Section A - Hollywood: Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958) Flashcards
Production Company and date?
Paramount - 1958
Critical reception
Mixed reviews.. Earned significantly less than other Hitchcock productions. But critical reputation grew. voted best film ever made in Sight & Sound, 2012
Hitchcock’s view of film and reception?
Interview with Francois Truffaut, Hitchcock stated that Vertigo was one of his favourite films. Blamed the film’s failure on James Stewart looking too old to play a convincing love interest for the 25-year old, Kim Novak.
Hitchcock had an unusual degree of independence. Why?
Hitchcock an established, experienced, successful director. Studio System was dismantling by the 1950s.
The role of Agents after the end of the Studio system?
Agents becoming more powerful. Hitchcock’s Agent Lew Wasserman also represented Jimmy Stewart. Wasserman had turned Hitchcock into a household name and the persona into a brand franchise through TV series Alfred Hitchcock presents and AH Hour (1955-65) - iconic cultural status.
Hitchcock Industry reputation
Capitalised on Hitchcock’s good relationships with the studios - trusted and admired so given more freedom than other producers
The Hitchcock Name.
Money making franchise which overcame funding issues - a problem for independent producers.
The importance of contacts.
Trusted collaborators were essential to protect him from interference and to achieve his vision. Actor Tom Helmore, Gavin Esler, old UK colleague & Jimmy Stewart through Wassermann
Importance of control
Hitchcock was extensively involved in planning and designing. Storyboarding & meticulous planning of MES. He made it clear what he
wanted, but then let his team get on with their jobs, and many elements came from them.
Auteur
Hitchcock was an émigré filmmaker who added his aesthetic flourishes to US Studio System structure from experience in the German film industry in the 1920s. Expressionist auteur features. Signature features & themes. One of the few auteurs who stamped their sense of individuality on a producer-led studio structure.
Joseph Breen
Hitchcock had always pushed the limits of film censorship, often managing to fool Joseph Breen, the longtime head of Hollywood’s Production Code. Many times Hitchcock slipped in subtle hints of improprieties forbidden by censorship until the mid-1960s.
Auteur Trademark
Camera movement that mimics a person’s gaze, forcing viewers to engage in a form of voyeurism. He framed shots to maximise anxiety, fear, or empathy, and used innovative forms of film editing. His work often featured fugitives on the run alongside ‘icy blonde’ female characters.
Hitchcock did not entirely escape final cut intervention. How?
Judy’s confession in the letter scene would have been a climactic reveal scene in a conventional mystery, and Hitchcock was credited with the audacity of positioning it in the main narrative. It appears to be a characteristic of Hitchcock’s preference for suspense instead of a brief shock. But in fact it was screenwriter Sam Taylor’s idea. Hitchcock first accepted it, got increasingly undecided, argued with his long-time co-producer, panicked and cut the scene. Highly critical previews led to Paramount’s Chief Barney Balaban ordering the scene to be put back.
A time of fast change, The workings of people’s inner lives were highlighted by both Freud’s theories about psychology and by modern literature. 1920s Russian Montage-editing
Hitchcock greatly admired 1920s Russian Montage-editing in which the combination of discontinuous images, different graphic qualities, and impossible spatial matches evoke ideas and emotional meanings.
Title Sequence
Graphic designer Saul Bass used spiral motifs in both the title sequence and the movie poster, emphasising what the documentary Obsessed with Vertigo calls, “Vertigo’s psychological vortex”.
Animation
John Whitney. Mathematical Lissajou curves, animated by avant garde filmmaker symbolise the twisted psychological landscapes to come. The visual motifs of mirrors carry the themes of looking, not seeing, and of delusion.
Special sequence
Scottie’s nightmare sequence was designed by artist John Ferren. Animated version of shapes (known as Lissajous curves)
Costume designer
Edith Head used colour to heighten emotion. Grey was chosen for Madeleine’s suit because it is not usually a blonde’s colour, so was psychologically jarring.
Score
by Bernard Herrmann. … Music is also built around spirals and circles, fulfilment and despair. Herrmann really understood what Hitchcock was going for
Pure Cinema
Hitchcock began career in silent cinema. Pure cinema - long sequences no dialogue. His preference was always for visual storytelling made powerful through editing, framing and composition, although he also valued the economical use of sound effects, and the narrative drive and thematic reinforcement of musical scores.
Exposition and Editing
In the first half of Vertigo, the editing alternates the ‘talkie’ exposition scenes with the visual set pieces of Scottie following Madeleine. This sets up a hypnotic rhythm intensified by the alternating point of view shot/reverse shots as Scottie is increasingly mesmerised by Madeleine.
How divided was 50s America?
How does this relate to ‘Vertigo’
Racism and sexism entrenched. Segregated society.
Civil rights - clashes in southern states - more attention. Women’s movements gain greater recognition towards end of decade
Men trying to re-assert control over women. Scottie tells Judy to spend time with him instead of going to work: “Let me take care of you”
Cold War mentality. Suspicions about what people were hiding. Appearances v reality. The idea of being duped and betrayed. Challenge to the hegemony and status quo.
1950s Gender Politics Context
The post-WWII loss of male identity (female empowerment in the workforce changing
gender dynamics) was a concern, leading to propaganda aiming to reinforce traditional
patriarchal male (professional, provider, head of household) and female gender roles
(motherhood, domesticity, submissive).
How gender politics represented in Scottie?
Scottie embodies the ‘weak’ impotent male 1950s stereotype – timid, reduced in stature and
capability, metaphor for 1950s middle-class male who has lost control.
Role of women context
Stereotyped portrayals of women as damsels-in-distress (dishevelled, panic-stricken).
- Women in Vertigo have no real agency and cannot exist exclusive of connection to men.
- Judy’s dialogue can be seen to diminish the role of women and increase her reliance on men
for self-esteem.
Male Gaze and Scopophilia.
Gaze - Laura Mulvey. Mulvey argues that the male gaze dominates the female gaze in cinema, reflecting the underlying power asymmetry and reinforcing patriarchal ideals. Women are objectified. Hitchcock positions the spectator through the male gaze. The voyeuristic portrayal of blonde women for the purposes of scopophilia is a form of
fetishization and recurring theme for AH.
Women as erotic objects
An erotic object for characters and the spectator e.g. Scottie and the camera linger over
Madeleine/Judy’s body parts for the purpose of scopophilia
Male gaze. Men as dominant
Patriarchy. Hegemonic. Male figures emerge as a dominant power with women as passive to the active male gaze.
Conventional societal representations. Women judged and valued according to how they look.
The painting of Carlotta Valdes becomes a totem of idealised female beauty, where the self-
objectification of Judy/Madeleine according to the image of Carlotta reinforces patriarchal
ideologies, where symbols of feminine perfection are quantified by their resemblance to
Carlotta.
Female body spectacle
The fetishization of Judy as the ‘blonde bombshell’ Madeleine makeover is underscored by a
cinematographic mist that idolises her image
Female submission & male power
Female submission to male erotic desire is seen as Scottie’s and the director’s ultimate
goal, as a form of patriarchal control. The film un/wittingly exposes male romantic love as a fantasy and fraud. Women are framed as a passive construct and concept rather than with active agency.
Women with agency/ Women who don’t submit.
Midge attempts to assert her role into Scottie’s erotic sub-conscious with the Carlotta painting but her agency repels Scottie who seeks a submissive figure to control and objectify.
The use of mirrors as a signifier reinforces Scottie’s desire to frame Madeleine/Judy in the
reflected image of Carlotta.
Societal concerns re: appearances v reality - on the back of witch-hunts. Also deeply repressed male protagonist who is contained by his fears and driven by his obsessions.
Vertigo deals with societal concerns through a deeply repressed male protagonist who is
contained by his fears and driven by his obsessions.
Male representations that subvert/challenge traditional Hollywood/ societal codes and conventions
Scottie is represented as an impotent male - connoted by acrophobia, walking stick, single, unemployed.
Towers and sticks as phallic symbols emphasise this
Scottie susceptible to Gavin’s plotting because weak
Sexual insecurity revealed by his obsessive desire for Madeleine (and recasting Judy in her image)
May allude to anxious males trying to reassert their male dominance in both domestic
and professional settings.
Masculine weakness, impotence.
Role reversal. Obsession usually seen as irrational and feminine.
Scottie becomes obsessed with Madeleine/Judy and reveals a challenge to patriarchal order.
Romantic love has stereotypically feminine connotations, but Scottie’s romantic quest
challenges masculine traits.
Scottie’s dreaming and following lacks the agency of a patriarchal male figure in control,
reinforcing his sense of masculine impotence.
Scottie’s madness mirrors Carlotta’s after the trauma of Madeleine’s ‘death’.
Scott’s impaired vision
Scottie’s impaired vision is highlighted by dolly ‘crash’ zoom shots to illustrate his acrophobia. May allude to his distorted psychoanalytic perspective of women.
Subversion of the Rescue Fantasy Theory
Scottie’s psychological weakness – his efforts to
play the rescuer have been foiled by Madeleine/Judy as a false damsel-in-distress – Scottie
fails to save Madeleine, and ultimately fails to save Judy from suicide – the film suggests that
Scottie’s masculinity is called into question by his failure to become the rescuer.
Political/Ideological Context
Hitchcock reflects the blacklisting of actors & directors by anti communist House of unAmerican activities in 1950s in Scottie interrogation scene – the canted reaction shots of the trial’s jurors lends the film an air of paranoia reminiscent of the HUAC hearings’ abrasive interrogation style.
Who invented the dolly zoom/contra-zoom/crash-zoom and how was it used to create meaning in ‘Vertigo’?
Irmin Roberts - uncredited cameraman
Used for Scottie’s ‘Vertigo’; chasing Madeleine in tower, audience feels his vertigo. Used alongside P.O.V. shots to create unsettling atmosphere. Ominous.
How are P.O.V. shots used to create meaning in ‘Vertigo’?
P.O.V. shots of Scottie viewing Madeleine/Judy - noticing curl in her hair is same as one of Carlotta in painting (male gaze theory)
How are close-ups used to create meaning in ‘Vertigo’?
Close ups on significant details: Carlotta’s grave, Madeleine’s necklace, curl in hair
How is Judy’s suit important in ‘Vertigo’?
Hitchcock controlled Novak through grey suit
Wanted Vera Myles (saw her in black and white). She got pregnant, so angrily got Kim Novak in. Wanted her to wear grey (recreate black and white). She didn’t want to, but Hitchcock made her
Scottie forces Judy to wear it to become Madeleine
How is colour used in the set design of ‘Vertigo’?
How does this relate to the production contexts/auteur theory?
Expressive miss en scene of Classic Hollywood ; use of colour - red in restaurant, love and passion
Hotel = grey, bland, bleak
Green = Madeleine (ghostly effect on her as leaves bathroom - ghost of Madeleine is there)
Mise-en-scene tends to expressive emotion: everything in the film relates to the story, conveys an emotion. Trying to compete with theatre - make the sets look like a theatre set
How is chiaroscuro lighting used to create meaning in ‘Vertigo’?
Green = Madeleine’s colour motif. Sat in the window at the hotel - green hotel light illuminates half her face, half not. Duality of Madeleine and Judy
Hitchcock inspired by German Expressionism - chiaroscuro lighting used commonly in this. Sign of his auteur signature
How does the idea of passive female characters relate to ‘Vertigo’?
Classic Hollywood films have passive female characters who are sexual objects for the active male characters
Madeleine = passive female characters. She doesn’t speak for first 40 minutes. Calls Scottie ‘Mr Ferguson’ at first.
Judy = more active than Madeleine. Protests at Scottie trying to stop her becoming Madeleine again, but lets him do it
Midge = active. Follows Scottie following Madeleine. Puts a note under his door, paints the painting for him
How does Judy’s closet create meaning in ‘Vertigo’?
Closet = Judy hiding the suit in there, repressing the idea of Madeleine, trying to forget it.
Kim Novak trying to forget the idea of becoming Madeleine, not wanting to wear that suit
4 Conventions of Classic Hollywood narrative
3-Act Structure
Progresses through character’s will and struggle to obtain a goal
Men - definable traits, active, goal oriented. Women - passive, rely on actions of the men
Objective storytelling: audience knows more than the characters do
How was space and time used in the Classic Hollywood style?
Flash-forwards and flashbacks
Most shots focus on gestures/facial expressions
Centering - significant people/object in centre of frame
Depth (set, lighting - mostly 3 point - costumes designed separate foreground and background)
What brought on New Hollywood (American New Wave)?
Old Hollywood rapidly losing money: competing TV audiences, poor operational links between studios and theatres
Studio system collapse: tax laws -> stars breaking contracts to get more money. Studios relied on them for money
Changing audiences: younger, more money, college educated
How did Hollywood react to the collapse of the studio system?
European films popular - innovative, took risks, so:
Studios hired young filmmakers - less studio control, more for directors and producers
Production code (1966) and Ratings system (1968)
Historical contexts of New Hollywood
Fight for equality among race and gender
Sexual revolution - FDA approved birth control pill
Counterculture movement - youth protesting traditional views on music, sex, drugs and wars
Popular genres of New Hollywood
B Movies (low budget, inferior quality - James Bond films) Late 60s, early 70s = revival of sci-fi
Conventional techniques in New Hollywood
Long focal lenses - enlarge small areas, used from a distance
Montage sequences - popular songs played over background
Slow motion and fast cutting - amplify emotion/violence
Conventions of early blockbusters in New Hollywood
Very high budget, aimed at masses, commercial success
Bigger studios, wide release, sequels and spinoffs
Famous actors/actresses, big name directors, released at key points in Year
Structured around stunts, SFX and action sequences
Define
Auteur Theory
Film director = auteur of film
Film’s quality = in director’s hands - top of hierarchy
Origins of Auteur Theory
French cinema censored by Nazis
French filmmakers fled - young growing up with ‘average’ films -> French new wave
French idea of auteur = small artisan productions (few involved)
Hollywood system = assembly line production
Define
Step 1 of Auteur Theory
Technical competence - know how to employ cinema techniques for meaning
Define
Step 2 of Auteur Theory
Distinguishable personality - aspects of style across work
“Metteur-en-scene” all style, no substance
Define
Step 3 - Auteur
Interior meaning - tension between personality/personal experience and the material
Auteur
Criticisms of the Auteur Theory
Kael: “If the film works, do we need to question the film’s competence?”
More of a tendency than a theory
Auteur may not be a director - could be anyone (“The Nightmare Before Christmas” directed by Henry Selick in style of Tim Burton)
How personal was ‘Vertigo’ to Hitchcock?
Scottie trying to fill void with Madeleine with Judy
Scottie = Hitchcock, couldn’t have Myles, making do with Novak
Locked film away, ashamed of it: very personal to him and a commercial failure
Hitchcock’s motifs
Communicating dark obsessions in way audience finds acceptable
Ice queen - cold, blonde woman
Woman wearing glasses - Madeleine in “The 39 Steps”, Barbara Bel Geddes “Vertigo”
Paramount studio team that worked for Hitchcock
James Stewart - actor contributing to Hitchcock tension
Edith Head - costumes
Robert Burks - cinematographer
George Tomaski - editor
How did Hitchcock control production of ‘Vertigo’?
Novak wouldn’t wear grey, brown shoes, a suit, wanted blonde hair - Hitchcock forced her against all these
Reconstructed room from “The Empire” hotel, the florist and the restaurant on set to have control over it
How technology used in ‘Vertigo’?
Used Technicolour and VistaVision for fantastically coloured world: vivid, seems artificial
Book ‘Vertigo’ is based on
“D’entre les morts”
What changes did Hitchcock made from original book?
Book; Judy reveals her involvement in Madeleine’s death at end
Film; Moved to 2/3 way through film, insight into Judy’s mind (voiceover)
Book; set in Paris
Film; Moved to San Francisco, lots of hills (vertigo)
How did German Expressionism influence Hitchcock?
Kuleshov effect for P.O.V. shots
Chiaroscuro lighting - Judy in hotel window, 2 sides to her
How did Hitchcock ‘sign’ his films?
Brief cameos - outside Elster’s office in ‘Vertigo’
Significance of spirals as a motif in ‘Vertigo’
Spirals - Carlotta’s hair, stairwells, shape of bodies as fall to ground, cyclical notes of music score
Spiral = no centre, never ending loop, lack solidity - like character’s identities
How masculinity presented in ‘Vertigo’?
Opening sequence: Scottie unable to run and jump as fast as other colleagues - responsible for man falling to him death saving him
No purpose, authority, stripped of everything ‘masculine’, in crisis
Low angle shots of Elster in his office - Scottie looking up to him
How did Hitchcock create his ‘brand’?
Built public persona through interviews, publicity stunts for his films, comically macabre trailers for his films
What was Kim Novak’s background and signature style?
Loaned from Columbia to Paramount - groomed to be a blonde bombshell to challenge Marilyn Monroe
Gimmick - colour lavender, wore in publicity photos
Wears lavender dress in letter scene
How did Hitchcock get around The Hayes Code?
Hayes Code - all crime needs to be punished
Filmed alternative ending where Elster arrested - but Hitchcock won battle for ambiguous ending
Used ambiguity to get around Code, moral complexity of characters as well: not good or evil
