The mesmerizing romantic suspense/thriller Vertigo produced by Alfred Hitchcock's in 1958 is about a disturbing macabre romance that is doomed. James Stewart, who plays Scottie a police detective who develops acrophobia (fear of heights). Scottie becomes lost in the world of illusion and fantasy. Kim Novak plays the dual roles of Madeleine Elster and Judy Barton. Madeleine is haunted by believing she is the reincarnated Corlotta, a relative from Madeleine's past. Madeleine has the urge to commit suicide but not by her own will. Scottie falls in love with Madeleine only to witness her suicidal death. Kim Novak's role as Judy is a lonely woman, who will surrender her own identity to have Scottie love her. Tom Helmore plays the role of Gavin Elster. …show more content…
He is hired by a friend to follow his wife Madeleine, who has been acting strangely. Scottie follows her for several days until he sees her jump from the Golden Gate Bridge. He jumps in to rescue her and takes her back to his apartment where the two become friends. Madeleine has been having memories of a long deceased relative, Carlotta and Scottie tries to help her determine why this is happening. The two of them drive out to an old mission she remembers spending time in. When they arrive, Madeleine rushes into the church bell tower followed by Scottie. Scottie cannot make it to the top due to his acrophobia and watches her jump to her death, unable to save her. Scottie is distraught after her death and is hospitalized in a psychiatric ward. After his releases he recounts the places he and Madeleine had visited only to see a woman who greatly resembles her. He follows this woman, Judy to her apartment and talks to her. He asks her out on several dates and begins falling in love with her. Because of his infatuation with Madeleine he begins to physically transform Judy to look like Madeleine through the clothes she wears and her hairstyle. In a flashback scene with Judy, it is revealed that she was a ploy in a murderous plot to kill the real Madeleine by her husband. This is revealed to the audience but Scottie does not know yet. Scottie becomes aware of her deception when she wears a necklace for dinner that was depicted in a portrait of Carlotta. Once they get in the car Scottie continues to drive until they reach the old mission where Madeleine died. Scottie forces Judy to re-enact the last moments that he was there with Madeleine by forcing her to climb the church's bell tower. In his rage he discovers that he has overcome his acrophobia and when they reach the top of the bell tower Scottie puts together all the pieces and realizes Judy was a pawn in Gavin's plot to
The first of which, is Tucson, Arizona, Jeannette’s birthplace. It was only until Jeannette was engulfed by fire at the age of three when the family decided to break her out of the hospital after two months and decides to move to Las Vegas, Nevada. Here, the family lives in a hotel. While living in Vegas, Rex develops a winning method for blackjack as a form of the family’s income. With the amount of money he continuously wins, Rex is able to afford luxury items. Eventually Rex's gambling method is finally discovered by casino staff, causing the family to perform “the skedaddle” and get out of town fast. After leaving Vegas, Rose Mary decides she wants to move to San Francisco. They stay in a hotel that is also a whorehouse, which causes Rose Mary and Rex to argue more than usual. During their time there Jeanette is fascinated with fire and starts to play with it in the bathroom. Ironically, a few nights later the hotel catches fire. Everyone escapes, but after the fire, the family has nowhere to go, so they decided to live in the car on the beach until asked to leave by the police. The parents decide they are fed up with civilization and want to move back to the desert. They then begin to head south towards Midland, California. In this small remote town, in the heart of the desert, Jeannette is fascinated way the way of life, from how the water comes by in a train
After a year of pampering, Logan becomes demanding and rude, he went as far to try to force Janie to do farm work. It was when this happened that Janie decided to take a stand and run away with Joe. At this time, Janie appears to have found a part of her voice and strong will. In a way, she gains a sense of independence and realizes she has the power to walk away from an unhealthy situation and does not have to be a slave to her own husband. After moving to Eatonville and marrying Joe, Janie discovers that people are not always who they seem to be.
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,
to become "big man" and pleads Janie to take part in his dreams of the future.
When she decided to try and help a young juvenile, Wesley Benfield, become a better person by taking him to church and offering him to stay the night with her, Robert thought that Mattie was sick. Pearl Turnage, Mattie's older sister, has given in to the stereotypes that are now plaguing Mattie, and insists that she do the same. In fact, she invites Mattie to accompany her to the funeral home, where they will each pick out a casket that they are to be buried in. Pearl pushes the subject, as if to force Mattie into realizing that she doesn't have much time left to live. Pearl also begins talking to Mattie about the past and the fun that they once had, as if to tell Mattie that those days are over and that it is time for her to begin a new chapter in her life.
After April and Roger search desperately for Cheryl, they look for several weeks, and have no idea where she has gone. One night Cheryl’s friend Nancy calls April, and explains that she was leaving with her, but she had left suddenly and believes she is going to do something bad. April remembers that Cheryl told her how their mother committed suicide, by jumping off the Louis Bridge. When they arrive at the bridge a group of people say they saw a women jumped off and commit suicide about five minutes before they arrived.
Melanie steps out to the phone booth to take an important call and causes unhappy birds to surround her waiting for her to exit. Mitch comes to save her and Lydia is so upset and blames Melanie for all the chaos that is occurring. When Melanie and Mitch return to Annie's house they discover that she has been killed by the crows while guiding Cathy to safety. With all the commotion that is taking place Melanie and the Brenner family decide to block themselves from the birds by staying inside. Their plan backfires when the birds enter Cathy’s room and attack
...s her that he raped her and the next day comes to her house shooting his BB gun at the house. In retaliation the kids shoot Rex’s gun. The police come to check out what happened and the family decides to leave for their grandma Smith’s house in Phoenix. They arrive in Phoenix only to find out that grandma Smith is dead and her house is inherited by her daughter Mary Rose. The house is 14-rooms, the front rooms converted to a studio by Jeanette's mother. Once again the kids are enrolled in school and have to take their eye and hearing exams. Everyone passes except Lori who has to get glasses and is surprised how clear she can see. Jeannettes parents like to leave the windows open and one day during the night a stranger came into Jeannette’s room touching her private areas. Brian, Jeannette, and her father try to look for him after chasing him off. Reading the paper
Vertigo boasted several different themes. However, the “Ideal Woman – Lost” theme was the most prevalent (“Handout #1”). This theme was brought on by an obsessed “everyman” type. Jimmy Stewart, otherwise known as Scottie in the film, played this “everyman” type whose personality was maliciously twisted into an overly obsessive man. His cause for obsession was a beautiful, young woman played by Kim Novak, known as both Madeleine and Judy in the film. Madeleine drew Scottie in so deep, that he literally became a different person. This film mirrored Hitchcock’s personal feelings and was considered to be his favorite film.
Hitchcock Vertigo 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.
The film, Vertigo (1958) directed by Alfred Hitchcock, is classified as a genre combination of mystery, romance, suspense and thriller about psychological obsession and murder. Filmed on location in San Francisco and on the Paramount lot in Hollywood, California in 1957, the cultural features of the late 1950’s America were depicted in the films mise en scène by costume and set designs current for that time period. The film was produced at the end of the golden age of Hollywood when the studio system was still in place. At the time Vertigo was produced, Hollywood studios were still very much in control of film production and of actor’s contracts. Hitchcock’s groundbreaking cinematic language and camera techniques has had great impact on film and American popular culture and created a cult following of his films to this day.
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.
As she got older, Jeannette and her siblings made their own life, even as their parents became homeless. Jeannette and her older sister Lori decide to run away from their family in Virginia and go start a new life in New York City. However, after a few months, the rest of the family moves to New York and settles down. While in the City, Jeannette gets a job as a reporter, which was her life goal, and one day on her way to an event she sees her mother rummaging around in a dumpster. While the rest of the family gets along, Maureen, the youngest of the family goes insane and stabs their
hits Myrtle and kills her. Instead of stopping or trying to help, she drives off. Later, when
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.