Vertigo-Into a Vortex of Mystery
/** Spoiler Alert*/
When the title credits of Vertigo roll on screen, the title itself, comes from the pupils of a woman’s eyes. And then we have animated designs, spiralling in different directions, and the eye fading away, and then finally the woman’s eye comes back to screen, and we have the final credit. Even if we take the overall promos for Vertigo, we have a man in the center of many loops, and spirals. In a way that itself is an indicator of the movie’s central premise. On surface a thriller like most of Alfred Hitchcock’s movies , in reality a very deep intense pyschological study of the lead character’s mind.
Vertigo starts off with James “Scottie” Ferguson( James Stewart), a San Francisco cop, and his partner chasing a thief over th
e roof tops. However an unfortunate incident, has his partner falling to death, and Scottie feels guilty about it. Not only does this incident cause Scottie to quit the police force, it also develops a fear of heights into him, and he suffers from Vertigo. He spends time at the apartment of his friend Midge( Barbara Bel Geddes). Scottie is hired as a private detective by his college friend Gavin Elster( Tom Helmore), to follow his beautiful wife, Madeleine Ester( Kim Novak), whom he suspects of insanity.
As Scottie follows Madeleine, he observes that she spends time at the grave of a certain Carlotta Valdes, a woman who had committed suicide, 100 years earlier. Not just that she also models herself on the dead woman, right down to Carlotta’s hairstyle. He is slowly drawn towards Madeleine, and saves her from a suicide attempt near the Golden Gate Bridge. Madeleine tells him that Carlotta committed suicide, when she 26, which happens to be Madeleine’s age also.
Once on a trip to the redwood forests, Madeleine, begins to have sudden recollections of Carlotta’s past. She tells Scottie about her dream of being at Mission San Juan Batista, a famous 18th century Church, and he takes her there. However much to his shock, he finds Madeleine committing suicide right in front of his eyes
. Though his friend Gavin, absolves Scottie of blame, stating that his wife’s mental condition was at fault, he is unable to get over the loss, and goes into total depression. Though his friend Midge, tries to console him, she realizes that Scottie is deeply in love with Madeleine.
As Scottie keeps wandering around the places he had been with Madeleine, one day he runs into a woman, Judy Barton, who looks just alike Madeleine. But where Madeleine was blonde, Judy has darker hair. Also compared to Madeleine’s elegance, grace, refined nature, Judy is more coarse and vulgar.
Is Judy Barton none other than Madeleine herself? Did Madeleine really die at the church? Will Scottie be able to cure his vertigo? What is the truth beyond the dual identity? Was Gavin taking Scottie for a ride?
Vertigo is one of Hitchcock’s most in depth movie, with many psychological layers in it. Based on a French novel D‘Entre les Morts , written by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, the movie was adapted to the screen by Alec Coppel and Samuel Taylor.
The movie here is not just about the hero’s Vertigo, it also deals with Scottie’s feelings of self guilt and depression. He blames himself for his partner’s death.
If we take his relationship with Midge, she was his ex sweetheart at college, but due to some reasons their engagement broke off. He still does have some feeling for her, but she looks at him more as a friend now.
But the critical part is his relationship with Madeleine, the first time, he sees her in the restaurant, he is drawn to her beauty. In fact Hitchcock, brilliantly sets up the scene here. Scottie sees Madeleine’s profile in a kind of silhouette, and then the light in the dimly lit restaurant, shines off her hair. He falls in love with her, and begins to pursue her. His pursuit of her is more due to his romantic obsession, than any professional reason.
Also Madeleine wanders about sites, that are reminiscent of older San Francisco, and incidentally his friend Gavin, while speaking to him, mourns the loss of the older city. His obsession for Madeleine, makes him dig up more history about older San Francisco, as well as Carlotta Valdez. Scottie here is crossing the thin line, between professional and personal interest. For him everything he is doing here is for Madeleine. Love has totally overwhelmed his senses here. Also the fact that Madeleine’s ethereal beautiful woman is a counterpoint to Midge’s plain Jane nature.
Madeleine is also something of an enigma. She is beautiful, graceful and yet mysterious. Most of Hitch’s movies had this ice cold femme fatale, who would trap the hero, Kim Novak in Vertigo, and Eva St Marie in North By North West being the best examples. She has these recollections from the past. Is is hallucinations? Or is there a re incarnation angle to it?
The spirals that come at the credits, begin to make more sense, when Scottie meets Judy. Everything does not seem what it is, as Scottie finds himself trapped in a never ending whirl of events. He wants Judy to be like Madeleine, and so he begins to order her around, to be what he wants. But still he finds he could never love Judy, as his obsession for Madeleine has become too great. Scottie’s dilemma is that of a person who having seen the death of the lady he loves, is not willing to accept another person, who looks like her. The same kind of dilemma was explored by Raj Khosla in Mera Saaya, when Sunil Dutt, having seen Sadhana die in his arms, refuses to accept her look alike as his wife.
Technically Hitch is as usual at his best here. The best example of shot taking is the opening scene where Hitch establishes Scottie’s Vertigo feeling. The camera keeps zooming towards him, and then tracks him, so what we have here is a kind of zoom forward, zoom back effect, that totally establishes the character’s mental state. Hitch also uses the same effect during the famous stair case scene, when Scottie is unable to pursue Madeleine to the top of the church, due to his fear of heights. In fact quite a lot of times in the movie, we see Hitch employ this camera zoom backwards technique to depict the hero’s state of mind.
Also the way Hitch uses the lighting effect is brilliant. In the restaurant, he comes up with a dark semi lit atmosphere, and the next day when Scottie begins to follow Madeleine, the light is kinda diffused, a kind of metaphor for her presence, which is some what other worldly.
Vertigo also works due to the performances of its lead actors. James Stewart, one of the finest actors, of Hollywood’s Golden Age, was one of Hitch’s regulars, other being Cary Grant. Apart from Vertigo, Stewart also appeared in Rope, Rear Window and the Color version of The Man Who Knew Too Much in Hitch’s direction. He is just brilliant as Scottie, wonderfully bringing out the insecurity, obsession, depression. Kim Novak, apart from looking like an angel, also gives in a brilliant performance, in a complex layered role as a mysterious, elusive but yet seemingly deceptive lady. In fact the romantic scenes between Stewart and Novak, are the high point of the movie, with both the leads sharing a crackling chemistry. A classic not to be missed at any cost.
Anurag Kashyap
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Anish Kuruvilla
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Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
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Santosh Sivan
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Shivajee
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One of Hitchcock’s best, technically sound backed with a riveting script. Infact, he used a special kind of a zoom(Dolly) that was later famously called Hitchcock Zoom, also used in movies like Goodfellas.etc
Wow Ratnakar , Badhiya Article.
If you collect all your movie Articles together, it could be wonderful film review book.
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‘Saul Bass’ did the opening animation design for Vertigo,
And I love the Background score a lot by Great ‘Bernard Herrmann’
I agree with the post 100%, its a great movie without doubt, only downside in my opinion was that i found it to be stretched at times.
Rear window is a better movie
Vertigo is one of my favourite films. But I remember having an argument with a friend who thought it was boring. He even went on to call it “sick”. But of course, yours truly argued with him until he gave up. Good article, man. Like you mentioned here, Vertigo is a masterpiece of not only literary elements, but of asthetics as well. Hitchcock’s use of light and colours in this film is extraordinary.
@ Vishesh-4
well i guess some people love to take a contrarian view just to look cool n different. Whatever people like ur friend say, for tme this movie is a masterpiece at all levels, be it the detailing, the characterization, the pyschological profiles, and of course the technical values, way ahead of their time.
@ M-3
Yeah a bit dragging here and there, but still wud consider this a classic.
@ Shekar
Thanks for suggestions, and if ever i write a book, it wud be dedicated to u.
Bernard Hermann was a regular for all of Hitch’s movies.
@ Tanul
Yeah the same Dolly camera, i guess Marty used it a lot later.
@Ratnakar
If you ever write a Book,
I’ll do the Cover Design!!!
@Ratnakar – will you review ‘Rear Window’? You see you have to do it, if only for the sake of Grace Kelly!
Tejas , have not yet seen Rear Window to date, somehow the story never really interested me. I did see the other Grace Kelly starrer directed by Hitch “To Catch a Thief” co starring Cary Grant. That was a great movie.
I saw Rear Window a year back, and failed to gather what was so great about it. I mean it was by no ways a bad movie, but, IMHO is a tad overrated!
Shit I missed reading this. One of my favorite ‘visuals’ of all times. Will get back to you in some time.
Wayyyy over-rated but for Grace Kelly!!
It’s ok man. Would wait if you decide to review ‘To catch a thief’.
I am watching Vertigo right now. Meh..got interrupted too many times. But will finish it today and post my thoughts on it.
I have a three or four DVD collection of Hitchcock’s earlier movies from 20’s and 30’s. These were wayy before he started his American moviemaking. But you guessed it right – chirag taley andhera – I am yet to watch more than one movie from this repertoire.
Have not seen much of Hitch’s 30’s work. But 2 movies from that period were really good, The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes. The 39 Steps was not as great as the novel, but The Lady Vanishes is one of my favorite ones.
*/possible spoiler alert/*
alright so just finished the Vertigo, and here’re my thoughts.
1. Hitchcock weaves many themes in a single movie here. So much that it could be a perfect candidate for a Hindi masala movie, and I mean it as a sincere compliment. The success of the story and the film is that it could stretch any single element or theme, and be made in a movie on that particular element. For instance, the brief court-scene has such powerful and diplomatically derivative dialogues that this movie could have been extended as a court-room suspense drama from that point on. Same if he concentrated on the romance which was so passionate.
2. Hitchcock does not leave a single stone unturned to get the audience as much involved with the mental state of the protagonist as possible. The case in point – use of special effects for depiction of Scottie’s illness.
3. One or two grouches I have are these – use of Midge’s character is very convenient. In one scene we see her deeply concerned about Scottie’s health, but after that she has no role to play anywhere. Secondly, we can kind of ‘guess’ what would’ve happened at one point with less characters to play with. However, in Hitch’s defense, what unfolds next is completely unexpected twist.
All in all, a terrific experience.
One more thing – I hereby confer the title of India’s Hitchcock to Vijay Anand. I recently re-watched some of his movies in parallel with Hitchcock movies and find him fit for this award.
@ Tejas -16
Great points u raised there.
” For instance, the brief court-scene has such powerful and diplomatically derivative dialogues that this movie could have been extended as a court-room suspense drama from that point on. Same if he concentrated on the romance which was so passionate.”
Mera Saaya worked on this same concept. Here Sunil Dutt, tries his best to expose Sadhana, whom he feels is an imposter claiming to be his wife. Vast part of Mera Saaya is a court room drama itself. And also the romance between Sunil Dutt and Sadhana, revealed in flashbacks. So for me Mera Saaya had a Vertigo angle.
Along with Vijay Anand, i would also add Raj Khosla. He made some terrific thrillers like CID, Woh Kaun Thi, Mera Saaya, Anita most of them Hitchcockian in nature. And who can ever forget B.R.Chopra’s Dhund, Kanoon.
Vijay Anand’s Teesri Manzil is one of the best who dun its ever made.
Very true of what you say about Raj Khosla, B.R. Chopra (hard to believe that he is related to Yash (yuck), and Goldie Anand.
In fact Woh Kaun Thi, Mera Saya and Anita are considered to be Khosla trilogy of the mystery women. Saw Anita ages ago so memories of it are very hazy but Mera Saaya is awesome.
Add Jewel Thief to goldie’s list. The twist where Ashok Kumar is revealed as the villain is simply jaw-dropping. Ok, not truly Hitchcockian in nature but great thriller, even though the toothless senior Anand starred in it.
Not a bad review of a movie I have only just discovered. It may be irrelevant but I realized that it came out the year I was born and that Jimmy Stewart was my age that year (and that he would be 100 years old right now). Freaky.
Vertigo exists on so many levels that it draws you into its mystery. The viewer becomes a part of the obsession. We become obsessed with the movie – unpeeling its layers, finding more meanings under each one with every viewing.
I also think it is a very erotic movie and one that was far beyond the common consciousness of the time.
Hitch thought its lack of commercial success was due to Jimmy Stewart’s age being too old to attract audiences. Not so, at least not by today’s standards. Jimmy himself later said he felt “embarrassed” to play the love interest to a woman half his age. I actually think that the age difference only helped this movie. A middle aged bachelor without a job is just ripe for an obsession with a beautiful young woman he can “rescue”.
I could go on and on but I’ll leave it at that. By the way, it’s John Ferguson, not James.