Famous Psychological Thriller "Vertigo"

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, which tells a story of an acrophobic detective, Scottie, who is in search for the answer of a mystery of a woman that has been assumed to have mental issues. As the spectators, we are irresistibly engaged with Scottie and his investigation on the mystery thanked to the formal choices made by the director. These formal choices applied in Vertigo include elements of narrative, motif, mise-en-scene, which correspond together to create suspense through the film that emerges the audience with the story.

Vertigo’s narrative is an obvious proof that Hitchcock is a master of creating suspense. Vertigo follows traditional Hollywood linear narrative structure, which focuses on certain characters that drive the plot with cause and effect logic. However, what special is that Hitchcock employs very effective range of narration techniques to stimulate an increasing level of suspense that makes us, the spectators, more emerged in the story.

Technically, restricted narrative is a classical technique to create suspense; spectators are only given access to information that is purposely planned for them to pay attention to.

Thorough act one and two in Vertigo, restricted narrative is used to position the audiences with Scottie’s point of view. For example, the viewers are engaged in to Scottie’s world and introduced to his relationship with Midge; we only see events from his perspective. When the restricted narrative keeps the spectators suspended long enough, the revealing point merges in with a game changing scene when the narrative switches from restricted to unrestricted.

Get quality help now

Prof. Finch

Verified

Proficient in: Flowers

4.7 (346)

“ This writer never make an mistake for me always deliver long before due date. Am telling you man this writer is absolutely the best. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

This is when Judy writes a letter to Scottie attempting to tell the truth about everything, but she then refuses to sends the letter. Flashback brings audiences to the murdering scene when Elster threw his real wife off the bell tower at the church.

This is the moment when the audience starts learning about the plot that Scottie was set up, and Judy was Madeline and that Judy did actually fall in love with Scottie. While the spectators are trapped in Scottie’s POV, they are not given any extra information of what is going on outside Scottie’s knowledge and have no idea that there is something hidden from him. The flashback acts as a main information provider, and also a relief given to the audience. After the flashback, we do not only see the story from Scottie’s POV, but also from Judy’s POV, this as a result, increases levels of suspense. We, as the spectators, change our role in watching the film entirely through unrestricted narrative, and anxiously await the resolution coming gradually.

The use of motifs is another technique that Hitchcock excessively uses in Vertigo, which contributes very well thorough the story and induce the suspense already present in the film. The most obvious motif of the film is the spiral. It symbolizes the actual vertigo Scottie is suffering from. For example, viewers are introduced with the image of spirals right at the opening credits in a woman’s eye; and then in the opening scene when Scottie’s colleague falls off the roof in spiral shape. Furthermore, Madeleine’s hair and Carlotta’s hair in the painting in the art gallery are also stylized in a spiral shape; the stairs at the bell tower once again strongly represents the shape of a spiral, even the film itself is structured as a spiral. All these spirals imply the mystical world that Scottie is being stuck in, the spiral he follows thorough the movie, the chaos into which Madeline leads Scottie; all together show that he is completely lost. This chaos and mystery make the spectators unconsciously dig deeper into the story, thus creating more interactions between the plot and the audience.

Such interactions tend to raise the interest and thus constitute tension that leads to more suspense. Another interesting motif in “Vertigo” is the flowers. Flowers represent Madeleine. Flowers appear both in physical and abstract form in Vertigo. Madeleine goes to a flower shop and gets a nice decent bouquet of flowers; the viewers also notice that same bouquet in the painting at the gallery. When Madeline is at San Francisco Bay to drown herself, the destruction of the flower symbolizes the self-destruction of Madeleine. After Madeleine’s death, Scottie is having a nightmare that shows abstract graphic sequences of flowers; it represents Madeleine’s death. Later in the film, at Judy’s hotel room, we again see a painting of flowers as a clue for the viewers to perhaps connect Judy to Madeleine. The motif flowers repeat when Scottie buys Judy a flower. Thoroughly, these motifs used in Vertigo initially aims to give clues to the audience, so that they can connect certain events thus increasing suspense.