hitchcockVertigo stars James Stewart as Scottie, a retired detective, and Kim Novak as Judy Barton, who gets disguised as Madeleine, a woman hired by Scottie's friend to act as his wife in order to frame Scottie. The story takes place in San Francisco in the 1950's. The film opens on a high building, where officer Scottie and his partner are in pursuit of a suspect. Scottie's partner's life is on the line and only he can save him. Unfortunately, he has vertigo, a fear of heights. Scottie is unable to assist his partner who unfortunately falls to his death.
Hitchcock underlines Scottie's fear of heights by using intense music and a bird's eye view of the street below, to give the viewer an impression of height. Closeups of Scottie's face demonstrate his obsessive fear, hence making it more realistic to the audience. As the story develops, Scottie falls deeply in love with Madeleine, a beautiful young blonde woman. Madeleine later runs up the stairs of a church, unsuccessfully pursued by Scottie, and jumps off the roof killing herself, or so Scottie thought. Here again, the camera angles play an important role in demonstrating Scottie's fear of heights, as a spiralling effect is used to shoot the staircase.
As the story develops, Scottie gets admitted to a psychiatric unit. His mental and emotional confusion is illustrated by chaotic music. When he meets a young woman named Judy Barton, who bears a striking resemblance to the late Madeleine, Hitch really takes advantage of color in a scene in Judy's apartment. Fog, typical to San Francisco, combined with green light coming from a neon sign in the street, give the scene a remarkable, almost divine effect. In order for Scottie to overcome the trauma he suffered when he lost Madeleine, he drives Judy to the same church and asks her to run up the stairs in an attempt to reproduce the sequence of events leading up to Madeleine's death. Shockingly, Judy really jumps off the roof, thus abruptly ending the story.
An Internet review points out that the Vertigo script reads: "There is a flower stand - known to all San Franciscans - at the curb opposite the main entrance to Gump's. Scottie and Judy have stopped there to pick a flower for her to wear... Amazingly, this flower stand still exists, although it is no longer the wood frame structure as seen in the film, (it's now made of black steel).
In order to suit his needs Hitchcock transports the locale of Vertigo (1958) to the most vertical San Francisco city where the vertiginous geometry of the place entirely threatens verticality itself. The city with its steep hills, sudden rises and falls, of high climbs, dizzying drops is most appropriate for the vertiginous circularity of the film. The city is poised between a romantic Victorian past and the rush of present day life. We were able to see the wild chase of Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart) in search for the elusive Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak) and the ghost who haunts her, Carlotta Valdes in such spots as the Palace of the Legion of Honor, the underside of the Golden Gate Bridge at Fort Point, the Mission Dolores, Ernie’s restaurant,
Suspense is only one of Hitchcock’s many techniques and themes. His themes range from the obvious violence, to the depths of human interaction and sex. From Rear Window to Psycho, Hitchcock’s unique themes are present and evident. Rear Window starts with something we all do at times, which is nosing in and stalking on others business, and turns it into a mysterious investigation leaving the viewer second guessing their neighbors at home. Psycho on the other hand, drags
A well-known and widely enjoyed characteristic of Hitchcock films are his brief cameo appearances, usually shown early on in each film. Oftentimes, Hitchcock crosses the shot like in Vertigo, around 11 minutes into the film, Scottie goes to the shipyard to meet Mr. Elster and a man, Hitchcock passes by holding a horn instrument case, or when he enters a bus during the opening credits of North by Northwest, only to have the doors close in his face. There are also instances of his appearance as a bystander in a scene, such as when Uncle Charles takes the train to Santa Rosa to visit his sister in Shadow of a Doubt. Uncle Charles feigns illness during the ride and is hidden behind a curtain blocking fellow passengers from view while Hitchcock
...of a character. Hitchcock does an excellent job at relaying Scottie’s swelling obsession to his viewers. Visualizing Madeleine while Scottie was looking at the picture of Carlotta, his invasion of Madeleine’s personal space, a so-called stranger, and whispering her name, and then trying to makeover Judy into another person who is supposedly dead are all very apparent signs of obsession. These signs successfully show the viewer that Scottie is thoroughly engrossed with his subject, Madeleine, who had been “lost”. The viewer is left to assume that Scottie will be unable to return to the emotionally stable person he was before the obsession took control of his life. Alfred Hitchcock was definitely ahead of his time and paved the way for many film-makers to learn from and expand on his expertise of being able to reach an audience, capture their attention, and make the audience feel what the characters are feeling.
The medium of film, while relatively new and unexplored compared to other visual arts, has proven itself time and time again to be extremely versatile and fascinating with regard to aesthetic properties. At times, film can be used to enhance or respond to another piece of art—for instance, the adaptation of novels or other works that inspire or serve as the basis for a film. An adapter by nature, Alfred Hitchcock often used other works as inspirations for his films. Hitchcock’s filmography contains predominantly adapted works, though these adaptations are usually loose and edited to fit Hitchcock’s aesthetic and common themes. For his acclaimed film Vertigo, Hitchcock drew from Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac’s novel D’entre les morts (or
The movie Vertigo tells the story of John "Scottie" Ferguson, a hapless detective who becomes traumatized when he watches a fellow cop plummet to his death from a rooftop. This event leaves Scottie with a disabling acrophobia, which forces him to take a time off. During his break, an old friend Gavin Elster asks Scottie to come out of retirement to follow "Madeleine", his wife, and investigate her strange behavior. He reluctantly accepts, and while following her, ends up falling in love with her. His obsession and love towards Madeleine grows more and more as the time passes.
The writer states she is able to see people out on the lawn, even though she has been told there is no one there. She is also paranoid that John and Jennie will find her papers and states she is sure she found them snooping in her things. At one point, she writes she can smell the wallpaper, this screams psychosis. She is convinced that the wallpaper is shaking and that there is a lady who loves behind the paper and when this woman creeps around it causes the shaking. She describes her inability to sleep at night so that her caregivers are glad when she is able to get rest. They even go so far as to make her rest for an hour after her
The narrative of Vertigo tells a plot twisted story of mystery and suspense as the main character “Scottie” (James Stuart), a retired detective suffer...
Moorhouse has portrayed the character’s facial expressions efficiently throughout the film with the use of effective camera angles that engages the audience. The atmosphere of the film entirely changes from contented to gloomy due to sudden Teddy’s sudden death. A close up shot was used to capture the sadness and heartbreak on Tilly’s face as she held teddy’s hand while cleaned his body for his funeral. The use of slow instrumental music featuring violin and piano enhanced the facial expressions of the character and helped the audience to empathize with her. Moorhouse uses a medium close up shot that framed the teacher and Marigold Pettyman in a scene when Marigold discovers the truth about Tilly being the reason behind her son’s death “You think your little boy fell of the tree? Wrong…” The shot helps the audience to evidently comprehend the pain and sorrow on her face after finding the shocking truth about her son’s death. Emphasise on the theme of grief and loss was prolonged when Molly collapses on the road due to suffering from a stroke. A high angle shot is used as Molly laid on the floor in the doctor’s office to demonstrate the pain she was suffering through. The scene effectively portrays Tilly’s love for her mother as she tightly held her hand and kissed her forehead while soft piano music played in the background serenading the audience to strongly stay connected to the characters. The following scene used a close up shot to focus on Tilly’s facial expressions to determine the audience of the fear she felt of losing her mother after being apart from her for so many
...pless when she puts herself in harms way. Stylistically, this movie was one of Hitchcock’s famous experiments. Almost the entire movie is shot in the main character’s apartment and out of his apartment window.
...wer struggle for sexual domination through the characters of Scottie and Madeline, and also with the use of certain colors. Vertigo shows the loss of masculinity or the impotent male because of a lack of female submissiveness. The main image of the film is that of a downward spiral. This image perfectly illustrates the idea of women as man's downfall that is stressed throughout the entire film. Vertigo also tries to support gender norms for women with some of the female characters. This film is an ideal example of the sexual confusion and anxiety felt by much of American society at this time, proving that film is a cultural product.
The Alfred Hitchcock film; Vertigo is a narrative film that is a perfect example of a Hollywood Classical Film. I will be examining the following characteristics of the film Vertigo: 1)individual characters who act as casual agents, the main characters in Vertigo, 2)desire to reach to goals, 3)conflicts, 4)appointments, 5)deadlines, 6)James Stewart’s focus shifts and 7)Kim Novak’s characters drives the action in the film. Most of the film is viewed in the 3rd person, except for the reaction shots (point of view shot) which are seen through the eyes of the main character.(1st person) The film has a strong closure and uses continuity editing(180 degree rule). The stylistic (technical) film form of Vertigo makes the film much more enjoyable. The stylistic film form includes camera movements, editing, sound, mise-en-scene and props.
One major attribute in Hitchcock films is how creatively Hitchcock tricks the audience about the fate of the characters and the sequence of events. Many people argue that it is a tactic by Hitchcock to surprise his audience in order to increase the suspense of the movie. For example, in Shadow of a Doubt, the audience assumes that young Charlie is an innocent young girl who loves her uncle dearly. However as the movie progresses, Young Charlie is not as innocent as the audience suspects. Young Charlie, once a guiltless child, ends up killing her evil uncle. In Vertigo, the same Hitchcock trickery takes place. In the beginning, the audience has the impression that the Blond women is possessed by another woman who is trying to kill her. The audience also has the notion that the detective is a happy man who will solve the murder case correctly. Just before the movie ends, the audience realizes that the detective was specifically hired by a man to kill his wife. The detective, in the end, seems to be the hopeless, sad victim.
Though complex and brilliantly written for its time, the plot of Alfred Hitchcock’s film, Vertigo, is only half of the genius behind it. Alfred Hitchcock’s unique presence as an auteur is truly what sets his films apart. There is symmetry to his shots that give the film an artistic feel, as if each frame were a painting. Many times, within this symmetry, Hitchcock places the characters in the center of the frame; or if not centered, then balanced by whatever else is adding density to the shot. For example, as Madeline sits and looks at the painting in the museum, there is a balance within the frame. To counter-act her position to the right of the painting, Hitchcock puts a chair and another painting on the left side, which is visually pleasing to the eye of the audience. The use of red and green not only adds a visual effect as well, but later serves as a clue that Madeline is not actually dead, when the women who looks like her is wearing a green dress.
The parallel between Alicia’s dependence on Devlin and Alex’s on his mother is prominent in the final scene. The scene takes place on the grand staircase of Alex’s mansion. Influenced by German Expressionism, stairs serve an integral role in this and subsequent films. Alicia, propped up by Devlin, and Alex, shadowed by his over-bearing mother, all descend the grand staircase in the mansion under the eyes of the Nazi party. Outside of the house, Alicia and Devlin make their escape to freedom while Alex reluctantly returns up the stairs to his fate with the Nazis. Ending the film on the stairs attests to Hitchcock’s style.