Vertigo Flashcards
(15 cards)
What’s the specialist area and critical debate for the Hollywood essay?
Auteur Theory
Which has the most impact on the final shape of the film, Auteur or Prod. Context?
When was the golden age of Hollywood and what ended it?
+Early 30s to 60s
+Ended by:
-Antitrust actions against vertically integrated, monopolistic studios.
-White flight to suburbs / resulting demographic change at theatres
-Television stole the existing middle class audiences
-Shifting cultural attitudes to drugs, sex, politics and entertainment.
What did the studio system entail?
+Vertical integration of:
Production //Distribution // Exhibition
+Shooting on studio lots as opposed to on location
+Star Personas contracted to the studios to be leased as fit, payed a weekly salary, little agency.
+Studio Heads with executive creative control
+Overreliance on Genre, diff. Studios specialised in diff. Genres
+Motion picture production (or Hays) code was a form of self-censorship (to preempt gov. censors) in line with contemporary Conservative morality.
+Classical Hollywood Style
Define Bordwell’s Classical HW style.
+Conform to explicit Narrative Logic, character seen moving thru struggle to defined goal.
+Motivations are often psychological, emotional concerns rather than social concerns.
+Three acts linked by explicit cause and effect.
+Time is linear and continuous, cont. editing is the established norm
+Painstaking efforts to make spaces appear believable, not abstract or symbolic
+Theatrical Performances
+Est. shots developed for sheer clarity
+Parallel non-diegetic score to anchor emotional response
+Clear Heroes and Villains
How does Vertigo Subvert it’s contexts?
Contexts being Hays code, and general studio system genre demands.
+Justice isn’t done, Elster faces no punishment
+The Damsel in distress ultimately emasculates Scotty rather than affirming his masculinity
+James Stewart’s star persona as the everyman is subverted as Scotty is Wholly Alienated by the end
+Unsatisfying narrative resolution; Cliffhanger
+Dreamlike, nightmarish and experimental use of film form
+Elliptical narrative structure
+Hitchcock was asked to tone down the erotic vibe (Lol)
Analysis of Rooftop chase?
Wide, Mid, Close shot order, 180 degree rule observed, shot-rev. shot, action match; Classical style
Close Up and Dolly-Zoom: Hitchcock’s invention for Vertigo
Bernard Hermann’s Parallel, Orchestral Score; heightens tension, maintains aural motif
Believable MES, low key lighting
Theatrical performance, recognisable star
Thriller genre archetypes; gun, detective, chase
Analysis of Midge’s Introduction?
+Blocking resembles Freudian Psychotherapy
+Performance: Scottie plays with cane, immaturity, boyishness
+Dialogue: “Don’t be so Motherly” And “You’re a big boy now”
Starting in mid shot with diegetic CLANG; establishing tactile vulnerability
Pulls out into deep focus cinematography (Robert Burks)
Selectively Naturalistic sound design; gives the scene a dreamlike quality
a lighting effect that required Paramount’s technical resources to execute effectively.
shot/reverse-shot patterns; The cutting rhythm accelerates subtly
Green is Madeleine’s colour - representative of Scottie’s departure from reality and attainment of control, Judy is no longer silhouetted in contrast against the green - she embodies it, a living ghost
Yellow in foreground repr. Midge - which Scottie will move past in his pursuit of Madeleine, representing his rejection of the mother and transition towards the Id/Manhood in freudian terms
Special filters give the sunlight a hazy otherworldly quality - repr. the constructed world Scottie inhabits
Green haze - represents supernatural possibility, and Madeleine’s link with the deceased.
Colour Symbolism in Vertigo
Midge = Yellow (Safety, Mother, Impotence)
Scottie = Red (Fantasy, Obsession, Love)
Madeleine = Green (Supernatural, Constructed, Uncanny)
Scottie’s Red door, Midge’s Yellow room, furniture, Madeleine’s green dress
Shallow Focus Close Up; still maintains respectable distance - Scottie is still a boy, a virgin
Red/Green; Red symbolises Scottie’s fantasy/obsession, Madeleine’s green puts her in visual contrast, i.e. the object of his obsession, while hinting at her essential unobtainability
Silhoette obscures ‘Judy’; she (and Scottie) are haunted by Madeleine’s ghostly omnipresence, furthermore it removes her identity, she is simply negative space waiting to absorb the green
Red returns in a big way, undoing Scottie’s construction - this is just after we’re lead to believe they had sex and thus Scottie’s ‘solving the mystery’ is allegory for Freudian demystification
Also, Visual storytelling - one shot means something big
