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NAU Film Series: 'Vertigo,' a Hitchcock masterpiece

Friday, October 10, 2008

The 1958 "Vertigo" is considered one of Alfred Hitchcock's masterpieces. It stars a vulnerable and imperfect man portrayed by James Stewart, and a beautiful icy blonde played by Kim Novak. This familiar Hitchcock chemistry produces a complex mixture of mystery, romance and psychological thriller.

The lead character, Scottie, played by Stewart, is a retired police detective who suffers from vertigo, or acrophobia -- a fear of heights. Looking down from high places causes dizziness, weakness and a sense of falling. To convey the feelings of this condition on film Hitchcock makes use of stunning camera tricks and an intense musical score by Bernard Herrmann. But Scottie's problems are deeper than his fear of heights. He is hired to follow and protect the wife of a friend, Madeleine, played by Novak, but instead he falls painfully in love with her. His growing fixation on her beauty is developed through unique Hitchcockian camera angles, screen framing, and the use of haunting music. When he rescues her from an attempted suicide by drowning and feels obliged to remove her wet clothes, the viewer correctly becomes suspicious that Scottie may have crossed the limits of decency in pursuit of his guilty pleasures.

Through a series of tricks, he is led to believe that she succeeds in committing suicide by jumping from a tower. His inability to climb the tower and rescue her because of vertigo turns his love and desire for the icy blonde into a lingering unsatisfied obsession. He wanders the streets of San Francisco mistaking her identity in other blonde women.

Eventually, he finds another woman, Judy, who strangely reminds him of her. To satisfy his compulsive need to re-create the object of his desire, Scottie dominates and manipulates Judy into transforming her appearance and behavior into a duplicate of Madeleine. Why does she permit herself to be used in this way? As it turns out, she, too, suffers from secret guilt and unrequited love.

The sultry desirability of Kim Novak stands in contrast to Scottie's female pal, Midge, played by Barbara Bel Geddes. She is brisk, frank and practical, and although she cares for Scottie, her wholesomeness turns him off.

This is one of Hitchcock's most studied films because of its psychological complexity and subtle treatment of sexual obsession. Also, it captures perfectly the essence of one of the director's major cinematic interests -- cool blonde women who end up in precarious situations at the mercy of deeply flawed men. Similar plots develop in other Hitchcock thrillers including "Spellbound," "Psycho," "Rear Window," and "Frenzy."

As a director Hitchcock's lifelong ambition was to make a movie that would be considered "pure cinema" -- pictures without words that reveal character and motive in a story readily grasped by the audience. There are long sections in this film that rivet the audience's attention in just this way. Hitchcock was meticulous in pre-planning and storyboarding his movies to achieve these effects, and the success of "Vertigo" is a testament to his craftsmanship.

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