an accomplice to murder and she has been lying to Scottie the whole time.

Why do we feel sympathetic to Judy?

What if the roles were gender swapped?

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Patriarchal Systems

When a woman's role is to make her man's life as happy as possible; while female feelings and desires are not as important in comparison...

-Judy

If, if I let you change it, will that do it? If I do what you tell me, will you love me?

-Scottie

"It can't matter to you!"

Could it be argued Judy's dialogue diminishes the role of women, and increases their reliance of men for self-esteem?
Discuss

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Freedom and Power - The themes of freedom and power can be related to patriarchal ideology.

Hitchcock underlines Patriarchal ideology through the Carlotta backstory. There are three instances in which the concept of freedom and power are mentioned.

All the times are when they're done by male characters. Talking about the role of men in society.

-Gavin Elster
"The things that spell San Francisco to me are disappearing fast ... I should have liked to have lived here then; color, excitement, power, freedom."

-Pop Leibel

She came from somewhere small to the south of the city. Some say from a mission settlement. Young, yes, very young. And she was found dancing and singing in cabaret by that man. And he took her and built for her the great house in the Western Addition. And, uh, there was, there was a child, yes, that's it, a child, a child. I cannot tell you exactly how much time passed or how much happiness there was, but then he threw her away. He had no other children. His wife had no children. So, he kept the child and threw her away. You know, a man could do that in those days. They had the power and the freedom.

-Scottie
I made it. I made it. So this is where it happened. The two of you hid back there and waited for it to clear, and then you sneaked down and drove into town, is that it? And then, you were his girl, huh? Well, what happened to ya? What happened to ya? Did he ditch ya? Oh Judy, with all of his wife's money and all that freedom and that power and he ditched you. What a shame! But he knew he was safe. He knew you couldn't talk. Did he give you anything?

- Judy
"I was safe when you found me. There was nothing that you could prove. When I saw you again, I couldn't run away. I loved you so. I walked into danger, let you change me because I loved you and I wanted you. Oh, Scottie, oh Scottie please. You love me. Please keep me safe, please..."

Could it be argued that Hitchcock is using the repetition of freedom and power in such as way making a point to say that society that Scotty and Elster live in that there is a possibility that men have all the power and freedom, and women do not?

Midge makes herself into a painting. She painted her own portrait but also the way she sits, the camera work makes her appear identical to the painting.
Madeline is visually connected the the painting of Carlotta in the museum.

Hitchcock uses his film techniques to objectify Judy/Madeline and other women

This encourages the idea of Voyeurism throughout the film

Here she is framed by the columns and framed by a man watching her

Here Hitchcock is using visual elements, props and settings to make female characters literally objects, thing to be looked at. Painting itself.

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The Male Gaze
Laura Mulvey (1975)
Is a feminist theory as a feature of gender power asymmetry in film.

Mulvey stated that women were objectified in film because heterosexual men were in control of the camera. Hollywood films played to the models of voyeurism
It occurs when the camera puts the audience into the perspective of a heterosexual man. (For example, it may linger over the curves of a woman's body)

The woman is usually displayed on two different levels: 
As an erotic object for both the characters within the film, as well as for the spectator who is watching the film. The man emerges as the dominant power within the created film fantasy. The woman is passive to the active gaze from the man. This adds an element of 'patriarchal' order.

Mulvey argues that, in mainstream cinema, the male gaze typically takes precedence over the female gaze, reflecting an underlying power asymmetry.
Therefore, as Scottie sees Judy/Madeline as an object, we too are meant to see Judy/Madeline as an object.

Male Domination
The sequence Scottie changes Judy into Madeline is an example of Male Domination.

Hitchcock shows us Judy in parts and sequences it off until she is no longer Judy anymore
If we look at the sequence in the salon where Judy is getting her Madeline make-over. Hitchcock uses a lot of close-up shots.
Do you think this has been done intentionally to make it appear that Judy (and by extension all women) is seen by the audience as the subject of men's desires - both sexual and controlled?

So, is Vertigo misogynistic? 

Task 2: Work in groups to plan an essay response for the exam question;

The representation of women in Vertigo demonstrates how far this is a film by a man for men.’ How far do you agree?

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Patriarchy
a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it.

Voyeurism
the practice of gaining sexual pleasure from watching others when they are naked or engaged in sexual activity.

Male Gaze The male gaze is the way in which the visual arts and literature depict the world and women from a masculine point of view, presenting women as objects of male pleasure. The phrase male gaze was coined by feminist film critic Laura Mulvey in 1975.

Misogynistic
strongly prejudiced against women.

Critical Approach ( 1 ) Auteur Theory: Hitchcock as an AUTEUR

Past exam question:
How far has an awareness of the filmmaker as auteur influenced your response to your chosen film? 

Key Terms:

Auteur theory: 

A filmmaker with a distinctive style creates a signature within their films making them easily identifiable by audiences.

MacGuffin
In fiction, a MacGuffin is a plot device in the form of some goal, desired object, or other motivator that the protagonist pursues, often with little or no narrative explanation. 

The specific nature of a MacGuffin is typically unimportant to the overall plot. 

The most common type of MacGuffin is a person, place, or thing (such as money or an object of value). Other more abstract types include victory, glory, survival, power, love, or some unexplained driving force.

The MacGuffin technique is common in films, especially thrillers. Usually the MacGuffin is the central focus of the film in the first act, and thereafter declines in importance. It may reappear at the climax of the story but sometimes is actually forgotten by the end of the story.

Critic Andrew Sarris also developed an auteur theory comprised of three key elements: technical competence, personal style and interior meaning.

Hitchcock explained the term "MacGuffin" in a 1939 lecture

It might be a Scottish name, taken from a story about two men on a train. One man says, "What's that package up there in the baggage rack?" And the other answers, "Oh, that's a MacGuffin". The first one asks, "What's a MacGuffin?" "Well," the other man says, "it's an apparatus for trapping lions in the Scottish Highlands." The first man says, "But there are no lions in the Scottish Highlands," and the other one answers, "Well then, that's no MacGuffin!" So you see that a MacGuffin is actually nothing at all.

Technical competence
“... if a director has no technical competence, no elementary flair for the cinema, he is automatically cast out from the pantheon of directors.”


Hitchcock quickly became known for dream sequences and a range of shots including dolly zooms, point of view shots and shot reverse shots.


Task 1:

How does the scene at Ernie's restaurant reflect Hitchcock's technical competence?
Consider camera moves and how they reinforce the themes in Vertigo.
Whose point of view do we see and why do you think that is?

Write 100 - 200 words.

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The second part of Sarris’ theory is personal style, the personalised signature of a director or a recurring characteristic within their films. For Hitchcock this includes examples such as the MacGuffin narrative structure or the binary opposition of the predator versus the prey once again linking back to the voyeuristic nature of relationships. 

Kim Novak’s casting as Madeleine is also in alignment with Hitchcock’s personal style, he was known to hire young blondes and treat them in a similar manner to their representation in the film. 

Task 2: 
How is Hitchcock's personal style evident in the Museum scene in Vertigo?

Consider: Male gaze/objectification
Macguffin
Write 100 - 200 words. 

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The final part of the auteur theory is interior meaning, known as the ultimate premise Sarris states “Interior meaning is extrapolated from the tension between a director’s personality and his material.” Throughout Hitchcock’s films, Vertigo in particular, America’s obsession with an idealistic view of beauty is highlighted. This ideology and interior meaning can be seen within Judy’s full transformation back to Madeleine at Scottie’s hand.

Task 3: 
What other themes are identified in the Madeline/Judy scene as we explore interior meaning as part of auteur theory?

Consider: 
Hitchcock's themes of obsession and desire.
Who are the audience positioned to sympathise with? How has Hitch' positioned the audience?
Why would a second or third viewing impact on audience positioning?
Write 100 - 200 words. 

In conclusion, the auteur critical response surrounding Hitchcock is crucial in gaining a deeper understanding of Vertigo especially when applying Sarris’ auteur theory to the film. 

One can easily find examples of technical competence, personal style and interior meaning throughout Vertigo and relate it back to Hitchcock’s own personal signature throughout his films. 

Vertigo captures the themes of voyeurism and objectification of women, a key element of many films by the director, but by knowing these thematic links other elements within the film become clearer as they foreshadow Scottie’s obsession over Elster’s fictionalised character of Madeleine.

VERTIGO Macro and Micro Film Language • Analysis of Key Sequences

1:26:00 to 1:38:00

Past Exam Question (Specific): The representation of women in Vertigo demonstrates how far this is a film by a man for men.’ How far do you agree?

Key Term: Identify with -  to feel that you are similar to someone and can understand them or their situation: Readers can identify with the hero of the novel.

Starter: 1.  Compare and contrast Midge versus Madeline.
Give reasons from the movie for your answers.
If it is your personal opinion, support it!

Who is the most:

intelligent?

sexy?

maternal?

objectified?

empowered?

tragic?

How does the director’s representation of the two characters influence our perception of them?

In what ways do you think the director wants us to view these two women?

Task 1: Analysis Task

Today we will focus on camera movements and editing to analyse how the director takes the viewer into Scottie’s mind. 

This should help us to realise that directors do make specific choices that affect the way the audience reacts to the film.  

You will also learn that the director wants the audience to identify with Scottie, and identify the camera methods he uses so that viewers feel what he feels and see what he sees.

• How does a director reveal a character’s motives? 
• Whose perspective have we been getting throughout the film so far, and how does this affect the viewer? 
• Why do you think that Hitchcock might want the audience to identify with Scottie? 
• How does he achieve this with the use of the camera? 

Pay attention to the specific ways the camera moves throughout each scene, and how this movement adds meaning to what is being said, or shown.

In addition, pay attention to the editing, the sequence of various images that tell the story. 

Analyse cuts between shots. 

In doing this, try to answer the following questions: 

• What are Scottie’s motives? 
• How is the audience supposed to feel about his motives/feelings?

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-Why does the director choose to edit the bell tower scene in the way that he does? For example, why do the scenes jump abruptly from Madeline to Scottie?

DOLLY ZOOM:
http://nofilmschool.com/2014/01/everything-need-know-dolly-zoom

-Why do we see two nuns running from a distance?

-How does the director convey the sense of dizziness felt by Scottie?

- Why is the nightmare montage a combination of animated/live film?

- How does the director create a surreal, disturbing atmosphere in the nightmare?

- How does the director convey the sensation of falling?

- What does Midge mean when she says, “I don’t think that Mozart’s going to help.”?

 Analyse the scene where Midge walks out of the hospital in a dark, empty corridor with the shadows closing in on her.  This is the last scene Midge appears in. What do you think happens to her?

If students have analysed that the director has specific intentions for the audience to identify with Scottie, and evaluated that the director does this by means of camera movements that mimic Scottie’s eye movements, and disorienting camera techniques that mimic Scottie’s bewilderment and anxiety, then today's lesson was beneficial. 

VERTIGO - Detailed Narrative Events

“Vertigo seems to me of all Hitchcock’s films the one nearest to perfection. Indeed, its profundity is inseparable from the perfection of form: it is a perfect organism.”

                                                                            – Robin Wood, noted Film Studies critic, scholar & author of Hitchcock’s Films (1965)

Example exam question:

Explore the importance of narrative structure in the development of key themes and ideas in Vertigo.

Lesson objective: To be introduced to Vertigo, consider the various elements of film that help to create meaning and subtext, and make predictions about the overall theme of the film.

Key Terms: Cinéma Pur (French for "Pure Cinema") was an avant-garde film movement begun by filmmakers, like René Clair, who "wanted to return the medium to its elemental origins" of "vision and movement."

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Starter: A Film Noir Narrative: Overall, the narrative of Vertigo contains many of the conventions of Film Noir. List the conventions that you can of Film Noir.

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Narrative Form – Three Acts, Two Halves & Spiral: Although we can breakdown Vertigo in terms of Syd Field’s three acts, it is also helpful to think of the film in two halves, with Madeleine’s ‘suicide’ as the middle point.

Academics have also argued that the narrative of Vertigo is shaped like a spiral. 

This complex explanation can be broken down like this: 

The film starts with Scottie being unable to save his fellow police officer from falling to his death. The film’s midpoint is marked by Scottie failing to save Madeleine. Saving her would have helped him complete a narrative circle, by achieving something he failed to do in the past. 

He fails, and so ‘spirals’ into a psychological breakdown. He is given another opportunity in act three, an opportunity to save Judy as she falls from the bell tower. 

However, he fails again, and thus the circle does not complete once more, and instead the spiral continues and we understand that he is lost to the psychological depths of his grief and loss.

A Film Noir Narrative: Overall, the narrative contains many of the conventions of Film Noir. There is a private detective (or at least a retired police detective working freelance) who is drawn into a plot, that ultimately destroys him, by a femme fatale. The femme fatale is also punished for her part in the protagonist’s downfall.

Plot Points: “A plot point is a juncture in a film narrative where the action takes a different direction. Things rapidly shift, and the audience is put to new interpretive tasks. Films require two plot points and can tolerate up to four, but more than two requires some in-flight re-fuelling.”  (Kunze, 2010)

Theorist Syd Field suggested that the plot points should occur around the act breaks.

However, Vertigo doesn’t adhere to Field’s idea.

As Vertigo has a complex narrative, there are four main plot points. They are:

1. The first meeting Scottie has with Elster where Madeleine’s curious behaviour is first outlined and Scottie is tasked with observing her;
2. The scene in Scottie’s apartment following his rescue of Madeleine. This is the first scene where they directly interact and a personal relationship is established;
3. Scottie’s failure to stop Madeleine’s apparent suicide;
4. The scene where Judy reveals the truth in writing a letter to Scottie and explaining her part in his deception and the real Madeleine’s murder.

It is important that you start viewing a film as an artistic medium just as culturally significant as a literary work.

Hitchcock decides to break the first law of mystery writing and give away the 'surprise' two-thirds of the way through. What difference does the revelation make? (it is a daring move, which risks making the audience feel that they have been cheated). 

Up until then, we've identified ourselves with Scottie's weaknesses and desires; confronted with a double shock (not only is Madeleine dead, but she never existed) we now have to shift our position and separate ourselves from Scottie's perspective, no longer just sharing Scottie's feelings but now wondering how he will react - torn ourselves between wanting a return of the dream and wanting to see how he will cope with a discovery of the fraud ('Knowing the truth, we...have far more opportunity...to consider the implications of what we see').

Task 1: Consider the various elements of film that help to create meaning and subtext, and make predictions about the overall theme of the film.

Watch Vertigo 00:00 - 31:00

Answer the following questions:

How do movies create meaning? 

How do we know what a movie is supposed to be about? 

How do we know how we should feel about each of the characters? 

Consider the following:

- Midge’s eye movements when Johnny talks about their romantic past. What is going on beneath the surface here? What is Midge thinking about? What is their relationship like now?

What is the function of Midge? (in relation to modern culture she is practical, realistic, emancipated, sane, healthy, 'motherly', though limited in being devoid of mystery, and in reducing everything to a matter-of-fact level - not satisfactory for Scottie,

-  The colors in Ernie’s restaurant – the overwhelming red interior, Madeline’s green dress.

- The close up of Madeline’s face in profile, like a portrait painting – how does John see her?

In the scene at Ernie’s Madeleine walks into the bar, lighting is used to highlight her in the frame and there is a push in on her face. The camera pushes in tighter onto her face. Hitchcock is actively drawing all eyes to her; your gaze is directed by him. This mirrors the way that Scottie’s eye is drawn to her as well. However, he must avert his gaze in an effort to remain covert. We get the unrestricted view that Scottie craves,  we are positioned to revel in this moment of pause in front of the camera, as she is presented in profile with the climactic moment in the musical score and the increased intensity in the background. We are positioned to view her as Scottie views her, to understand his motivation to investigate her actions has been lifted out of the mundane.

- The extreme brightness and hazy fog in the flower shop and the cemetery. What effect does this have on the audience? How does this make us (and John) view Madeline? 

-Identify any examples of “pure cinema” – scenes without any dialogue or voiceover, where only the non verbal elements visual and musical tell the story.

The spectator and the cinematic image

Some critics have explained that Vertigo can be read as a metaphor for the relationship between the spectator and the cinematic image. 

Perhaps the simplest application of this idea is to suggest that Scottie represents us, the audience, the spectator and the constructed version of Madeleine represents the cinematic image. She is created to be alluring and seductive, but she is a façade. 

She is not even a reflection of the ‘real’ Madeleine, but a creation of Elster (the director, who controls the action from off screen) designed to enchant and enthral Scottie. 

 The scenes which see ‘Madeleine’ viewing the painting of Carlotta, with Scottie watching from the shadows provide a visual representation of this idea. Vertigo has metatextuality meaning that it places emphasis on its status as a film text, and asks the audience to consider their relationship with it and with cinema more generally.

If you are starting to look at a film not just for entertainment value, but critically for artistic merit, and using the film terms when discussing it, then today was successful. 

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Lesson 2

Themes in Vertigo

Hitchcock was influenced by the ideas of the founder of Psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. 

Therefore, many of the themes in Vertigo reflect Freud’s ideas.

Obsession: The principal manifestations of this theme are evident in Scottie’s obsession with Madeleine and desire to ‘cure’ her of her delusions. However, the theme of obsession escalates when Scottie meets Judy and becomes set on recreating the ‘Madeleine’ he lost.

Voyeurism: At its simplest, voyeurism refers to the idea of watching. It has associations with watching someone, often without their knowledge and for sexual pleasure. Scottie is employed to follow Madeleine, he is a professional observer, as Elster has employed him to do just this. However, we quickly understand that his interest in her becomes more than just professional. Hitchcock often shows Scottie following Madeleine at a distance, with barriers separating them. In the case of the scenes in the gallery, Hitchcock places Scottie in the shadows and has Madeleine illuminated, further emphasising the relationship of observer and the observed, as well as providing more evidence for the reading of the film as a metaphor for the relationship between cinematic spectator and cinematic image.

Desire: Scottie and Madeleine begin an apparent love affair that’s based in fear and fueled by desire. The desire presented in the film is not only sexual, but also of a psychosexual nature. Madeleine is highly attractive physically, but she is also compelling in terms of the mystery she represents – a final case for Scottie to solve and someone to save as amends, perhaps, for when he could not save his fellow officer. Scottie will become Madeleine’s saviour, thereby saving himself.

38:00-1:02:00 – Scottie saves Madeline from drowning. He brings her to his apartment and becomes increasingly enamoured with her. Later, they visit the Sequoia National Park together and kiss on the beach. Madeline becomes more obsessed with her own death. 

What are the differences between love, desire and obsession? 

Do you think that Scottie is in love with Madeline, or obsessed with her? 

Why is he so attracted to her? 

Do you think she feels the same way about him? 

Why or why not?

Task: In groups, and to try and answer the question: “How does (sound, acting, etc.) contribute to the themes of desire and obsession in Vertigo?” 

Areas:

• cinematography
• sound
• costume & set design
• acting

Some moments in the scenes to focus on:

- Composition of the scene where Madeline jumps into the Bay – her small black silhouette underneath the immense Golden Gate Bridge, the scattered flower petals, Scottie carrying her seemingly lifeless body.

- Dishevelled Madeline in Scottie’s bed, her underwear hanging suggestively in his kitchen. She dons Scottie’s bright red robe, red being a colour used to represent passion and danger. Scottie is now wearing a green sweater, the colour used to represent Madeline so far.

- Point of view – shots of Madeline are almost entirely from Scottie’s perspective. He is always above her, suggesting his dominance and possession of her character. Madeline sits, lies down, whereas Scottie stands and paces. Madeline walks slowly, as if in a trance.

-Scottie’s shaking hands when he hands her the teacup and saucer, implying his nervous desire.

- The extreme darkness and haze in the forest scene.

-The brightness in the ocean scene, the coincidental ocean crash with Scottie and Madeline’s kiss. Too much of a cliché? Or used for emotional intensity?