Vertigo (film)
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| Vertigo | |
|---|---|
 Original VistaVision film poster designed by Saul Bass |
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| Directed by | Alfred Hitchcock |
| Produced by | Uncredited: Alfred Hitchcock |
| Written by | Novel: Boileau-Narcejac Screenplay: Alec Coppel Samuel A. Taylor |
| Starring | James Stewart Kim Novak Barbara Bel Geddes Tom Helmore |
| Music by | Bernard Herrmann |
| Cinematography | Robert Burks |
| Editing by | George Tomasini |
| Distributed by | 1958-1982 Paramount Pictures 1983-present: Universal Pictures Non-USA 1996: United International Pictures |
| Release date(s) |  May 9, 1958 |
| Running time | 128 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US$ 2,479,000 |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Vertigo is a 1958 psychological thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock. In 1989 Vertigo was recognized as a culturally, historically and aesthetically significant film by the National Film Registry and subsequently restored in 1996.
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[edit] Plot summary
The prologue of Vertigo tells how San Francisco detective John "Scottie"/"Johnny Oh" Ferguson (James Stewart) develops acrophobia after a fellow police officer falls to his death during a rooftop chase. Ferguson is forced to retire from police work. When Scottie looks out from a high window in the apartment of his friend Midge (Barbara Bel Geddes), he is paralyzed with fear and dizziness.
Scottie is subsequently hired as a private detective by an old college acquaintance, Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore), who wants his wife Madeleine (Kim Novak) followed. Elster is worried that she appears to have symptoms of a mental illness or "possession" by a spirit. Scottie tails Madeleine, who visits the grave of a woman named Carlotta Valdes. Valdes killed herself many many years ago. Madeleine dresses like Carlotta and wanders the city in a trance-like, obsessive state.
In spite of the detective's former romantic involvement with Midge, Scottie is strongly attracted to Madeleine. Scottie follows Madeleine to Fort Point, where she jumps into San Francisco Bay in what appears to be a suicide attempt. Scottie saves her and brings her to his apartment. When she awakens, she joins him in the living room, but soon leaves.
When Madeleine and Scottie take a trip to see giant sequoia trees, she engages in a reverie of what appears to be Carlotta's past. Madeleine tells Scottie she has dreamed of Mission San Juan Bautista, and he takes her there in an effort to conquer her disturbing dreams. At the mission, Madeleine suddenly runs into the bell tower. Scottie's acrophobia prevents him from following her up the steep staircase. Through a window, Scottie sees Madeleine plummet from the top of the tower to her death.
Scottie suffers a nervous breakdown and flees the scene. At the inquest into Madeleine's death, Scottie is severely criticised by the coroner for negligence, though Elster reassures him, telling him "we both know who really killed Madeleine" (i.e. she was possessed by Carlotta's spirit). Elster tells Scottie he intends to cope with his grief for Madeleine by selling up and leaving San Francisco to travel the world. Scottie's depression worsens and he is placed in a mental hospital, where he descends into catatonic passivity. Midge tries to console him but realizes that he is still in love with Madeleine.
Much later, Scottie, still brooding, begins to haunt the places where they went. On one visit, he encounters a woman, Judy Barton, who reminds him of his dead lover, although she seems more "ordinary," even a bit vulgar in comparison with Madeleine's ethereal beauty, but bears a striking resemblance to her.
Scottie follows her to her hotel room, where he hears her story. She is a simple girl from Salina, Kansas, making a life for herself in San Francisco after a series of bad relationships. After Scottie leaves, Judy writes him a letter in which she reveals (in flashback) that one such relationship was with Elster, who hired her to impersonate Madeleine as part of his scheme to murder his wife. But, still in love with Scottie and feeling guilty for the pain she has caused him, Judy destroys the letter almost as soon as she has written it.
Scottie becomes obsessed with Judy, but any romantic possibility between them is thwarted by Scottie's memory of Madeleine. Scottie insists that Judy dress like Madeleine; despite her protests, Judy eventually gives in.
When Judy is completely made over as Madeleine, she goes back to her apartment, where Scottie is waiting. She deliberately tries to retain some hint of her own personality by not wearing her hair in Madeleine's style, but finally he persuades her to change even this small detail. She goes into the bathroom and emerges, just as Madeleine emerged from his bedroom — the film echoes the earlier scene — and as Scottie embraces her, to Bernard Herrmann's "Tristan und Isolde" theme, the past swirls about them and their relationship seems finally to be consummated, his obsession cured.
Judy wears a red, jewelled pendant that Scottie remembers that Madeleine claimed to have inherited, raising Scottie's suspicions. He takes her to Mission San Juan Bautista and forces her to go up the tower once more, telling her that he wants to re-enact the scene in which he failed to save Madeleine. Judy confesses that she was hired by Elster to act as a mentally unstable false "Madeleine", knowing that his acrophobia would prevent him from following her up the tower. The real Madeleine was hurled, already dead, from the tower by her husband. With no witnesses and Scottie's testimony supporting Madeleine's "insanity", Elster got away with murder.
As Scottie forces Judy to confess, they inch up to the top, where Scottie rages at her, while Judy pleads that she loves him. Scottie allows her to embrace him. Suddenly, a shadowy figure appears at the top of the stairs. Judy, frightened, backs away from the approaching shadow and steps off the tower ledge, plunging to her death. The shadow turns out to be a nun. Scottie sways briefly in shock, but then stares down at Judy's fallen body: his vertigo is cured - but at a terrible cost.
[edit] Interpretation
There is an additional interpretation of the film's plot that is not very well known, but which in fact settles many of the strongest criticisms of the film, such as the complete reliance on massive coincidences for the murder plot to be successful. This alternate interpretation states that after Scottie becomes catatonic and committed to a mental institution, the issues of reality become blurred, confusing, paranoid, and entirely unbelievable precisely because none of the later part of the film is actually really happening -- it is all in Scottie's mind.
Scottie is in a delusional state, imagining a sinister conspiracy that absolves him of any guilt over Madeleine's death, reliving the past and in fact changing it in his mind. All the while, he in fact remains in his catatonic state in the mental institution. The film's themes of duality and psychological instability, the increasing surrealism, and the depiction of Scottie in an institution before fading out and returning to a narrative in the outside world, all make such an interpretation more plausible, and perhaps at least more probable than the coincidence-reliant interpretation that assumes the later events of the film to be as real as earlier events.
Some film critics now subscribe to this interpretation of the film, enough so that it is even one of the motion pictures featured in a California film festival collecting movies representing depictions of uncertain reality, where viewers are left to interpret where reality ends and dreams or delusions begin. Discussion and critique of "Vertigo" begins with the assumption that the events following Scottie's institutionalization are all in his head, and the focus of deconstruction and interpretation of the film is reserved for this latter "imaginary" portion of the film. This interpretation has gained acceptance in recent years, with some critics questioning how they could in fact have missed it in their previous viewings and reviews of the film.
This, however, does not address the film's most puzzling scene, which happens in the first -- "real" -- part of the film, where Scottie tracks Madeline to the "McKittrick Hotel," and sees her in the window of an upper room, only to learn from the hotel's clerk...and his own eyes...that there is no trace whatsoever of her ever having been there. It is a completely dream-like situation that is never explained within the context of the picture.
[edit] The screenplay and its sources
The movie was adapted by Samuel W. Taylor and Alec Coppel from the French novel Sueurs froides: d'entre les morts (Cold Sweat: From Among the Dead) by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac. François Truffaut suggested that the novel was specifically written for Hitchcock by Boileau and Narcejac after Hitchcock was unable to buy the rights to their previous novel, Celle qui n'était plus, which was made into the movie Les Diaboliques. However, Narcejac has subsequently denied that this was their intention.
The film also alludes to the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. Although the source novel's explicit references to the myth do not appear in the film, certain themes do, including the return of a dead beloved to life, and discovering the fatal consequences of "looking back."
The final script was written by Samuel Taylor from notes by Hitchcock. However, a number of elements survive from an earlier script by Alec Coppel, including the opening rooftop sequence, the Cypress Point kiss, the two visits to San Juan Bautista, and the famous nightmare sequence. When Taylor attempted to take sole credit for the screenplay, Coppel protested to the Writers' Guild, who determined that both writers were entitled to credit.
[edit] Cinematic qualities
Vertigo is notable for the "Hitchcock zoom," an in-camera perspective distortion special effect created by Hitchcock that suggests the dizzying effect that gives the film its title. The film's famous score was composed by Bernard Herrmann. In many of the key scenes Hitchcock essentially gave the film over to Herrmann, whose melodies, echoing Richard Wagner's Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde, dramatically convey Scottie's obsessive love for the woman he imagines to be Madeleine. Recently, the American Film Institute named it as one of the best scores in the history of Cinema.
Vertigo was one of several 1950s Paramount films shot in the VistaVision widescreen format, a horizontal 35mm process developed to compete with several similar processes from other studios (such as 20th Century Fox's CinemaScope).
The color palette includes greens, which may represent etherealness. When Madeleine first appears to Scottie, she is wearing a bright green dress, indicating her enigma and elusiveness which Scottie will be drawn into. Similarly, Scottie first spies Judy reflected in a shop window, with a green sweater. During the scene in which Judy emerges from the bathroom dressed completely as Madeleine, she is surrounded by an eerie green light, which may represent her "resurrection" by Scottie. The colour of the car "Madelaine" drives is the same dark green as Judy's sweater, when they first meet.
Vertigo's ending is relatively less explained compared with other Hitchcock films. The reason for Judy Barton's fright that causes her to fall is not explained. However, the very idea of a "shadow" is a recurring theme throughout the movie, so her death at the hand of a "shadow" might be symbolic. What this symbolizes is open to interpretation. Possibly it is a symbol of the darker side of Scottie's personality appearing. The film can be read in many ways, one reading being it is a battle between the sides of Scottie's personality, and the good side loses (allowing him to manipulate and finally maybe even kill her). One likely interpretation, however, is that Judy saw the shadow as either the ghost of the dead wife, or as Elster himself. Another potential metaphor is that the nun represents the pure love Judy has denied herself, the nun's appearance accompanies the moment this love is returned by Scottie to Judy herself (and not Madeleine Elster). With the acceptance of this love (and the accompanying truth), Judy must atone for the mortal sin of murder.
In the most obvious examination, the ending makes great sense for a Hollywood production of the 1950s: Judy (a co-conspirator to murder) is to meet her end by falling from the belltower (the beaconing point of a religious institution) at the ascension of a nun. This type of symbolism is entirely in keeping with the moral codes established by the Hayes Office.
[edit] Vertigo as a Hitchcock film
Those interested in Hitchcock's biography have often noted the similarities between John Ferguson's attitude toward Judy and Hitchcock's own attitude toward his leading actresses; Hitchcock took an active interest in moulding the on-screen appearance of his actresses to fit his vision of the perfect blonde, and the sequence in which Scottie orders Judy to gradually transform herself into Madeleine is often cited as an example of Hitchcock dramatizing his own obsessions.
Hitchcock used falling and the threat of falling in many of his films, for example Blackmail, Foreign Correspondent, Suspicion, Saboteur,The Man Who Knew Too Much, Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, North by Northwest,Psycho,Torn Curtain and Frenzy. Critics have suggested that Vertigo uses this recurring motif as a metaphor for sexual obsession, existential angst, Liebestod or original sin.
Vertigo has become a touchstone film for feminist criticism of the movies, as has Hitchcock in general. The makeover of Judy is seen by feminist critics as exemplary of men making women over into the image they wish (and the dangerous acquiescence of women in that process); and — of course — as a symbol of the male gaze in movies, a form of visual murder. The ambiguities of the film complicate the making of simple judgements, however: for example, Scottie at various points (such as the dream sequence) seems himself to turn into Madeleine, since he too is being manipulated by another man (using Judy).
Moreover, Hitchcock seems to be engaged in turning the tables on men in Vertigo, including himself. Hitchcock uses the theme of multiple gazes and multiple mirrors throughout to underscore the paradoxes of film. For example, the moment when Scottie hits upon the truth is a scene in a mirror which becomes a memory of a portrait which reflects a false obsession and frames a momentary lapse which reveals an obsession that even the heroine has not fully understood, and so on.
The multiple mirrors and obsessive gazings and metaphors of acting and dreaming keep one guessing as to what Hitchcock's ultimate take on the male/female relationship in movies is. Some consider the real vertigo in the film not to be the threat of falling off the tower, but the hall of endless mirrors through which one can fall forever in search of an ideal image.
[edit] Awards
Vertigo was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White or Color and Best Sound. Vertigo was not a commercial success when first released, and its critical reputation built slowly. It was one of five films owned by the Hitchcock estate that was removed from circulation in 1973. When Vertigo was re-released on film and home video in 1983, more reviews were done.
In 1998, the American Film Institute ranked it #61 on its "100 Greatest Movies" list. The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. In 2002, Vertigo was chosen the second greatest film of all time (behind Citizen Kane) by the Sight and Sound critics' poll. In 2005, Vertigo came in second (to Goodfellas) in British magazine Total Film's book, 100 Greatest Movies of All Time.
[edit] Restoration
After a controversial and lengthy restoration by Robert A. Harris and James C. Katz, the film was re-released to theaters in 1996. The new print featured restored color and newly created audio utilizing modern sound effects mixed in DTS digital surround sound. It was also exhibited for the first time in 70mm, a format similar in size to VistaVision in which it had been originally filmed.
One bone of contention regarding the 1996 restoration was the decision to re-record the Foley sound effects from scratch (to allow Dolby-quality mixing for surround sound and stereo). The 2005 Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection DVD contains the original mono track. Another criticism was the re-creation of colors that some thought bordered on artistic license (as opposed to exact reproduction honoring the director and cinematographer's intentions).
The restoration team argue that they did research on the colors used in the original locations, cars and skin tones. One breakthrough moment came when the Ford Motor Company supplied a well-preserved green paint sample for a car used in the film. As the use of the color green in the film has artistic importance, matching a shade of green was a stroke of luck for restoration and provided a reference shade from which to work. Significant color correction was necessary because of the fading of original negatives. In some cases a new negative was created from the silver separation masters, but in many instances this was impossible because of differential separation shrinkage, and because the 1958 separations were poorly made. Technicolor films use three individual layers of film: one for each of the primary colors. In the case of Vertigo, these three separate layers had shrunk in different and erratic proportions, making re-alignment impossible. As such, significant amounts of computer assisted coloration were necessary. Although the results are not noticeable on viewing the film, some elements were as many as eight generations away from the original negative. When such large portions of re-creation become necessary, then the danger of artistic license by the restorers obviously becomes an issue.
[edit] San Francisco Bay Area and Vertigo
Vertigo is notable for its extensive location footage of the San Francisco Bay Area, leading some to claim the city itself as an important character in the script; San Francisco is famous for its steep hills, expansive views, and tall, arching bridges. Some have noted that in the numerous driving scenes shot in the city, the main characters' cars are almost always pictured heading down the city's steeply inclined streets. The 1996 restored print of Vertigo debuted at the historic Castro Theatre in San Francisco with a live on-stage introduction by surviving cast member Kim Novak, providing the city a chance to celebrate itself.
Visiting the San Francisco film locations (perhaps most famously in a subsection of Chris Marker's documentary montage Sans Soleil) has something of a cult following as well as modest tourist appeal. The book Footsteps in the Fog: Alfred Hitchcock's San Francisco, published in 2002, written by Jeff Kraft and Aaron Leventhal provides detailed and well researched information about many of the locations used in the film.
Areas that were shot on location (not recreated in a studio):
- Mission San Juan Bautista, although the all-important tower had to be matted in with a painting using studio effects. Hitchcock had first visited the Mission before the tower was torn down due to dry rot, and was reportedly very displeased to find it missing when he returned to film his scenes. The original tower was much smaller and less dramatic than the special effects version however, so in the end the change could be considered fortuitous.
- Mission Dolores, where for many years tourists could see the actual Carlotta Valdes headstone featured in the film. Eventually, the headstone was removed as the Mission considered it disrespectful to the dead to house a tourist attraction grave for a fictional person.
- Fort Point National Historic Site and the Golden Gate Bridge
- The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco
- Big Basin Redwoods State Park, although the film claims these scenes are from Muir Woods National Monument.
- Cypress Point, a well-known location along the 17 Mile Drive near Pebble Beach.
- California Palace of the Legion of Honor: the Carlotta Valdes portrait was lost after being removed from the gallery, but many of the other paintings in the background of the portrait scenes are still on view.
- Coit Tower (appears in many background shots but is not featured). Hitchcock once said that he included it as a phallic symbol.
- "The Brocklebank" (1000 Mason Street): Gavin and Madeleine's apartment building still looks essentially the same. Across the street from the Fairmont Hotel, where Hitchcock usually stayed when he visited and where many of the cast and crew stayed during filming.
- The "McKittrick Hotel" was a privately-owned Victorian mansion from the 1880s at Gough and Eddy Streets, and was torn down in 1959 and is now an athletic practice field for Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory School.
- 351 Buena Vista East: the sanatorium where Scottie recovers. Formerly St. Joseph's Hospital, now Park Hill condominiums, the building looks much the same from the outside. Across the street from the southern (most elevated) end of Buena Vista Park. Excellent views of the back of the building, dramatically situated on Buena Vista heights, are available from the Corona Heights neighborhood park.
- The York Hotel [1] 940 Sutter Street: When Scottie first catches a glimpse of Judy Barton, he follows her back to her hotel and invites her to dinner at Ernie's. Judy's room is located on the third floor of the hotel, whose interiors were all created back in Hollywood. The flashing green neon of the "Hotel Empire" sign creates a ghostly effect for Judy's transformation into Scottie's make-believe vision of Madeleine, although the neon sign was replaced when the Hotel was re-named The York Hotel.
- Ernie's Restaurant (847 Montgomery St.) In Chinatown, not far from Scottie's apartment (900 Lombard). No longer operating.
- Scottie's Apartment (900 Lombard St.) A few blocks downhill from the "crookedest street in the world", you can find Scottie's Apartment. Although the door has been repainted, the entrance to Scottie's apartment is easily recognizable save for a few small changes to the patio. The doorbell and the mailbox, which Madeleine uses to deliver a note to Scottie, are exactly the same as they were in the movie.
[edit] Cultural impact of Vertigo
- Director Brian DePalma made a mystery-thriller inspired by Vertigo in 1976 called Obsession with Cliff Robertson and Geneviève Bujold. Bernard Herrmann, who scored Vertigo, also scored Obsession.
- DePalma's 1984 movie Body Double also featured many plot elements from Vertigo.
- In Mel Brook's film High Anxiety, which is a pastiche/homage to all Hitchcock films, the final scene takes place in a twisting staircase inside a bell tower, an obvious nod to Vertigo.
- South Korean director Park Chan-Wook said once that Vertigo was the film that made him want to be a director.
- Paul Verhoeven's Basic Instinct, which is also set in San Francisco, is often seen as a stylistic and thematic imitation of Vertigo, especially in regard to Sharon Stone's character Catherine Tramell. For a comparative website, see the external links section.
- Faith No More's music video for their 1997 song 'Last Cup Of Sorrow' was directly inspired by Vertigo. It features the lead singer, Mike Patton dressed in the same outfit as James Stewart's character, trailing a blonde played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, respectively dressed the same as Vertigo 's female lead Madeleine. Many scenes are recreated from the film, such as the opening rooftop sequence, Madeleine's plunge into San Francisco bay, Mike Patton moving up and down a stepladder, the belltower sequence complete with the famous Hitchcock Zoom and the psychedelic dream sequence. The emphasis is mainly on parody, key moments including drummer Puffy Bordin sweeping Mike Patton head in the dream sequence with a broom (presumedly a reference to Vertigo's scene where Midge is describing to Scottie that music can clear the cobwebs out of your head like a broom), bassist Billy Gould cross dressing, Judy Barton being a black wigged sado-masochist, and Leigh fainting when she sees a shadow in the tower, which ends up being drummer Puffy Bordin eating a bagel.
- The band Harvey Danger has a song on their album Where Have all the Merrymakers Gone? called 'Carlotta Valdez' which describes the plot of the film.
- An adult film called Private Eye uses a very similar plot and story as Vertigo, with obvious differences.
- The Spanish director Alejandro Amenabar has stated that his film Abre Los Ojos is his "remake" of Vertigo.[citation needed]
- Terry Gilliam's film Twelve Monkeys contains a scene in a movie theatre that is showing Vertigo . . . both films deal with memories, identity and the blurring of past and present. Likewise, La Jetée, Chris Marker's famous short which served as the basis for Gilliam's film quotes a couple of scenes from this film as acknowledged by Marker. The plot of the short film has loose thematic similarities with Vertigo.
- Rakesh Roshan's directorial "[Kaho Na Pyaar Hai]" is also seems to be influenced by Vertigo, as the death of Rohit occurs and Sonia, still obsessed with the memories of him, meets Raaj who bears a stricling resemblance to Rohit. Besides of some minor changes, the main and central idea is an obviuos node to Vertigo.
- In Mahesh Bhatt's "[Woh Lamhe]", the central character, Sana Azmi also behaves in the same trance-like state as of Madeline and beholde by a girl.
- The 1993 miniseries Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City, which aired on PBS, has many direct references to the film.
- Parts of the film were spoofed in the Goldie Hawn comedy Foul Play.
- The film was parodied on the halloween episode of That '70s Show third season, where Eric Forman suffers from vertigo after almost falling from a roof of a small shed and seeing Fez falling while trying to lift him back up from where he was hanging.
- Dr. James Wilson (played by Robert Sean Leonard) on FOX's series House has several posters of the film on the walls of his office, and is even seen watching the film at the end of the episode 'House vs God'.
- In the Batman: The Animated Series episode, "Off Balance", the climax in the church tower is identical to the one in the film. The episode even features a villain named Count Vertigo.
- In another episode of Batman: The Animated Series, "Perchance to Dream," there is a climactic fight sequence atop a clocktower similar to the climax of the film.
- In one episode of The Simpsons, "Principal Charming" in season 2, a scene depicts Principal Skinner ascending the school's bell tower (and experiencing the Vertigo zoom shot on the way up). The bell tower in the Simpson's is attached to Springfield Elementary School.
- Australian Director Douglas Horton's music-theatre production Phobia (first staged in 2003 by Chamber Made) is a homage to Hitchcock and Vertigo in particular.
- Some interpret the opening chase scene from The Matrix as a homage to Vertigo.
[edit] See also
[edit] Trivia
- Alfred Hitchcock's cameo is a signature occurrence in most of his films. In Vertigo he can be seen (10 minutes into the film) walking across the street carrying a horn case.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Vertigo at the Internet Movie Database
- Vertigo at the TCM Movie Database
- Filmsite.org in-depth review and analysis
- A Swimming in the Head Detailed critique of the 1996 restoration
- Jacobean Visions: Webster, Hitchcock and Google Culture
- A Very Different "Slice of Cake:" Restoring Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo
- Vertigo: Then & Now Before and after images of San Francisco locations seen in the film
- [2] Explanation to Vertigo's reference in Faith No More's music video for 'Last Cup Of Sorrow'.
- Vertigo Screenshots and Pics at AHFO
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