Alfred Hitchcock | Auteur Theory

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock

Cast: Kim Novak [Judy Barton, Madeleine Elster], James Stewart [John Ferguson], Barbara Bel Geddes [Midge Wood]

John Ferguson (James Stewart) retires from being a police officer after experiencing an intense fear of heights and suffering from vertigo. He is hired to protect his old friend’s wife from committing suicide though along the way unravels a mystery that leaves Ferguson speechless.

Based on: “D’entre les morts (From Among the Dead)”, written by Boileau-Narcejac

My rating: 8.5/10

vertigo-hitchcock-novak-stewart-1958

Narrative aspects

‘Vertigo’, like any other Alfred Hitchcock film, has a brilliant, multi-layered storyline filled with characters settings with intricate details that give clues about the narrative to the audience. The film begins right within the action of a police chase, with establishing shots of the city night-life on top of building roofs. This choice of the scene immediately captures the audience’s attention while also setting up the main plot point of the film is the fear of heights and sensation of vertigo felt by John Ferguson (James Stewart). Following the first scene, Ferguson and Midge Wood, his friend for years, are sitting in an apartment conversing. The topic of the discussion serves as an explanation of what followed the horrific, near-death experience for Ferguson, his medical state as well as providing more details about the major characters in the film by introducing the audience to Wood’s home and relationship with Ferguson.

This film has a mise-en-scene filled with implicit details that allow the audience to reduce further characteristics of the story. While the acting style of the actors applied well to the character’s personality and portrayed the key traits that aid in the understanding of the film, Hitchcock focused on using colours to establish a certain mood or atmosphere in a particular scene:

Red and Brown – These colours are mostly used as the backdrop and colour for settings and props, like Mr Elster’s office and the restaurant Ernie’s. The former has a lot of leather work which displays a sense of high status and professionalism, being that Mr Elster is an esteemed individual in a secondary sector business. Like his office, the restaurant has walls covered in dark red wallpaper and paint. Dark colours make a room look smaller but specifically, the colour red symbolises energy, excitement, strength, power, love, passion among others. For Mr Elster’s office, ‘strength’ and ‘power’ would apply well since he is a man of great superiority, while the restaurant having many couples of formal dressing could emit the feelings of ‘love’ and ‘passion’ with the colour red. Brown is a complementary colour as it is primarily for anything wooden, or as said before leather, which also displays a sense of class.
Grey – This is the colour of the formal suit worn by Madeleine Elster, along with other plain colours like black and white. These colours, in John Ferguson’s eyes, compliment the natural look she carries, with virtually no make-up on her face, and giving Ferguson a clean palette that catches his attention. Since grey is a colour that is a result of black and white, looking at the symbolism of those colours should apply to it as well. Black is seen as the colour of elegance, wealth, mystery, sadness and depth, while white is seen as purity, humility, love, protection and reverence. Many of these characteristics apply to Mrs Elster as she is a combination of a mysterious woman from a wealthy background, who has a multi-layered personality.
Blue – This colour is worn by John Ferguson quite significantly after the death of Madeleine at the roof of the church. For the court case, he wears a bright blue suit and again at Ernie’s he is seen in the same suit. The kind of clothing worn for a court case is a very important factor that the jury take notice of subliminally. Blue is often seen as contentment, tranquillity, stability, confidence, security and depression. Though the last description would apply accurately to the state of Ferguson, the colour of choice is a striking shade of blue which stands out from the plain decor of the courtroom. The conventional descriptors of the colour blue all seem to oppose the feelings that Ferguson would be going through after the woman he had affections for died. In this situation, it seems as if the colour is used ironically, to showcase the wishful state he would want everyone to see him in but is far from it in reality. After Ferguson is happy with the ‘new’ Madeleine, Judy Barton, he returns to wearing the colours he was seen before, black and brown.
Green – While Madeleine Elster is seen interacting with a lot of green coloured items, like her car, many of her clothes and the hue from the Hotel Empire, she is also seen with different, and rather, pastel colours. On the other hand, Judy Barton is a character that wears prominent makeup with brighter colours. They are complete character foils of each other. Green symbolises self-awareness, perseverance, youth, soothing, jealousy and more. What is interesting is that none of these descriptors really apply to the either Judy or Madeleine, since both characters are quite conflicted. Again, the significance of the colour could be ironic, traits that both Judy and Madeleine are seeking to possess. Even though Judy wears much more makeup and different styles of clothing, John Ferguson, upon seeing her, is convinced that she is linked to Madeleine in some way., which heightens the suspense and mystery of the film.
Purple – Judy Barton is seen wearing a light purple dress when on a dinner outing with John Ferguson for the first time. Of course, to Ferguson, she is a complete stranger but Judy chooses the colour and dress either to be depicted with the same colourful choice that she is known for or to project a certain mood onto him. Purple signifies mystery, enlightenment, mourning, intimacy, transformation among other traits. ‘Transformation’ is a trait that applies well to the situation, other than ‘intimacy’, which Judy feels for John. ‘Transformation’ would refer to the changes made to ‘Madeleine’ and how, now, the reality of Judy is what she wants Ferguson to see and love.
Colour Combination – The way Hitchcock presented the nightmares, hallucinations, that Ferguson sees takes a major use of colours to depict a certain mood felt by the character, in a rather subliminal way. The colours blue, purple and red, along with green, are all used at alternating instances. While each colour could signify a certain message, a display of a mixture of them could suggest the confused and mercurial nature of Ferguson’s emotions relating to his job to follow Mrs Elster, along with his inner latent feelings about his acrophobia and vertigo. There is a lot of surrealist imagery in the sequence, adding to the peculiar nature of dreams as a whole.

‘Vertigo’ focuses a lot on character portrayal, to aid the story’s progression as well as sways the sympathies of the audience a certain way. John Ferguson, on the job to follow and keep an eye on Mr Elster’s wife, he keeps his distance but ends up starting to like her. When he is following Madeleine in his car, while she drives ahead, there are no spoken dialogues for the entire sequence and only background music to compliment the suspense of the situation. The lack of verbal interaction and the soundtrack give the scene the feeling of ‘spying’ and that the audience is involved with it as well. Another interesting aspect about Ferguson’s character is the inner conflict he endures relating to the deaths he indirectly caused to take place. Firstly, his fellow police officer fell off the roof of a building while trying to save Ferguson, which triggered his awareness of having acrophobia and vertigo. Secondly, because of his phobia, he was not successful in saving Madeleine from jumping off the roof of the church. These two occurrences are enough to lead him into acting aggressive and dominating over Judy and create an image of her that pleases him mentally and gives him the satisfaction of another chance at love. Though, sadly, Judy also falls to her death now because of Ferguson’s controlling attitude. All this guilt piling up within him would cause him a rather permanent psychological trauma.

To add on, another interesting moment in the film is when Judy, after being insisted on accepting a dinner invitation with John Ferguson, looks to the camera and triggers a flashback of the church stunt encounter to ensue. She does not drift off while looking to the floor or at her own reflection in the mirror, but looks straight to the camera, at perhaps the audience as if telling them something she could never let anyone else know and that anyone could understand greatly. As an audience watching the film, only we can truly understand the emotions and difficulty that the characters go through in situations. It is as if Judy is asking the audience for some needed guidance since they are the only people who she can escape to for help. From a film-viewing standpoint, it creates a moment of truth for the audience since this plot twist is completely unexpected while also giving the feeling of desperate aid directly from the character Judy.

The ending of the film is probably the most captivating part of it. After ‘Madeleine’ dies, the film takes a spiral since John Ferguson becomes an unstable character and then the appearance of a ‘ghost’ named Judy enters into his life. The audience starts to question the plot and where it is headed and after Carlotta’s necklace is seen around Judy’s neck, and Ferguson draws parallels to what he saw earlier in the painting, everything becomes clear. There are two ‘twists’ in this film that bring about some uneasiness. The first is when Judy has a flashback to the event of Mrs Elster’s death, but from her point of view (i.e. the camera follows her) and it is revealed that she was a doppelganger of the real Mrs Elster the entire time. This re-viewing of the situation puts things into perspective for the audience as well as a close-to-intimate moment is shared between the character on screen, as she ‘breaks the fourth wall’ and looks directly into the camera. The reality of the film is kept between the character and the audience, which is quite an impactful effect within a scene so tense and emotional since Judy is battling between moving on or staying with Ferguson and continue to remain in his delusion. The second ‘twist’ moment is not entirely a plot twist but serves as an encounter of equilibrium, as it could be described. History repeats itself when Judy is startled by the sudden presence of a nun in the shadows and lose her balance, causing her to fall out the open window exactly the same way Madeleine had died. Whether it is a choice to act as the symbolism of Ferguson getting over his fears and his pastor to intensify the confusion of a film it is, it seems to act out as an appropriate end for it. It rounds off the film, leaving John in the state he was in after initially believing that Madeleine had died.

Infer & Deduce: The film’s title, ‘Vertigo’, clearly indicates towards the main character’s fear of heights and the feeling of dizziness he feels when at a high place, though one may argue that it could be referring to the problems that his fear has caused him which was, firstly, the death of his fellow police colleague then, secondly, the death of Judy at the top of the church. Both people of significance to him in some way died because of heights. Moreover, the film leaves Ferguson in a vertigo-type of state because of the sense of déjà vu, where he watches the same woman die again, but for real the second time. It also leaves an audience watching in a trance because of the topsy-turvy mood the entire film conveys, even before the idea of a plot twist. In conclusion, ‘Vertigo’ could point to the direct plot itself, the flaw in character or what the audience could feel at a particular level for the film.

Technical Aspects

This film begins with an eye and mind-bending credit sequence made up of graphical designs and extreme close-up shots of what one would assume are the main character of the film. This sense of immediate proximity to the subject in the shot sparks up the initial discomfort within an audience, which later develops at multiple points in the film. The film uses an array of shots and camera techniques which are quite fitting for the scenes, like establishing and wide angled shots to set the scene and show the audience when and where the film takes place, as in the shot of the Golden Gate Bridge. Conversations are portrayed through long takes at times where the camera pans to follow characters around a room, or with medium shots to show the surrounding background and props rather than the usual over-the-shoulder shots. Some medium close up shots, especially when the subject in the frame is a person, have a still or rack focus to direct the audience’s attention to particular parts in the frame. An example of this is when Ferguson goes over to Midge’s house after she left him a note asking about his whereabouts. At times in the scene, the camera is focused on Midge alone, walking around her apartment, showing her facial expressions. Moreover, another brilliant camera technique is used when Ferguson ends up in the art gallery while following Mrs Elster, who is sitting on a bench looking at a painting of Carlotta, her great-grandmother. The camera follows Ferguson’s gaze, allowing the audience to understanding what he has noticed and drawn conclusions from, zooming in on aspects from Mrs Elster then zooming into parts of the painting to show the similarities, like the same bouquet of flowers and the way her hair is done in the scene. Though one technique that triumphs all the others is the dolly-zoom, which is known as the vertigo shot, where the camera moves forwards or backwards and is zoomed in or out in the opposite direction of the movement simultaneously. This shot is used in various films now and to convey different kinds of feelings, whether to enhance the suspense, add a comedic effect of alarm or to fulfil the purpose it was created for: emphasise the height of something.

The film does not waste its potential on using music to complement the occurrences in scenes or at what stage the plot is at. The film’s soundtrack, composed by Bernard Hermann, is fitting for a thriller mystery since chords and music notes are not necessarily in the conventional progression order that a listener would expect them to be. Due to this, it gives the overall film a background of uneasiness and suspense. Music can have a strong impact on the emotions and mood of an audience, and this creates a much more impactful effect of the film on them.

Favourite Scene

John Ferguson, after noticing the necklace around Judy’s neck bearing resemblance to Carlotta’s necklace, drives his dinner date to the Church where Madeleine fell to her death to complete one final task to let go of his past. Since Judy is the same Madeleine, she immediately senses some sort of suspicion and feels nervous. This scene is quite powerful in terms of the way John Ferguson as a character has developed. He seems to be more bold and confident in this sequence compared to the rest of the film and isn’t hesitant to face his fears at the thought of finding out what really happened to Madeleine.

This scene stands out from the rest because of the interesting parallels and irony portrayed through the dialogues of Ferguson and the way he acts towards Judy. Taking a short sequence where he forces Judy to climb up the stairs to the top of the Church, John Ferguson says the following (04:50 minutes in the clip above):

You were the copy. You were the counterfeit, weren’t you? … You wanted to stop it, why did you scream? You tricked me so well up till then. You played the wife very well Judy! He made you over didn’t he? He made you over just like I made you over, only better. Not only the clothes or the hair, but the looks and the manner and the words… and those beautiful phony trances and you jumped into the bay, didn’t you? I bet you’re a wonderful swimmer, aren’t you? And then what did he do? Did he train you? Did he rehearse you? Did he tell you exactly what to do, what to say? You were a very apt pupil, weren’t you?

These words are ironic because while Ferguson feels betrayed and deceived, he did the exact same thing to Judy when he met her so that she could look just like Madeleine and he could come to terms with his horrid past. The way in which these words are said, in disgust and rage, is actually pretty hypocritical since Ferguson showed no compromise and hesitation to fulfil his own desires, just like Mr Elster did with the desire to kill his wife. Where Mr Elster took advantage of Ferguson’s fear of heights, Ferguson took advantage of Judy and her submissive character as she would do anything for his love, and turned it towards trying to get back what he lost. In addition to this, the words ‘train’, ‘rehearse’ and ‘played’, along with the phrase ‘tell you exactly what to do’ all apply to what a production director does to their actors, changing their appearance to fit the character envisioned in their mind and the script and tell them to do exactly what is written for them in the part. Hitchcock was known to have a specific vision and choice for actors, choosing blonde and white women for the female roles. It is interesting to infer that the scene, and the script, are aware of this nature in film production, enhancing the element of irony. While Elster was cruel to murder his own wife, take a non-suspecting man like Ferguson and use him as a tool in the crime to clear Elster’s name, Ferguson is really no different than the criminal himself in this matter as in a broad sense, he did all that to Judy, without murder being involved.

What would I do differently?

‘Vertigo’ is a masterpiece with a great story that I couldn’t change to anything better. Though some people may feel that its length is quite long, I feel as if it is apt since it allows the audience to get acquainted with the characters on screen enough to feel the empathy for and impact of the plot twists. Though aspects I would enhance in the film are the special effects and the set design in terms of the quality of projected displays used for the background of room and car windows, as well as shots from the top of buildings. In a modern day, with the latest technology, it would look far more realistic and improve the film from a minor technical standpoint.