Dizzy Spells

My show opens tonight so I leave you all with another essay...

Jimmy Stewart. San Francisco. Carlotta Valdez. Kim Novak. Dizzy spells. Portraits. Jewelry. Murder. All of these fragments combine to form a story: Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958). Literary design, through a unifying thread within the structure of a film; point of view; and/or motifs, allusions, and symbols, enables us to piece these fragments together to form not only a story, but a wealth of hidden meanings. Narrative, or the way the plot unfolds, is a key way to unlock the myriad of themes found within a film. In Vertigo, the fragmented structure and point of view create an unclear, unstable process for the audience, which mirrors Scottie Ferguson’s (James Stewart) fragmented mind and faulty perception. Furthermore, the film’s frequent use of motifs serves to highlight Scottie’s instability and the debilitating effects of his disease, vertigo.
Although the story has a clear beginning, middle, and end, it is conveyed in a fragmented, episodic structure built upon Scottie’s splintered mind and his episodes of vertigo or “dizzy spells.” The film begins in medias res, or in the middle of things, with a close-up of a hand climbing a ladder, which is eventually revealed to be the hand of the criminal that Scottie and a policeman are chasing. This scene immediately throws us into Scottie’s life without any background. Dangling from the rooftops seemingly inches from death, Scottie experiences his first vertigo attack, which serves as a way to establish his disease. An immediate jump into the action already establishes the film as a series of episodes, which will be driven by dizzy spells similar to the one in this opening sequence.
Vertigo heavily influences the film’s structure from the beginning, with the chasing of the criminal and the onset of the disease; to the climax, when the disease prevents Scottie from reaching the top of the tower to save Madeleine (Kim Novak) from “suicide;” and at the end, when his ability to continue up the tower, despite the debilitating effects of the disease, results in Judy’s (Kim Novak) death. Several other dizzy spells figure prominently in key scenes. In their crucial first meeting, when Madeleine “falls” into the San Francisco Bay and Scottie rescues her, she claims her accident as the result of a “dizzy spell.” Also, Scottie’s motivating, but dangerous obsession with Madeleine is reflected in a spinning, vertigo-esque dream sequence, which for the audience is the first truly clear demarcation of his poor mental state. This revelation is extremely important because Scottie’s romantic obsession and decline in mental health will drive the film to its tragic conclusion. The events in the film jump from scene to scene with no clear delineation as to how much time passes between each. For example, we know that there is a gap between Scottie’s first accident and the next scene with Midge (Barbara Bel Geddes), as well as between his stay in the mental hospital and his return to life in the city, but we are not told whether this gap is a few days, weeks, or months. Thus, Scottie’s episodes or dizzy spells act as the unifying force within an otherwise fragmented structure to create a comprehensible story. However, the fact that a mind-altering disease is our unifying force can also alert the viewer to the possibility that the information Scottie provides may be faulty.
The heavy use of first person point of view within the film also contributes to a puzzle-piece structure in that the audience only knows what the first person character knows. The majority of the film is told through Scottie in first person, but is interspersed with third person shots of him to grant us a view of our protagonist. Therefore, Scottie provides most of the information, as we simultaneously piece together the fragmented clues. We are only offered his interpretations of events, which we are expected to both trust, because he was once a successful detective, and question, because of the effects of his disease.
Scottie’s interactions with Madeleine provide the most prominent use of first-person point of view. For the first two-thirds of the film, our only glimpses of Madeleine are Scottie’s perceptions. When the audience and Scottie first see Madeleine, it is from his point of view. There is a third person shot of Scottie at the bar, but the next shot of Madeleine at the table, accompanied by an eyeline match following his glance, is through Scottie’s point of view. Thus, from first view, we are only permitted to see Madeleine as Scottie does – a beautiful, mysterious, and oddly distant blonde. We are denied access to the secrets she may be hiding. As Scottie trails her in several sequences that rely heavily on first person point of view, an incomplete picture of Madeleine remains. In fact, while following Madeleine in her fit of “madness,” the only view of Madeleine that isn’t through Scottie’s eyes is a reflection of her in a flower shop mirror. This shot is not only further use of fragmentation through a sudden change in point of view, but also a reflexive reminder to the viewer that our knowledge of Madeleine is only a reflection of Scottie’s knowledge. While Scottie trails her car, Hitchcock continually cuts back and forth between first person shots of Madeleine’s car through his view out the windshield and third person reaction shots of Scottie’s face. The continual use of first person shots out the windshield forces us to focus our attention solely on keeping Madeleine’s car within our sight, which prevents any recognition of the surroundings and where she might be going. Barred from the knowledge of Madeleine’s intent, our goal merges with Scottie’s – to follow Madeleine in hopes of discovering an explanation for her strange behavior.
Throughout this trailing sequence, Hitchcock uses a shot of Scottie’s view of Madeleine and a follow-up shot of his view of the things she is looking at, such as Carlotta Valdez’s grave and the portrait of Carlotta. The use of these shots without any linking third person shots of Madeleine, which might give us some clue to her emotions and her purpose for visiting these sites, forces Scottie and the viewer to attempt to develop some kind of logical link between Madeleine and the objects of her interest. For example, when Scottie discovers the link between Carlotta’s grave and the portrait in the museum, we then assume there must be an important connection between Madeleine’s strange behavior and Carlotta Valdez. Through a series of four shots, we next note a link between Madeleine and Carlotta’s identical hairstyles and bouquets: Shot 1) Scottie’s view of Madeleine’s hair; Shot 2) his view of the hairstyle in the portrait; Shot 3) a shot of his view of Madeleine’s bouquet; and finally, Shot 4) his view of the bouquet in the portrait. Direct shots of Madeleine’s face from Scottie’s point of view further emphasize this limited knowledge. Through his perception, Madeleine often appears to be staring into space, and neither he nor the audience can be sure where her thoughts and gaze are focused. Granted only fragments of information through Scottie’s point of view, we must make the same connections and assumptions that he does because we have nothing else to work with.
Faulty assumptions become particularly relevant with the use of a first person point of view in the climax of the film. The chase into and up the tower and Madeleine’s fatal fall from the bell tower are all seen through Scottie’s point of view. In a key moment, we are still only left with Scottie’s account of the events. Logically, we assume, like Scottie, that Madeleine is truly Madeleine, that she really was driven mad by her connection to Carlotta Valdez, and that she committed suicide and is undeniably dead. However, because Scottie’s disease prevents him from reaching the top of the bell tower, his point of view again only provides us with fragments of information that are not necessarily correct. Eventually, Hitchcock does veer from Scottie’s patchy point of view to create suspense. His use of first person and mindscreen with Judy allows viewers to see the truth – that Judy is actually Madeleine. It was all a setup. From this point on, Judy’s point of view is frequently used as a way to further convey Scottie’s mental decline and dangerous obsession. Her point of view allows the viewer to not only wait with bated breath for Scottie to discover the truth, but also to take a step back from Scottie. It is an opportunity to recognize his faulty perception and the full extent to which vertigo and his obsession with Madeleine have taken over his life.
Finally, the use of first person point of view emphasizes the effects of Scottie’s disease and causes the viewer to feel as if they are actually experiencing vertigo. Each time Scottie suffers the ill effects of vertigo, we see the ground from his distorted perspective, in a simultaneous zoom and tracking shot that makes the viewer feel as if they too were suffering from a dizzy spell. The disease hampers us equally when we see its dizzying effects with Scottie, because we also cannot continue to learn more information or see his goals met. Not only does first person allow us to see the direct effects of vertigo as it is happening, but it also grants us insight to the psychological after effects caused by his failure to save Madeleine. Scottie’s vertigo leads to another disease -- obsession. And his point of view forces us to recognize and suffer from this obsession as well. When Scottie sees several different women that resemble Madeleine, we, like him, believe for a brief moment that it might actually be she, because his point of view prevents us from knowing otherwise, but also because his obsession with her is directly manifested in his point of view. First person point of view establishes a fragmented, faulty perception because it limits our ability to gather information from other characters, but it also subjects us to the limitations of a particular character’s mind, such as those caused by Scottie’s vertigo and obsessive tendencies.
Motifs also play a major role in reinforcing the fragmented state of Scottie’s mind and the debilitating effects of his vertigo and obsession. Circles, or a spinning motion, provide one of the primary motifs in the film. The plot itself follows a circular pattern with the “return” of Madeleine and a second climax at the mission, including the repetition of Madeleine’s death with Judy’s fall from the tower. Furthermore, both diseases in the film are heavily connected to circles and spinning. Vertigo results in a spinning, dizzying effect, and obsession forces people to always circle back in their mind to focus on the object of their obsession. Therefore, spinning and circular motion are the most important motifs for highlighting the destructive properties of Scottie’s diseases because of the direct link between spinning and the diseases’ effects.
The film opens strongly with these motifs: from the score, which implies spinning because of its heavy use of repetition, to the focus on an eye, which is not only circular itself, but has an abstract object spinning within it as well. Also, the motion of the credits within this opening sequence support the spinning motif, appearing with a simultaneous zooming and tracking effect similar to the effect used to convey Scottie’s vertigo. The opening credits end with a shot of the eye, highlighting the importance of both circles and perception from the start of the film. A similar sequence, that of Scottie’s nightmares following Madeleine’s death, makes use of the spinning motif through abstract images. The nightmares are a direct result of Scottie’s fear of vertigo and his deepening obsession with Madeleine, which the spinning motif underscores through mirroring the effects of the disease. Several spinning shapes appear in the dream, similar to those found in the eye in the opening credits, as well as Scottie’s spinning head, a direct connection to the dizzy spells he experiences from vertigo. Also, several other motifs within the film, including Carlotta’s bouquet and her portrait, are combined with a spinning effect in this sequence, causing us to associate his obsession with Madeleine and her relationship to these objects with circular motion. Finally, we see the silhouette of his body falling and spinning out the bell tower window, which suggests a link between death and his disease and its effects. The repeated use of spinning and circular motion within these two sequences stresses the instability and lack of clarity caused by Scottie’s diseases.
Circles and spinning also appear prominently in Scottie’s interactions with Madeleine, emphasizing the obsession that stems from their relationship. Their first meeting begins with the camera circling Scottie’s apartment until it comes to rest upon Madeleine in the doorway. His reunion with Madeleine, by means of a transformed Judy, is shot in a similar way with the camera panning 360 degrees around their embracing figures. By slowly circling onto her, as his mind will eventually do regularly, this use of circular motion establishes his fascination with Madeleine at their first face-to-face meeting and reminds the viewer of it upon her “reincarnation.” Furthermore, the second use of this circular shot also depicts Scottie imagining himself at the site of their last kiss, which further highlights his faulty perception and declining mental state.
The episodic structure and frequent use of first person create a fragmented experience for the viewer, mirroring Scottie’s splintered mind and piece-meal information. However fragmentation itself is an important motif in the film that further emphasizes this disjointed viewing process. Besides spinning, the opening credits also contain a lot of fragmentation. Instead of a giving us a full shot of Kim Novak’s face, which would give us a unified and complete picture of her appearance, Hitchcock uses fragmented shots of her lips, nose, and eyes. His use of fragmentation not only foreshadows the importance of her face and appearance in the film by drawing out our introduction to it, but by already splitting up her face into pieces that we must connect, it also foreshadows the misperceptions that will form about her true identity in relation to her appearance. As we receive choppy images now, so will Scottie and consequently, the audience gain only pieces of the truth as the story progresses. This fragmentation of the face is echoed in the sequence of Judy’s makeover to resemble Madeleine. Again, we see her eyes, lips, fingernails, etc. as separate entities as they are transformed to create a new, fake identity forced on her by Scottie’s destructive obsession. His incomplete view and knowledge of Judy, and his desperate, misguided linking of Madeleine and Judy are reinforced through this fragmented sequence as our perception of her becomes fragmented as well.
Finally, Madeleine describes her supposed moments of possession by Carlotta as walking down a long corridor with hanging “fragments” of mirrors, and she can only remember events from what she sees in these broken pieces. The fact that these mirror shards do not allow her to remember all of her actions warns the viewer that although the fragments are important, they are not the whole story. Scottie and the viewer only understand pieces of the truth at this point in the story, but she seems to be trying to warn both Scottie and the audience that more information is needed to comprehend the whole story. Her use of the motif of fragmentation is reflexive in that it forces us to consider the possibility that what we know are only pieces of the truth, illuminating our disjointed viewing process.
Through the various elements of literary design, we can come to a deeper understanding of the film. An extensive use of episodic structure, first person point of view, and motifs create a fragmented viewing experience for the audience that mirrors the puzzle-piece discovery process that Scottie undergoes, as well as his disjointed state of mind plagued by disease. However, the true source of his fragmented, faulty perceptions is his blinding obsession with Madeleine. Obsession, the film suggests, blinds you from the truth, until the discovery of the truth becomes inevitable, and the potential for self-destruction, as well as the destruction of the objects of your obsession, becomes increasingly inescapable.

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