Vertigo (1958) - Textual Analysis

Vertigo is a psychological thriller film produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1958. The story of Vertigo is an adaptation of the 1954’s French novel “D’entre les Morts” (“The Living and the Dead”) by Pierre Boileau & Thomas Narcejac. The film received mixed reviews upon release but it is now often cited as a classical Hitchcock film. Many people quote this as his best piece of work “masterpiece”. Vertigo stars James Stewart as a former police detective John “Scottie” Ferguson. Scottie was forced into early retirement because of an incident during a duty, which caused him to develop acrophobia, an extreme fear of heights and a vertigo (a sensation of false, rotational movement). Scottie was hired by an acquaintance private investigator, Gavin Elster, to follow Gavin’s wife Madeleine.

During the film there is not much dialogue, but when there is, it is like a question and answer type formal/casual conversation. Conversations between Scottie and Judy (Madeleine) are stern but loving and caring as well as aggressive at the same time. The weird hallucinations that Scottie is seeing are very paranoid dreams. Scottie watched and allowed the woman that he loves to commit suicide by jumping off of the church’s clock tower, then leaves straight after she jumped, claiming that he had a blackout. He visits her grave every now and then. Scottie starts seeing hallucinations of; pink, red, yellow flowers, a woman at the court room, Madeleine’s grave is empty and he imagines himself falling off of the roof as a black figure/shadow instead of his lover. We later on see another woman, may be his mother visiting his in hospital or a mental institute with red roses.

The mise en scene we see within Vertigo is locations such as; the court room, hospital room, church and the church tower. Scottie has these paranoid dreams or hallucinations about pink, red, yellow flowers, sees a woman at the court room, goes to a grave to see it empty and we see him falling off on to the roof, instead of his lover. He imagines himself (Scottie) falling (black figure/shadow). The dialogue used in Vertigo is formal, aggressive and stern but loving at the same time towards Judy/Madeleine. Not much dialogue is used most of the time, but when there is, it is structured in a question and answer style put in to a casual conversation.

We see the transformation of Judy with her hair colour and the style, as well as the clothes she is wearing. They both seem happy right before they are getting ready to go to Ernies, Judy pulls out the same exact necklace from the portrait he saw from the art museum that he knew Madeleine had. Scottie realized what was going on and took Judy to the exact same place Madeleine died and got Judy to act like her for the night so he can get rid of the past.  He realized that Judy was lying. The necklace gave it away as he started questioning her angrily in the church tower. He is somehow trying to get rid of the past, by going back to the crime scene. After the argument in the church tower with Scottie, they both hear a voice from the shadows in the tower, which scares Judy more and she actually jumps and takes her life. This leaves us confused to who she thought it was. It may have been the ghost of the real Madeleine or the husband, but the nun walks out of the shadows just after she jumps off.

There are many things we can consider when it comes to think about if Vertigo is a love story or not.

Lighting

The lighting includes natural and high key lighting. During the hallucinations, we see various different colours such as pink, red, blue etc. which reflects all kinds of different moods from the lighting.

Love Story

Judy is being controlled by Scottie and does everything he wants her to. He was so focused on Madeleine, and he found someone who looks like her and he can change, so he focuses all his time on Judy.

Genre

Vertigo includes a variety of different genres, which are a part of this film in many ways. Some of these genres such as;

-       Crime

-       Love story

-       Thriller

-       Noir

-       Detective

-       Psychological drama

At the end of the film, it leaves us with a thought of why Judy jumps from the tower after she hears a voice in the shadows whilst with Scottie. She may have thought it was the ghost of the real Madeleine or Madeleine’s husband lurking in the shadows.  Throughout this twisted love story, Scottie is constantly controlling Judy because he is so focused on Madeleine and now he is focusing all his time on Judy. There are many genres within this film which include; crime, thriller, love story, noir, detective, psychological drama

Scottie is not the conventional hero that everyone expects to see in a film. He has fatal flaws such as a fear of heights, he is a weak, abusive hero, who is passionately in love, witnessed 2 deaths, in love with a married woman who is his best friends wife. There is also a solved mystery at the end even though there is a death

The heroin, Judy is not the traditional heroin. She is a damsel in distress with a fairytale ending at the church tower. She has an evil side as Madeleine, who helps a murder take place as well as a good side as Judy, who has an emotional and normal side to her who is a normal, emotional person with feelings.

Two of the main characters Madeleine/Judy and Scottie both have 2 sides to each character. It has a dual nature and the same story had been told twice. Scottie has a neurosis, which makes Judy dress as Madeleine. We see many shots in mirrors to show 2 sides to each character. The lighting used; pink, red and blue reflects all the different moods with a lot of lighting.

Both characters have 2 sides to each, a dual nature. We, as the audience see the story told twice. Scottie has neurosis, which makes himself wanting to replace Madeleine, so he makes Judy look like her. We also see a various amount of colours and many shots in mirrors.

Finally, we come across many subjective shots, which include; seeing things through Scottie’s eye, like the blurriness of Judy’s head once she comes out of the bathroom with her hairstyle different before the date. We see Madeleine’s face instead of Judy’s. There are many different places where we can analyze with more than one answer throughout the film.