Blog Response II: Hitchcock's Vertigo

Vertigo is widely regarded as Alfred Hitchcock's greatest film - and by many, one of the greatest films, period.  For example, it has for 20 years been in the top 5 of Sight & Sound's famed poll of international film critics and directors for the greatest films of all time; and since the 2012 poll, it has occupied the #1 spot. Below, I provide a crash course in the film's most important and influential features, including its most well-known technical hallmarks, as well as its characters and narrative themes.


Vertigo's visual language

The best place to begin is simply with the beginning - Vertigo's opening credits:

These opening titles were designed by the most renowned title designer in Hollywood history: Saul Bass. Bass was known for creating animated title sequences that acted as visual overtures - condensed sequences that effectively prefigured the visual and narrative motifs of a film. The most important early example was his title sequence for Otto Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm (1955):

He went on to design title sequences for some of Hitchcock's other great films, e.g. North by Northwest (1959) and Psycho (1960); as well as dozens of other films in the 1950s and 1960s. The hallmarks of Bass's style, in fact, have in many ways become the design iconography of the 50s and 60s in the American popular imagination - as witnessed, for example, by the heavily Bass-influenced title sequence of the contemporary TV series Mad Men, set in the late 50s and early 60s:

Our concern, though, of course, is Vertigo. Bass's title sequence for Vertigo effectively sets up both the color palette and the major visual motifs of the film. The three most important of these motifs are the spiral, the double, and the gaze.

The spiral in Vertigo

The numerous animated spirals found in the Vertigo's opening titles prefigures their constant use in the rest of the film. The spiral is used in its visual architecture specifically as a symbol of spatio-temporal disorientation; and, since the pervasiveness of such disorientation is what gives Vertigo its title, the spiral becomes the ruling image of the film. Most famously, this image is used to represent Scottie's literal vertigo, which paralyzes him from following Madeleine/Judy up the stairs of the church tower in the climax of Vertigo's first half. As she runs on ahead, Scottie tries to follow. But he is paralyzed by his phobia, a phobia visually communicated by the so-called 'Vertigo shot': he looks over the guardrail at the stairs receding in a spiral below him, and the world around the floor far below seems to plummet into it:

The same kind of shot is used two other times in Vertigo: in the opening scene, where Scottie first discovers his vertigo, causing a fellow police officer to fall to his death; and again near the end of the film, when Scottie - having finally discovered Elster's master plan - forces Judy up the same stairs he couldn't climb before:

The Vertigo shot was invented by Hitchcock and his cameramen Irmin Roberts for this scene. In its classical form, it's achieved by pulling the camera back on a dolly while simultaneously zooming in, so that one plane perpendicular to the lens seems to remain stationary while the inner edges of that plane seem to suck in and compress the environment around them. The Vertigo shot (also known as the 'dolly zoom' or 'zolly') has, in different variations, become a standard technique for evoking spatio-temporal disorientation and/or shock in film. For example, it is used to evoke a sudden shift into terror in this classic shot from Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975):

Or, to take a more recent example, a reverse zolly shot used a number of times in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings - for example, in this shot from The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), to signal the approach of a Ringwraith (jump to :40 to see the set-up and the shot):

The spiral also signals Scottie's spatio-temporal dislocation in the other most famous scene of Vertigo. Scottie has finally succeeded in transforming (or as we know and he doesn't at that point in the film, re-transforming) Judy into a simulacrum of his lost love, Madeleine. As she sits limp and submissive in his arms, the camera seems to spin around both of them, and the room is transformed into the stable where she'd first pulled away from him and ran to (what he thought was) her death. In this moment, Scottie, and Judy along with him, is dislodged in space and time:

The spiral not only signals Scottie's disorientation, but also Madeleine/Judy's. For example, it appears in the hair of Carlotta Valdes as found in the painting that she sits and stares at in the Palace of the Legion of Honor Museum. In the elaborate illusion that Gavin Elster has her perform for Scottie's benefit, Madeleine at this moment is dislodged in time; in her mind, the distinction between her and the dead Carlotta is blurring, and the icon of this ambiguity is the spiral in her/their hair:

As Hitchcock points out with his camera, this is the same spiral shape in which Madeleine arranges her own hair; and, the very same spiral that for Scottie represents the final detail in his transformation of Judy (back) into Madeleine:

The spiral is used to similar effect in another important moment when Madeleine/Judy loses the distinction between herself and Carlotta. Scottie and Madeleine are walking through Sequoia National Park, and come upon a cross-section from an ancient felled tree. On its spiraling tree rings, major historical events going back to the Battle of Hastings are marked. Madeleine drifts into a reverie, and points successively at two points on the cross-section separated by only a tiny distance, whispering to the dead tree "Here I was born, and there I died. It was only a moment for you; you took no notice":

The use of the spiral motif is only one example of Hitchcock's most common strategies as a director. A close analysis of Vertigo reveals the pervasive use of the spiral; but Hitchcock knew very well that the vast majority of viewers wouldn't consciously notice this. However, this doesn't mean it had no affect on them. As he pointed out time and time again, a great deal of how a film affects its viewers is dependent on things that register with them only unconsciously. They may not notice the repetition of a visual motif, but that repetition can nevertheless contribute to an overall sense of the film's narrative and visual style and unity.

The double in Vertigo

The most obvious case of doubling in Vertigo is the doubled figure of Kim Novak. As Madeleine, Novak is the upper-class trophy wife. She wears expensive clothing; she arranges her hair and makeup in the demure yet fashionable manner of a socialite; her posture, mannerisms, and even her accent are those characteristic of a woman trained in etiquette and speech at an elite private school of the day:

As Judy, Novak is the small-town working girl. She wears heavy makeup, and gaudy, working-class dresses; she speaks with a mid-western drawl; and her mannerisms are self-conscious and cautious, with none of the preternatural confidence of the wealthy Madeleine:

Hitchcock highlights the doubling of the woman in numerous places in the film. Of course, there are the two parallel scenes of death at the Mission San Juan Bautista. However, Hitchcock highlights the doubling in more subtle ways. For example, there is Scottie gazing up at Madeleine at the window of the McKittrick Hotel:

Then, later in the film, Scottie looks up at Judy in the window of the Hotel Empire at almost exactly the same angle:

Here and at other points, not only is the figure of the woman doubled; more than this, Scottie repeats behaviors in relation to her. For example, when Madeleine comes to him in the early morning distraught at having the nightmare she'd described to him the night he 'saved' her from San Francisco Bay, Scottie gives her a glass of brandy, saying "It's like medicine":

Later, when Judy is distraught, he gives her a glass of brandy, saying the exact phrase again - "It's like medicine":

Or, to take another example, when Madeleine first wakes up in Scottie's apartment, he throws some cushions on the floor by the fire for her to sit down:

Then, later on, after Judy agrees to allow him to transform her, he throws cushions on the same spot and she sits down. Scottie glares at her with a chilling combination of grief and manic longing; it's clear that he means to re-create virtually every aspect of his brief time with Madeleine:

The motif of doubling also shows up in the use of mirrors in Vertigo. The first dramatic instance comes when Scottie first begins tailing Madeleine at Gavin Elster's request. She pulls into what looks like a secluded alleyway and goes through a door. Scottie follows into a dusty, dark room, and we are thereby led to suspect something shady and nefarious. But when he slyly opens the door out of this room, we are met with an explosion of color: Madeleine has simply taken the rear entrance into a lush flower shop. In a split-screen shot, we see both Scottie peeking furtively through the crack in the door, and, in the mirror on the door, the spectacle into which he is peering - Madeleine browsing among the flowers:

Later, Scottie takes Judy to the upscale Ransohoffs department store, seemingly on the spur of the moment. Quickly, though, it becomes clear to Judy that he has planned it all out: he wishes to dress her in precisely the same grey suit that Madeleine wore. She rebels, and stalks to the back of the room. Scottie follows, and tries to convince her to let him transform her. Violently, he says "Judy, Judy, it can't make that much difference to you....Judy, do this for me!" as the two of them are reflected in the mirror.

We also get three crucial shots in which Scottie stands behaind Judy and converses with her reflection in her hotel room mirror. The first instance occurs when Scottie first follows her to the Hotel Empire and knocks unannounced on her door:

Later, after Judy's (re-)transformation into Madeleine is nearly complete, we see them reflected in the same mirror again as Scottie looks in despair at her hairstyle - her last desperate attempt to resist the complete loss of her identity in the simulacrum of Madeleine:

Lastly, when Judy asks Scottie to help her with her necklace, we get the climactic moment when he sees in her reflection that it's the very necklace Madeleine inherited from the dead Carlotta:

But it would be misleading to talk only about doubling in Vertigo. The film is set up to produce any number of repetitions of the woman. Judy is transformed by Scottie into a copy of the Madeleine he knew, who was in turn a copy of the real Madeleine (whom we never actually see in the movie!), a copy that is performed as if she were a possessed simulacrum of Carlotta Valdes, of whom we only see simulacra - Carlotta's portrait, Carlotta's story as recounted by Pop Liebel and distorted by Gavin Elster, and Midge's mocking self-portrait of herself as Carlotta:

This dizzying array of simulacra without the appearance of any original is one of the most enduring legacies of Vertigo - in fact, the primary aspect of the film that is echoed in the three remaining films for the course.

Vertigo and the gaze

Another preoccupation of the film that is evoked in its opening titles is the gaze. Hitchcock meticulously controls point of view in Vertigo. For example, early in the film, every single shot either has Scottie in it or is taken from his point of view - we see only what Scottie sees, we know only what Scottie knows, so that for a while at least, we are made to inhabit his subjectivity. 

The exceptions to this rule are chosen with extreme care. Besides a couple of location establishing shots, the first time we break with Scottie's point of view is the first time we see 'Madeleine' in Ernie's. The camera floats lazily through the crowded dining room and zooms slowly onto Madeleine and Elster eating and conversing; our point of view is roughly at a 90 degree angle from Scottie's - he is sitting at the bar offscreen to the right. Madeleine and Elster get up and walk toward the bar. Scottie's head is turned, but he dares not look directly at her as she pauses behind him. We see exactly the view of her from which Scottie averts his eyes: Madeleine stops, and just as we see her in gorgeous profile, the room's lighting subtly brightens as if supernaturally paying tribute to her ethereal presence. In a few brief seconds, Hitchcock visually foreshadows Scottie's nearly complete inability to see the woman for what she is, and the theme of spirit possession that will dominate the first half of the film.

For a while after, we become voyeurs with Scottie as he follows Madeleine and observes her in secret. After a time, Scottie's professional gaze begins to transform into one of erotic fascination. Soon, we will break with his point of view entirely; but the seeds for this break are planted in the next three scenes when we briefly depart from his point of view and instead inhabit Midge's point of view. Midge is the 'nurturing woman' to contrast with the femme fatale of Madeleine/Judy; and, as such, she is the one outside witness to Scottie's entanglement with the latter, as well as his nascent transformation from good-natured hero to obsessed monster.

In the first of these three scenes, Midge happens to be driving by when Madeleine/Judy quickly leaves Scottie's apartment while he is on the phone, saying in a hurt voice "Well now, Johnny-O. Was it a ghost? Was it fun?":

Later, we see her explode in sadness and anger at herself after she shows Scottie the painting of her as Carlotta and he angrily stalks out:

Lastly, when Scottie is swimming in incapacitating grief in the mental hospital, we get a brief scene between her and Scottie's doctor. Midge, as witness, testifies to the nature of Scottie's grief:

The definitive break with Scottie's point of view, though, comes when we, the audience, learn Judy's true identity. After Scottie leaves her hotel room, having approached her out of the blue and asked her to dinner, Judy turns toward the camera, and we get a flashback revealing the truth of what happened to Madeleine:

From this moment on, Scottie becomes a twisted version of the tragic hero - the hero whose ignorance we bear witness to, left to simply watch as it leads him to his destruction. However, Scottie is a quite difficult tragic hero to identify with. From this moment on, he becomes both more and more pathetic, and more and more monstrous. He maneuvers himself to be in total control of Judy's life - to, as he puts it, 'take care of her'. And once he has this control, as well as her love, he uses both in a cruel attempt to erase her identity in an act that is, in its own way, even more cruel than Gavin Elster's attempt to do so. Elster, at least, wished only for Judy to temporarily perform as Madeleine; Scottie, in contrast, simply wants her to be Madeleine as the price for his love and financial patronage. And as a result, Scottie leads her to the same end as Madeleine. She plummets to her death from the tower of San Juan Bautista. Scottie has made his guilt-ridden fever dream into a full-blooded reality: the Madeleine whom he loved is now really truly dead, and he is to blame. In the final doubling of the film, the image that haunted him in his nightmare - of him propped helplessly above the roof on which lies the broken, bloody corpse of his now-dead love - becomes a reality: