Constructing Fantasy in Hitchcock's Vertigo
The amount of critical analysis surrounding Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo is itself dizzying, but as the film has recently been restored, it seems appropriate to provide it with a fresh critical reading. The purpose of this paper then, is to draw this film out of the past with a reading that offers not only a new way of understanding it, but a close look at the culture that produced it. Specifically, Vertigo offers its most exciting ideas when contextualized in a culture of consumerism. Consumerism shaped the film, and also shapes the way we view it. The desire of the consumer is the driving force behind not only our economy, but our mode of seeing the world, and seeing films. As consumers, we are always looking for, and looking at, new commodities, especially clothing. We gaze at clothing in shop windows. We purchase it and wear it, making it visible to others. Indeed, the desire to buy clothing is linked closely to our desire to show it off. We shop in a visual economy, a visual culture of consumption. To understand this culture it is important to understand the historical figure of the flâneur. The flâneur is a wandering male consumer of images who is, and was, particularly in the nineteenth century, the visual and economic agent at the center of consumer culture. He is also at the center of Vertigo, personified in the main character, Scotty.
The flâneur is an inveterate urban wanderer and voyeur who is at home in the public spaces. In the words of Baudelaire, "for the perfect flâneur, for the passionate spectator, it is an immense joy to set up house in the heart of the multitude, amid the ebb and flow of movement" (qtd. in Brand 5). Walter Benjamin, in his work on the...
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...lso of women displayed in windows. 3 Sometimes coincidence aids criticism. Kim Novak was, according to Hitchcock, quite proud of the fact that she didn't wear a bra during the filming of Vertigo (Truffaut 248).
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Though complex and brilliantly written for its time, the plot of Alfred Hitchcock’s film, Vertigo, is only half of the genius behind it. Alfred Hitchcock’s unique presence as an auteur is truly what sets his films apart. There is symmetry to his shots that give the film an artistic feel, as if each frame were a painting. Many times, within this symmetry, Hitchcock places the characters in the center of the frame; or if not centered, then balanced by whatever else is adding density to the shot. For example, as Madeline sits and looks at the painting in the museum, there is a balance within the frame. To counter-act her position to the right of the painting, Hitchcock puts a chair and another painting on the left side, which is visually pleasing to the eye of the audience. The use of red and green not only adds a visual effect as well, but later serves as a clue that Madeline is not actually dead, when the women who looks like her is wearing a green dress.
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The film, Vertigo (1958) directed by Alfred Hitchcock, is classified as a genre combination of mystery, romance, suspense and thriller about psychological obsession and murder. Filmed on location in San Francisco and on the Paramount lot in Hollywood, California in 1957, the cultural features of the late 1950’s America were depicted in the films mise en scène by costume and set designs current for that time period. The film was produced at the end of the golden age of Hollywood when the studio system was still in place. At the time Vertigo was produced, Hollywood studios were still very much in control of film production and of actor’s contracts. Hitchcock’s groundbreaking cinematic language and camera techniques has had great impact on film and American popular culture and created a cult following of his films to this day.
Recently there has been a debate on whether organic and natural produce are healthier alternatives to commercial produce. Since this debate began, there are now grocery stores dedicated to providing products that are all essentially all natural or organic. Various examples of these grocery stores include Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Safeway, and Super Target. Skeptics of this argument suggest natural and organic food industries are all marketing ploys targeted toward consumers in search of healthier food choices. The final question we must ask ourselves to get to the bottom of this debate is: Are organic and natural foods actually more beneficial or are they just a marketing hoax?
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There is more than two-thirds of U.S. population who buy organic products at least occasionally, and twenty eight percent of consumers buy organic products weekly (Reganold et al., 2010). Organic produce is generally recognized as plant food produced without using growth hormones, antibiotics, or petroleum based, or sewage sludge based fertilizers (McWilliams, 2012). On the other hand conventionally grown produce uses synthetic fertilizers, hormones, and genetically modified Organism (GMO). Genetically Modified Organism referred to as plant or animal foods developed by genetic manipulation to alter nutrient levels or other characteristics such as increasing the antioxidant content in some vegetables or produce higher yield (McWilliams, 2012). The increasing popularity of consuming organic produce may be attributed to its perception of health related benefits, higher vitamins and nutrient levels, better quality, less pesticide residue, more environmental friendly, and concerns about the effects of conventional farming practices on the environment. (Uematsu, Mishra, 2012). The U.S. Department of Agriculture administeres the National Organic Prog...
During the course of this essay it is my intention to discuss the differences between Classical Hollywood and post-Classical Hollywood. Although these terms refer to theoretical movements of which they are not definitive it is my goal to show that they are applicable in a broad way to a cinema tradition that dominated Hollywood production between 1916 and 1960 and which also pervaded Western Mainstream Cinema (Classical Hollywood or Classic Narrative Cinema) and to the movement and changes that came about following this time period (Post-Classical or New Hollywood). I intend to do this by first analysing and defining aspects of Classical Hollywood and having done that, examining post classical at which time the relationship between them will become evident. It is my intention to reference films from both movements and also published texts relative to the subject matter. In order to illustrate the structures involved I will be writing about the subjects of genre and genre transformation, the representation of gender, postmodernism and the relationship between style, form and content.
‘Then came the films’; writes the German cultural theorist Walter Benjamin, evoking the arrival of a powerful new art form at the end of 19th century. By this statement, he tried to explain that films were not just another visual medium, but it has a clear differentiation from all previous mediums of visual culture.
In the second half of the film we see Marion’s sister Lila Crane (Vera Miles) searching for her missing sister. Lila finds a pornographic untitled book in Norman’s room, particularly in Victorian times in a Victorian house and she is shocked at this. Hitchcock immediately cuts from that shocked reaction on her face which says it all. In American culture sex is seen as an obscenity, so was not shown on screen. But still Norman reading such a book also implies that people are interested in such books but are not willing to accept it openly. Hitchcock has tried to show obscenity with viewers in mind as voyeurs. Voyeurism is the act of viewing the activities of other people unbeknown to them. This gives the act of looking illicit connotations.
most of the general public chooses to not pursue an organic diet is simply because they can not