A Vision of Vertigo

Rating: 9/10 (15 October 2005)

A woman's face greets the viewer upon the film's opening sequence. The camera moves up from her lips and settles upon her eyes as a whirlpool of concentric colours begin to appear, becoming more and more beautiful and guiding the viewer like a hypnotist's timepiece into the depths of the subconscious mind.
"Do you believe that someone out the past, someone dead, can enter and take possession of a living being?" This question becomes the pivotal inquiry of the entire film as the rational, level headed detective Scotty is slowly but fatefully drawn into a swirling vortex of fragmented images contrasting the past and the present, love and reason, fate and free will, and life and death.
After an old college friend named Gavin Elster asks him to investigate the activities of his wife Madeleine because of her strange obsession with her deceased great-grandmother Carlotta Valdez, Scotty reluctantly agrees to help. He is unaware that the woman that he is made to believe is Madeleine Elster is in reality an impostor named Judy Barton who is Elster's mistress and co-conspirator in the planning of the murder of the real Madeleine.
Scotty's investigation into the activities of Madeleine's impostor lead him to a flower shop and then to the graveyard tomb of Carlotta. Back in the car he is led to an art gallery where he sees "Madeleine" seated in front of a portrait of Carlotta. He notices that she carries a bouquet similar to the one Carlotta holds in the portrait and that she wears her hair in a similar French twist. The woman subsequently drives to the San Francisco Bay area where she leaps into the water. Scotty manages to perform a heroic rescue. He takes the girl back to his apartment to dry her clothes. The stage has now been set from a series of disjointed visual images provided by a well manipulated setup of "coincidental" meetings to an episode involving actual verbal communication and Scotty is well on his way into a vortex of illusion. The young woman begins to convince Scotty that her motives to commit suicide are driven by the actions of her Great Grandmother who died by her own hand many years earlier at the similar age of twenty-six.
Hitchcock makes great use of imagery, colour and costuming in presenting his film. For example, the vertigo effect appears repeatedly, from the initial swirling credit patterns, to the near-death rooftop scene, to the disintegrating floral effects during the wonderfully orchestrated Scotty's nightmare scene, to the tunnel-like vision of the hallway during Midge's visit to Scotty's doctor and, of course, to the final mission tower sequence.
The colour green is strongly used throughout the film. Madeleine's impostor drives a green Jaguar and various tones of green reoccur continually as the movie progresses. Her character is initially resplendent in a green gown and later upon her initial introduction as Judy she is wearing a forest green dress. The prevalent use of the green symbolism creates images strongly representative of the continuation of life theme that is reinstated during "Madeleine's" visit with Scotty in the forest and their discussion over the cut down coniferous "evergreen" tree.
Madeleine's impostor also makes effective "ghostly" appearances wearing a gray suit and also a white coat with a black scarf, both costumes wonderfully contrasted against her platinum blonde hair. Like a vapour she sometimes makes momentary disappearances, on one occasion from a hotel and on another while walking in the forest. There are some interesting shadow shots of her as well, one as she stands in the doorway upon a late night visit to Scotty, another in profile as Judy Barton in her apartment and perhaps the most effective shot is from behind as she sits on an old fashioned carriage at the mission.
After Scotty fails to prevent "Madeleine's" suicide, she appears by "chance" on the street wearing a green dress as Judy Barton. Scotty eventually attempts to "remake" Judy (clothes, hair, make-up) into his vision of Madeleine and for a while he appears successful. One night, during preparations for dinner at Ernie's, a nightspot where he first gazed upon her as "Madeleine," he discovers that Judy is, in actual fact, wearing Carlotta's portrait necklace. Scotty then drives Judy to the mission tower where "Madeleine" died. In an attempt to overcome his fears and to be "free of the past," he forces Judy to the top of the tower. During the resulting physical and emotional altercation he sometimes calls her Judy and then Madeleine. The identities have become a blur; the vortex effect has once again enthralled him. Judy confesses to assisting in the murder of the real Madeleine and pleads for protection. The shadow of a nun climbing the stairs appears to frighten Judy off the ledge and she falls to her death from same tower from which the real Madeleine was thrown.
The film's impact is primarily upon the subconscious mind, probing questions about the nature and reasons for interactions with select individuals, their impact and the role they play in the blueprint of our lives. The film opens the door to speculation about the connection between the past, present and future and the role that single and collective perspectives have in determining our experience and destiny. Finally, the film asks the age old question; is the survival of consciousness a reality and are life and death simply doors of admission to interconnected ongoing realms of possibility?