Vertigo

Rating: 8/10 (19 January 2007)

Hitchcock was on a roll during that period. Vertigo is one of his most celebrated films, even though it's modeled after Rebecca in that it's 3 films rolled into one: a love story, a metaphysical thriller, and a suspense drama. Nevertheless, the difference between the Hitchcock of 1940 and the Hitchcock of 1958 is vast. The Hitchcock of Vertigo is a much more elaborate director, that dwells on the human psyche to fill the canvas. The human psyche is the protagonist, the suspense is just the background, or even a detail. Vertigo is a major work and an essay on neurosis and repressed desire.
The plot: John Ferguson is a retired detective suffering from acrophobia. A rich old friend (Gavin Elster) hires him to investigate the activities of his wife (Madeleine), who he believes is being possessed by the spirit of a dead ancestor (Carlotta Valdes). After seeing Madeleine, Ferguson agrees. Later on, we see that Madeleine half-lives in Carlotta Valdes' house, spends a lot of time in front of a Carlotta painting in a museum, and generally models her behaviour after Carlotta. Also, Madeleine suffers from blackouts, during which she isn't in control of herself. Ferguson forms a relationship with her. He then pressures her to get rid of the past by dwelling on it, visiting places where Carlotta lived etc. During such a visit, and in the same day Carlotta died, Madeleine commits suicide by falling from the bell-tower of a chapel. Ferguson is unable to rescue her due to his acrophobia.
Following this, Ferguson is placed in a mental hospital, suffering from catatonic depression. After some time, we find Ferguson released from the mental institution and in better shape. He then meets a woman who looks a lot like Madeleine. Nevertheless, the woman, Judy Barton, seems less perfect and more vulgar than Madeleine. Ferguson forms a relationship with her, and is trying to model her after Madeleine, buying her the same clothes etc. But during one of their encounters, the truth is revealed due to Barton's carelessness. She used the same jewelry as Madeleine. Barton and Madeleine is the same woman. In truth, Madeleine/ Barton was a "doppelganger" to Elster's wife. Elster hired her in order to kill his rich wife, and manipulated Ferguson's illness so that he was a witness to the "suicide". It was the wife, and not Madeleine that fell from the tower.
Unaware that Ferguson knows the truth, Barton continues the relationship and the "transformation" to Madeleine. She now is in love with Ferguson, but Ferguson is intent on freeing himself from his acrophobia. As Barton is completely transformed to Madeleine, Ferguson takes her to the same chapel and to the bell tower. Forcing her up, she confesses the truth. She claims she is in love with him. She then sees a shadow emerging, panics and falls into the void. It turns out that the shadow was just a nun. Ferguson stands and watches from above. He is cured.
...
This is not an easy film to analyze. It is very dense and has lots of hidden meaning beneath the surface. The most obvious theme is the one of fixation and impotence. Ferguson suffers from vertigo; Madeleine seems to be possessed by a dead spirit; Ferguson's friend Midge is in love with him but unable to express her love and conquer him; then when Madeleine dies Ferguson becomes obsessed with her.
Madeleine represents the ideal love, perfection.
In the meantime, there are some other interesting ideas floating in the background. One is that in the second half of the film we witness a reverse situation than that of the first half. In the first half, Elster and Madeleine manipulate Ferguson's impotence. In the second half, it is Ferguson that manipulates the less-than-perfect version of Madeleine (aka Barton), even though she regrets her accomplice and is genuinely in love with him.
The ending, as well as the first half, is shrouded in the metaphysical and supernatural. The shadow that Madeleine/ Barton sees could be anything: a ghost, her guilt, Elster, the dark side of her relationship with Ferguson etc. Ferguson models Barton after Madeleine with almost necrophiliac obsession. Just before the second time that Madeleine "dies", she and Ferguson kiss, representing the ephemeral happiness in vain. After she dies, Ferguson is freed from his impotence, but we don't know his feelings, we just see him watching from above. Basically Ferguson is haunted by his search for perfection (an ideal love, a god to believe in?). There is a clear parallel between that and his impotence (the vertigo). When he tries to transform the down-to-earth Barton to the perfect Madeleine, the illusion isn't working. In order to cure himself from the impotence, he kills her (he was the one that dragged her to the chapel).
Moreover, what the film seems to project is the vortex of the human psyche. Both in the first and the second half, the conclusion is the same: the woman dies. It's the behaviour of the male protagonist alters dramatically. In the supernatural first half, the protagonist is crippled, while in the down-to-earth second half, he is more free but also less happy.
The real moment Ferguson is freed is when he realizes the truth about Madeleine. Madeleine/ Barton is sitting in front of a mirror (representing the dual personality). Then Ferguson sees the jewel and immediately thinks of the portrait of Carlotta Valdes (a symbolism of the original sin? He and Madeleine had an adulterous affair after all). Vertigo projects the male-female relationship into the conflict between the human and the ideal (the supernatural, the belief in the perfect). But there is no way out. Both stories (the first and second half) are two sides of the same coin.