Watched Vertigo. Comments - **SPOILERS, if you haven’t seen it yet.**
1. Holy moly, there’s a lot going on here. The story is really complicated, but the film itself is so amazingly spare. It’s clear that every single shot has been intricately and beautifully crafted. There’s not a throwaway scene in the entire film. My favorite subtlety was the bit in the bookstore. The picture slowly becomes darker and darker throughout the whole scene, which serves the dual purpose of mirroring the sinister nature of what’s being revealed in the story and forcing the audience lean in closer and engage more actively. This is the opposite of lazy filmmaking.
2. The plot is completely implausible. **Again, SPOILERS.** When, exactly, did Scottie’s friend Elster concoct this whole INSANELY COMPLEX murder scheme? Did he find out that Scottie almost died after chasing some guys over rooftops and had really bad vertigo and THEN said to himself, “I’ve got an idea!” Or did he think of the idea and then said, “Now, if I just knew someone who was afraid of heights and would be able to make is part of the way, but not all of the way, up a belltower.” And then Scottie came along? What?
3. The plot is completely implausible, but it doesn’t matter. The story is totally engaging and emotionally resonant anyway. I don’t know exactly why, yet. There certainly are plenty of movies that have an especially high “well-that-could-never-actually-happen” factor that takes you right out of the truth of the story. That’s never a problem here. I guess it’s because of James Stewart’s convincing portrayal of Scottie’s obsession, which has nothing to do with logic. He’s obsessed, so we are too.
4. I love the feeling of bewilderment when watching a movie. And when I say bewilderment, I don’t mean confusion—more like intense curiosity. I love not quite knowing exactly what’s going on. It’s engaging and fun. And bewilderment is something that Vertigo offers in spades because what is Kim Novak doing for the first half of the film? I started to get concerned that once we figured out what she was doing, everything would be explained and we’d stop being interested. But even after things are explained, all these delightful ambiguities and unanswered questions still remain:
- Scottie sees Madeline/Carlotta/Judy in the McKittrick hotel window, goes in to talk with the hotel manager, and then finds that Madeline/Carlotta/Judy disappeared. Where did she go?
- After the opening scene, the film cuts away from Scottie hanging on to the roof gutter. Some time has passed and we’re in Midge’s apartment where Scottie seems to be slightly injured. How did Scottie get down from the roof? If another cop came along to rescue him, why is he injured?
- Does Judy jump or did she fall? (By the way, the shadowy figure of the nun in the bell tower is one of the scariest moments I’ve seen in a movie.)
Required viewing.
