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Vertigo is a 1958 psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The film is usually taken as a classic of the genre and is considered by some critics to be Hitchcock's masterpiece. In 1989 Vertigo was recognized as a culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant film by the National Film Registry and subsequently restored in 1996.
The plot The prologue of Vertigo tells how San Francisco detective John "Scottie"/"Johnny Oh" Ferguson (James Stewart) develops acrophobia after a fellow policeman 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 aquaintence, 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. She 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. 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 what cost... Alternate ending An addition to the ending was made for some European countries due to certain laws prohibiting a film from letting a "bad guy" get away at the end of a movie. In the new ending, after Scottie looks down from the belltower (the original ending) there is a shot of Midge sitting next to a radio listening to reports of police tracking down Gavin Elster. As Midge turns off the radio the news flash also reports that 3 Berkeley students got caught bringing a cow up the stairs of a campus building. Scottie enters the room, looks at Midge plainly, and then looks out of a window. Midge makes two drinks and gives one to Scottie. It ends with both of them looking out of the window. This ending can be found on the restoration laserdisc. The screenplay and its sources The movie was adapted by Samuel W. Taylor and Alec Coppel from the French novel (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. It is believed by many that Hitchcock himself was primarily responsible for the character, structure, tone, and thematic richness of this, his most personal film. 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. 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. Vertigo as a Hitchcock film
Awards
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 a newly created audio track utilising modern recordings 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. The 2005 Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection DVD contains the original mono track. The 1996 restoration was criticized as substandard by some cinema buffs, who argued that Harris and Katz had introduced color values not seen in the original. Harris and Katz altered the soundtrack by adding elements not present in the original film, omitting details and changing the overall tone of the film. The restoration team argue that they did research on the colors used in the original locations, cars, and skin tones. Significant color correction was necessary because of the fading of original negative. In some cases a new negative was created from the silver separation masters, but in many instances this was impossible because of the separation shrinkage, and because the 1958 separations were poorly made. Although the results are not noticeable on viewing the film, some elements were as many as eight generations away from the original negative. San Francisco Bay Area locations in 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. 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): Cultural impact of Vertigo See also | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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