My sophomore year at Hopkins will be tied to a lot of different things. It’ll be tied to my double in McCoy, meals at Nolan’s, and long rehearsals of Spring Awakening in Swirnow Theater. It’ll be tied to my friends here, new and old, and the moments we’ve shared together. It’ll also always be tied to film blogging. Film blogging has been an integral part of my sophomore year. I have been constantly on the lookout for films to watch and concepts about which to write. This post will bring my film blogging to a close, so I knew I had to choose something epic and rich in order to end the year on the perfect, exciting note. I looked directly to Alfred Hitchcock.
Alfred Hitchcock has completely transformed my relationship with films. I, like many others, I’m sure, detest being asked what my favorite film is. My cinematic preferences are constantly changing based on my mood; when I’m frustrated I’ll want to watch something very different than when I’m elated. But if I were forced to choose—a gun drawn to my head—Rear Window might be the one to slip out due to its emphasis on some of the themes I find most interesting in the world like metacinema, voyeurism, and the male gaze. It’s one of those films you can watch a million times and still not pick up on all the themes and techniques employed by Hitchcock to tell the gripping story. Obviously, I am a big Hitchcock fan. Yet, shockingly, I had never gotten around to watching perhaps his most renowned film, Vertigo. Until now. I decided it was fitting, for my exciting final post, to write about what is known as one of the most epic and rich films to ever be created. I was not disappointed.
[SPOILERS AHEAD]
As our protagonist, ex-detective Scottie, is about to enter the church at the end of the film, he states that there is: “One final thing I have to do…and then I’ll be free of the past.” Throughout the film, I picked up on a preoccupation with time and the contradictory feelings of both nostalgia and disdain for the past. Characters grapple with the question: is it possible to ever be free of the past? Near the beginning of the film, Gavin Elster, an old friend of Scottie’s, discusses San Francisco, the setting of the film: “Well, San Francisco’s changed. The things that spell San Francisco to me are disappearing fast…I should have like to have lived here then. The color, the excitement, the power, the freedom…” He is clearly sentimental about the way San Francisco used to be, yet it seems that is a distant memory.
When researching Carlotta Valdes, the woman it seems has possessed Elster’s wife, the bookstore owner explains: “So [Carlotta’s husband] kept the child and threw [Carlotta] away. You know, men could do that in those days. They had the power and the freedom.” Once again, we are reminded of the power and freedom people had in the past, but this time the sentiment of nostalgia is complicated, as power and freedom are tied to the mistreatment of Carlotta by her husband. Scottie, throughout the film, is set on doing away with the past; he desperately wants to “stop being haunted.” But perhaps this is a lost hope. Scottie puts together the different aspects of his deceit by Elster and his mistress, Judy Barton, who was pretending to be Elster’s wife the entire time. He realizes that Elster was the mastermind behind everything and now has access to: “all of his wife’s money and all that freedom and power.” Again, we hear these words “freedom and power,” but now in a very different context. Elster has succeeded in becoming that free and powerful man of the past. Additionally, he abandoned his wife just as Carlotta’s husband abandoned her long before. What is more, Judy’s death transpires in the same way the real Madeleine’s death did; they both fall out of the same church window. All Scottie wants is to stop being haunted—by the death of the police officer at the beginning of the film, by his vertigo, by Madeleine after her death, but it is no use. Vertigo suggests that the past is not something one can ever escape.
It is crucial to understand this idea of “freedom and power” in relation to gender in Vertigo. Do any of the women in this film have any freedom or power? At the end of the film, Scottie interrogates Judy about Elster’s use of her in his grand scheme: “He made you over just like I made you over…Did he train you? Did he rehearse you? Did he tell you exactly what to do—what to say?” The men of Vertigo are consistently controlling the women. Like Carlotta’s husband controls Carlotta and Elster controls both Judy and his wife, Scottie similarly controls Judy when he implores her to change her appearance to look more like Madeleine. The idea of the male gaze is incredibly prevalent in this film. Just as Jeff becomes interested in Lisa after she has become the subject of his voyeuristic gaze, Scottie becomes interested in Madeleine solely after watching her. In this way, he is introduced to her less as a person and more as an object to be observed. It is true that Scottie is manipulated by Elster, but I would argue that the women of Vertigo are the ones truly being controlled.
Upon further reflection, I probably could have written about a different aspect of Vertigo for every single one of my blog posts this year; it’s the kind of film that clouds your mind with thoughts. However, one thing is absolutely clear to me: I think I have a new favorite movie.
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