Vertigo Flashcards
How should you respond to question 18?
- intro, hitchcock’s treatment + rep of women (negative, Bidisha in Guardian)
- stereotypes, Midge (mother figure? Robin Wood says yes, Tim Groves says no)
- Laura Mulvey on Vertigo (male identification, controlling gaze)
- Tanya Morbeski/Michael Koreski/Roger Ebert (sympathetic identification with Judy)
What does Bidisha say in her article with the Guardian?
She says “when it comes to the ladies, it’s slim pickings.”
Says that Hitch deals with a “combination of stereotypes” such as “the vamp, the tramp, the snitch, the witch…”
What did Robert K Lightning say to claims of stereotypes in Hitchcock’s work?
That they were ‘cliche’ and ‘banal’
Why does Robin Wood argue in favour for Midge being a mother figure?
- in the second scene of the film there’s only 5 shots in which Midge and Scottie are shown in the same frame, implies distance between the two
- shot 62 (final shot of the scene) Midge comforts the distraught Scottie in her arms, holding his head to her bosom
- of the two characters only Midge is permitted close ups, of which the enigmatic nature of her glances are emphasised. They suggest an inadequacy in him, an impossibility of a mature relationship.
- Scottie says to her “don’t be so motherly”
- Midge uses the boy-like “Johnny-O”, whereas Madeleine (Scottie’s romantic interest) says “I prefer John”
((conversely though, she does say ‘sorry, old man’ at one point))
Why does Tim Groves argue against Midge being labelled the ‘mother figure’?
- Groves says interpreting Midge as maternal is ‘problematic’, and that Midge is a “attractive, contemporary woman” and that “her relationship with Scottie is one of equals, rather than mother and son.”
- he says that while Wood acknowledges the spatial separation between the characters his reading “neglects the humour of the scene” and as a result “overlooks the subtlety of their relationship.” The “friendly banter” in the scene doesn’t suggest a maternal relationship.
- he says the concern she expresses in the scene is “that of a partner, not a parent”, and that “Midge assists him” in a way that suggests friendship.
What does Laura Mulvey say in reference to Vertigo?
- “the look is central to the plot, oscillating between voyeurism and fetishistic fascination”
- “Hitchcock’s skilful use of identification processes and liberal use of subjective camera from the point of view of the male protagonist draw the spectators deeply into his position, making them share his uneasy gaze. The audience is absorbed into a voyeuristic situation within the screen scene and diegesis which parodies his own in the cinema.”
- “in Vertigo, subjective camera predominates”
“Vertigo focuses on the implication of the active/looking, passive/looked-at split in terms of sexual difference and the power of the male symbolic encapsulated in the hero”.
Mulvey believes that through subjective camerawork (frequent use of POV) we are forced to identify with the male through a controlling gaze
What does Tania Modleski think the argument as to whether we experience the events of Vertigo through the male is complicated?
- while Mulvey dismisses a flashback from Judy’s point of view as an aberration, Modleski sees the flashback as producing a “spectator position painfully split between Scottie and Judy for the rest of the film”
- she notes that when he leaves the room the camera, for the first time, deserts Scottie and stays with the woman.
- she believes knowing Judy was a tool in Gavin Elster’s it makes us more sympathetic towards the woman who is continuously manipulated by men (e.g Scottie)
- because of this the argument that we experience events in Vertigo through the male protagonist is considerably more complicated
Why does Michael Koresky believe our identification shifts from Scottie to Judy during/after her confession?
- believes when the film reveals its twist there’s a radical shift. “No longer tied to the point of view of its leading man, this film becomes a fascinating take on a complex, cracked up woman that never tips over into a portrait of female hysteria.”
- Scottie’s emotional breakdown severs out connection with him. “When Hitchcock subtly reorients is by transferring our identification to Judy/Madeleine, it is not only so we can get filled in on her criminal backstory but also that we can fully see Scottie’s transformation into a monstrous obsessive.”
- “we’re identifying with an object, the object of his perverse affections”
- he mentions that only Judy and we see the nun, which acts as a manifestation of her guilt
- “is Vertigo as sensitive a portrayal of a woman’s breakdown as it is a man’s?”
What does Roger Ebert say in regards to Judy?
“The danger is to see Judy…as an object in the same way that Scottie sees her. She is in fact one of the most sympathetic female characters in all of Hitchcock.”
What could the quote “Did he train you? Did he rehearse you? Did he tell you what to do and say?” refer to?
It could refer to Gavin as a symbol of patriarchy, emphasises that Judy is continuously manipulated by men which makes us sympathetic towards her and helps shift our identification
