Vertigo

Vertigo is a color film made in 1958 by Alfred Hitchcock.


The film is about a retired San Francisco police detective called John "Scottie" Ferguson, who suffers from acrophobia and Madeleine is the lady who leads him to high places. A wealthy shipbuilder who is an acquaintance from college days approaches Scottie and asks him to follow his beautiful wife, Madeleine. He fears she is going insane, maybe even contemplating suicide, because she believes she is possessed by a dead ancestor. Scottie is skeptical, but agrees after he sees the beautiful Madeleine

In Vertigo, Hitchcock used very interesting film technics for the creation of the strong visual impact, including a high color contrast displayed on scene in some dramatic or essential situations, and also camera close ups into faces to show critical expression of the actor feelings. An example of combination of these techniques is the scene where Scottie is in the Ernie’s and sees Madeleine for the first time. In this act, we can see a very claustrophobic indoor situation in where the walls are red, and Madeleine is presented with a very elegant long turquoise dress; which contrasts with the strong color of the walls and with the extremely light tone of her skin and hair, as we can notice in the close up shot of her face.

I would say that Hitchcock managed the strong erotic impact with the uncanny look of Judy while playing Madeleine, in combination with her use of beautiful jewelry and clothes and the tranquil rhythm of her movements. It is not casual that there are scenes that focused on the jewelry; especially in the necklace, which also played as a MacGuffin. There is also a lot attention placed in Madeleine’s space out look repeatedly, and I believe it is related with the pleasure and curiosity that male feel for the uncanny. 

I truly believe that this film is "cut to the measure of male desire” (as Laura Mudley said before), because the it is made from the male point of view; a point of view created by the use of a subjective camera, that always shows what Scottie is looking at and how he is looking at it.

The scene where Madeleine is in the cemetery visiting Carlota’s tomb is a perfect example of the appearance of the subjective camera in some shots. While Scottie is observing Madeleine in the graveyard, the film is showing the spectator Scottie’s point of view. We, as spectators, observe Madeleine from a significant distance, while flowers and vegetation frame the image. The framing of the image makes us feel as we were hiding behind the flowers, as Scottie is doing, and that feeling make us relate more to the male perspective of the story.

The same happen with the iconic scenes of the “Hitchcock zooms” or the “Vertigo effect”; when a vertigo feeling is happening we are shown a view of Scottie’s body suffering the vertigo, but we also are shown other image of how Scottie is feeling it. In some way, as spectators, we are being victims of the vertigo feeling as well, as a result of the effect of the camera zoom, and because of that, we understand how Scottie is feeling and we can relate more easily to him.

(Hitchcock and Kim Novak frilming "Vertigo)