EF Classics – Vertigo (1958)

Re-watched: November 9, 2024

“Do you believe that someone out of the past – someone dead – can enter and take possession of a living being?” -Gavin Elster

*Spoiler Free*

Vertigo (1958) is the quintessential romantic thriller and EF’s favorite film. The morphing site icon is an homage to Kim Novak. No film is more psychological, or for me as haunting. I basically fell through the screen when I first saw this as a kid. Have fallen for it ever since.

The evolution of EF’s site icon…”Obsess much?”

Plot – A former San Francisco police detective wrestles with trauma while becoming obsessed with the hauntingly beautiful woman he has been hired to trail, who may be possessed.

Vertigo is an adaptation of the Boileau-Narcejac’s 1954 novel, D’Entre les Morts which was essentially written for Alfred Hitchcock (Truffaut 243). Hitchcock was “intrigued by the hero’s attempts to re-create the image of a dead woman through another one who’s alive.” The Master of Suspense made one pivotal alteration to the source material. In the latter half of Act 2 he reveals the twist! This coincides with my second favorite shot of the film – the back of one actor’s head slowly turning to reveal a galaxy of inner turmoil. The revelation transforms the mystery into a most dynamic and satisfying play of dramatic irony thereafter.

The hero’s attempt to recreate a dead woman is a perfect allegory for Carl Jung’s theory of anima. Anima is a man’s ideal woman. Animus, a woman’s ideal man. We project this inner image onto individuals of the opposite sex, blinding ourselves to who they truly are. Anima and animus evolve with experience but only for individuals who learn from their mistakes. Others are doomed to repeat the past. For more information about Jungian psychology visit my friend and go-to resource, LampMagician.

Among Vertigo’s technical triumphs, all of which we studied in film school, are its scene blocking, psychedelic editing, strategic use of color, fog lens, and first ever dolly-zooms, later seen in such films as Jaws (1975), Raging Bull (1980), and Poltergeist (1982).

The trick shot is achieved by zooming in while pulling the camera back with exact precision. First conceived while shooting Rebecca, it would take 15 years of mulling before Hitchcock could solve the technical problem. Inspired while drunk at The Royal Albert Hall when the room seemed to move away from him.

Bernard Herman’s music score perfectly embodies the film’s central motif – the spiral, as symbol for obsession and the persistence of time. The main theme features a dually rising/falling arpeggio out of the the minor(maj7) chord. A unicorn like the Bond chord, the “Vertigo chord” conforms to no scale but exists in a netherworld all of its own. Yet we know it instinctually!?

In “Scene D’Amour” Hermann employs an infinitely repeating minor modality which rises, crescendos and then returns down the same sonic staircase it ascended. The strings and brass are yin and yang in dance. Muscle and skeleton. First ascent the strings play melody while the brass / woodwinds support in static rythm. Next ascent they switch roles before crescendoing in unchained harmony.

Vertigo is Alfred Hitchcock’s most critically acclaimed film and also my favorite. The Master of Suspense is at the top of his game; all elements of production are in perfect harmony. Vertigo is a complete work of art spiraling in the cosmos for eternity.

The Inside Out: Fear (30), (Disgust (30), Anger (20), Sadness (12), Joy (8)

Experience Film🌉🧤💐꩜

Special thank you to Giadreams @TheMovieMyLife. Your review inspired mine. Gia has been running a Hitchcock marathon on her site. Be sure to check out her recent experiences of Rear Window, and Psycho also!

References

Truffaut, Francois. Hitchcock. Simon & Schuster, 1966

Van der Kolk, Bessel A. The Body Keeps the Score: Trauma and Healing. Pesi, 2014.