Vertigo

Hitchcock's Vertigo is one of the cleverest, most intriguing movies I've ever seen with really unanticipated reversals in the course of the film. The first half is supernatural thriller (I had to watch the movie in a small window on my laptop so that I wouldn't get too scared); I would say that the whole thing is a psychological thriller. Scottie (Jimmy Stewert) is a police detective who quits the force after he suddenly gets vertigo while chasing a criminal across some rooftops. An old friend, Gavin Elster, asks Scottie to follow his wife, as he maintains that she is being possessed by the spirit of her great-grandmother, Carlotta Valdes, who killed herself at 26 years old, after her lover left her and took their child. Scottie applies his detective's mind to the supernatural mystery and tries to help Elster's wife, Madeleine, falling in love in with her in the process. He takes Madeleine to a mission that she describes, where she climbs up the steps to the tower and throws herself off. Because of his vertigo, he's unable to stop her.

In addition to Madeleine, Scottie's love interest, there's another woman in the film: Midge. Midge is Scottie's ex-fiance (Scottie says that Midge dumped him in college). Midge is very much the friend--she's a glasses-wearing career woman (when she draws herself as Carlotta in a big gown, her no nonsense haircut and glasses look entirely anachronistic). Her career drawing brassieres only draws more attention to her lack of sexuality--and the brassieres she draws are very modern--one works on the principle of cantilevers, as she tells Scottie. Here we see a contrast between modernity and an imagined romantic past, signified by Midge and Madeleine, by friendship and romantic love.

This sounds like the whole movie, but it's just the first half! In the second half, Scottie meets a woman, Judy, who reminds him of Madeleine. They begin to date, and he tries to reform her in Madeleine's image. The film ends back at the same mission where Madeleine died, with a nun startling Judy, who falls from the tower.

The film asks us to consider the relationship between play acting and reality. Judy plays Madeleine for Scottie. Scottie forces her to dress and dye her hair like Madeleine. Because Judy loves him, she does this. Instead of loving the woman in front of him, Scottie attempts to change Judy. Scottie is possessed by Madeleine in the same way that Madeleine was possessed by Carlotta. Not till the end of the film, is he free of Madeleine and Judy and Carlotta's power over him, and, at the same time, of his vertigo. He is ever the detective--continually compelled to seek the truth in the midst of myths. He seeks order. To help him find order, twice he attempts to recreate the past--and twice, this attempt to recreate the past at the mission leads to tragedy.

Scottie's search for order and truth is accompanied by a search for freedom, a search that we see from the beginning of the film when he looks forward to getting a corset off (which he needed due to his accident on the roof): "I shall be a free man. I shall wiggle my behind ... free and unconfined" (I am quoting from a draft of the screenplay found here).

At one point, Scottie says, "There's an answer for everything." This sums up his almost scientific approach to detective work. It's sort of ironic--there is an answer to Madeleine's problems; in fact, there's a non-supernatural answer. On the other hand, it is Scottie's drive to find an answer to absolutely everything that results in Judy's accidental death--there isn't an answer for that! Scottie's scientific approach is shown throughout the film--he wants to overcome his vertigo himself, step by step on a stepladder. He wills himself up the steps at the end of the film. Midge visits him when he's in the hospital after Madeleine's death--she tells the doctor that Mozart won't fix him. His first response to Gavin's story about his wife's possession is that she should be taken to a doctor and so should he for believing it. The question of the relationship of science to the supernatural is repeated throughout the movie. At one point Gavin calls Scottie a cold Scot. The fact of the matter is that Scottie softens to the possibility of supernatural involvement. And yet, it seems his desire for order doesn't soften enough.

The setting in San Francisco is also interesting. Both Gavin and Scottie long for a San Francisco that is now gone. Gavin describes Madeleine as fascinated by San Francisco--as exploring it with great wonder until it possessed her. Pop Leibel, who knows lots about San Francisco history, describes the myth of Carlotta, who was originally from a small mission settlement south of the city. A man, Ives, takes her and builds her a grand house, and they have a child:

He kept the child and threw her away. Men could do that in those days. They had the power ... and the freedom. And she became the Sad Carlotta.

Here we see commentary on the corrupting power of the city. Both Madeleine and Carlotta were previously innocent, but the evil of the city corrupted them. And it is the old San Francisco that attracts both Scottie and Elster.



Something that must be mentioned: Vertigo plays a lot with color. Red for Scottie; green for Madeleine/Judy. This translates into some pretty great green dresses/suits in the course of the film!


(picture, picture, picture, picture)