Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo

Having seen Hitchcock's The Birds before, and knowing what kind of films he is known for making, I approached this movie with some expectations. I knew that somehow or other it was probably going to creep me out, and I was right.

One thing I noticed right from the beginning is how much the music influenced the suspense in this movie, and really how that works for most scary movies. Sometimes, I try to picture them without the music and they just don't seem scary at all.. I feel like the music is a humongous part of what made me so nervous throughout this movie.


This movie was crazy because I thought it ended about three times before it actually did-- it just kept throwing curve balls. When we finally saw Madeline again as Jane, I was confused. To be honest, it took me a few minutes to even realize it WAS the same woman-- I just kept thinking this was a less beautiful woman wearing way too much make up who kind of looked like Madeline. Her looks and mannerisms as Jane were successful in making her much less appealing, but to me much more real, than Madeline. At first, when the entire murder/suicide plot was revealed through Jane's letter, I didn't even catch what the plot was exactly because it was explained so quickly. This annoyed me as I watched on, but then soon realized that it wasn't truly important as Scotty's crazed obsession grew and grew.

As far as Madeline is concerned, I really saw the connections between her and Laura. She was not truly a person (even more so than Laura, because she was truly only playing a part), but rather a beautiful image that became the object of a man's obsession. This was a major example of scopophilia to me, because Madeline had virtually no lines. There was nothing else for Scotty to fall in love with other than her physical attributes-- she almost never spoke, and when she did she was acting like a crazy, spaced out person. Both movies also used portraits of beautiful women as central images of obsession.

Lastly, I noticed the ghostlike qualities of both of these women. Of course, both turn out not to be dead when they are thought to be, but more than that I noticed the camera tricks that accentuated their apparitional attributes. We all know about and have discussed the dreamlike feel of the scene when Laura returns from the dead. There were two specific scenes within Vertigo where the camera made Madeline/Judy seem like a ghost as well. The first we talked about in class- Judy exiting the bathroom in a hazy mist after putting her hair up, the final step in 'Madeline-izing' her. To me, this symbolized Madeline returning from the dead for Scotty- she was like a ghost to him.

But even before this there was another scene where Madeline was made to look like a ghost. It was the scene where she and Scotty walked through the forest. The scenery was extremely dark and hazy, and Scotty got lost in it because he was dressed in dark clothing, but Madeline shone brightly like a ghost in her white coat. This really stuck out to my eyes and disturbed me somewhat-- especially because this scene took place before Madeline 'died' for the first time, when I was still trying to figure out what the heck was going on with her character.

There was another odd camera trick that struck me that we talked about a bit in our class discussion but I'd like to add to. We brought up the first kiss shared between Scotty and Judy once she had been made over as Madeline, and how the scenery behind the two transformed into the old Spanish village. Yet, the way the scenery transformed reminded me of the big wave behind them when they shared their first kiss of the movie on the beach-- the way the scenery changed in almost a splashing fashion, and the vibrant blue of the sky, really brought me back to that first kiss scene.

The most interesting part of this movie, to me, is the way the audience really gets pulled into the obsession. While watching Laura I felt we were half a part of the obsession (that portrait was enough to dazzle and hypnotize anyone) but also half watching it and detached from it as we viewed the three men. I felt more pulled into Scotty's obsession- especially by the end of the movie. A part of me was really peeved by Scotty's irrational obsession, but I was more peeved that I was beginning to take part in it. Once I realized Judy really was Madeline, I was itching for her to dye her hair and to take off her scuzzy make up. I wanted her to be Madeline again, not Judy.

We said yesterday in class that Midge's character is the one we want to rely on as an audience from the beginning; we soon learn that she is not the normal, level-headed character we want her to be. By the end, even I as a viewer began to participate in the obsession that overwhelms every character in this movie in some way-- that was what made it truly jarring for me.