Revisiting Vertigo - a Project of Deconstruction

I found recently on youTube a video that revisits the places where the story of Vertigo took place: first the Mission San Juan Bautista (founded 1797; the 1906 bell at the entrance, telling the name of the road up to it, El Camino Real; the carriage in the stable, a Corning Top Buggy manufactured by Studebaker); then the apartment building where the Elsters were living, on the Sacramento Street; an aerial view leading toward Fort Point at the foot of Golden Gate Bridge - birds flying over the bridge, probably just to remind us of another masterpiece of Hitchcock; the façade of the Empire Hotel (with a long history of its own, during the Prohibition - meantime it changed its name into York Hotel) - a close up on the windows of Judy's room; again an aerial view, leading to the entrance of Scottie's townhouse on 900 Lombard Street; then Mission Dolores (façade, inside, the cemetery, with the camera leading to what is suggested to be an open tomb); and finally the Legion of Honor Palace.




Let's watch again the video: you'll note at the beginning, as the car is advancing along El Camino Real, the eye that is reflected in the windshield. Is it the eye of Madeleine?

Just a word about the actors: James Stewart plays an anti-hero, Kim Novak pictures an unforgettable character wrapped in uncertainties, Barbara Bel Geddes (who would be after many years the splendid Miss Ellie from Dallas) is very convincing in the supporting role.

Wong Kar-Wai ranges Vertigo in his top of five best movies ever, and the reason he gives is its sensuality.

You'd say. wait a minute, Vertigo is a thriller, well, a psychological thriller (you get the tension of what's happening there, you are led to some conclusions, you discover suddenly that you were wrong, you start to guess the outcome, bit by bit): no sex at all, why then to praise it for sensuality? Vertigo is not Kama Sutra, c'mon!

But the movie does not give you only the tension of constructing and then deconstructing some logical hypothesis: as you watch the thriller you become more and more identified yourself with the detective, prisoner of some kind of a strange fascination; and a sensation of guilt - you feel that your unclear fascination is somehow wrong, very wrong, and you cannot escape from it.



So, in order to understand, let's keep cool and try to deconstruct Hitchcock's construction. Here are some suggestions.

It is true that Vertigo does not contain explicit (or even presumed) sex scenes at all - actually a sensual movie should not contain such scenes: it is all about desire. Here comes Wong Kar-Wai in our discussion again: think at two of his masterpieces, In the Mood for Love and The Hand (his episode from the tryptic Eros).

Vertigo is a thriller, of course, and it communicates tension, only we should observe that the tension in this movie is of erotic nature: the detective story is the support for developing an unbearable desire.

I would not characterize it as a love story, because I want to avoid any perception here of a possible happy outcome (that could have happened or not): there is not such a thing as optimist possibilities in Vertigo, everything is tragic from the beginning. The detective falls for the wife of his friend. The more he discovers her madness and further her crime the more he's losing control.

Actually there is a love story in Vertigo, only it is not between the two protagonists: the detective is loved by a woman who has lots of treasures of delicacy, and good nature, and warmth, while he is following his descent into hell. The love story is yet another support to emphasize the development of the other story, the main one.

And I should add that there is also a second love story: we should follow the movie not only through the eyes of the detective, but also through the eyes of his target! Hitchcock shows here a great subtlety in telling us what happens in the heart of the targeted woman, possible mad, possible criminal, the way she falls in love for the detective while realizing that each step toward him leads to her destruction.

I found on the web another video, showing the moment when everything comes together: the detective has the proof of the crime, he realizes the love of the criminal for him, he realizes that there is no escape for his soul any more. He will desire that woman for ever, his desire will not be fulfilled ever. Soon will come the words of the nun, God, Have Mercy of Our Souls.



And I come again to the image at the beginning of the first video, with the eye reflected by the windshield. Eye of God or eye of devil? Mystic and sensuous come always together.


(Filmofilia)