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.
