Friday, 4 May 2018

Vertigo Themes

Identity
Fake person, Scotty obsessed with them etc.

Psychological Orders
Scotty not sure what is real, vertigo all prisoners of own psychology
Sets up acrophobia as the theme

Appearances
Scotty seemed to be recovering, but was revealed he was always unstable since the opening scene. Supposed supernatural theme that turns out to be fake - things never what they seem, Scotty's opinion on the supernatural at the start.

Death
Seen as attractive and frightening, brushed over, not treated seriously
The death at end - holds no consequence

Supernatural
Fake theme - red herring. Still prevalent.
Ethereal glow when Judy dresses up as Madeline

Romance
Differs to normal, shows its a bad idea and only ends badly
Every relationship fails. We assume Scotty + Midge get together (close up shows she's interested)

Reality
Lots of Scotty's motivations based on a lie

Masculinity + Femininity
Flawed genders. Man has the weakness
Madge looks after Scotty not other way round. Women who aren't 'fallen' seen positively - Midge.

Guilt
Shown in all characters and develops plot
Scotty develops vertigo due to guilt and he says his problems come when remembers. Madeline confesses because of it

Obsession + Control
Everyone has control of someone else in a pyramid shape. None of it ends well. Once someone becomes obsessed they become the protagonist
Elster's control of Scotty and Judy, Judy's control of Scotty as Madeline, Scotty's control of Judy. In restaurant camera work hints that Madeline knows Scotty's watching. Scotty gradually becomes obsessed - line blurs between doing his job and stalking.

Music constant and dramatic/atmospheric
Performance overdramatic
High key colour, strange for the genre                                                                                                                                             
Mise-en-scene - shot in studio vast majority of time, costume main focus of the last section but say nothing personal about them (differs massively to Blade Runner)
Editing - loads of cross fades - all scene transitions are fades, loads of long takes

No comments:

Post a Comment

Nicholls' Modes of Documentary

Kapadia: Reflexive, poetic and expository Moore: Participatory, aspects of performative (Grierson - documentary is the creative interpre...