...Both Vertigo and Laura raise the idea of masculinity, and it's place and role in society and character. The relationships in both films, particularly those between the male protagonists and women, highlight the differing ideas of masculinity. The character of Scottie in Vertigo highlights how relationship with women can greatly effect the idea of masculinity, whereas this is reversed in Laura, when the title character Laura shows how she greatly changes the concept of masculinity through three differing male characters. The relationship between detective John, or Scottie, Ferguson and his friend Midge Wood is one of the more interesting looks at male and female identities in the film. Robin Wood points out that the scenes in which both Scottie and Midge are both present place a strong emphasis in their communication difficulties. (Wood, 1989) Midge seems to treat Scottie more as a mother than as a friend. Whether this is in an attempt to ease the pressure off Scottie with his vertigo, she constantly talks down to him. This is highlighted when Midge attempts to explain her bra to him, telling Scottie that "You know about these things. You're a big boy now." Scottie recognises this relationship, going as far as to tell Midge "Don't be so motherly." (Modleski, 1988) Another scene in which these two appear is when John attempts to overcome his vertigo by climbing a stepladder. This scene also highlights the mother-son relationship these two seem to have, as Midge warns Scottie...
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...In Hitchcock’s film, Vertigo, The story revolves around the main character, Scottie who is the detective in the film that has a fear of heights known as acrophobia and his relationships with Madeleine, who is the wife of Scottie’s class mate Gavin Elster, and Midge, Scottie’s old college friend. Hitchcock uses camera work such as profile shots of Madeleine and full shots of Midge to emphasize on the fact that even though one is secretive, she dictates the main character while the other is like an open book, yet she has no genuine power over him. Madeleine is beautiful and a glamorous woman who comes from a wealthy background. Scottie becomes attracted to her in the very first scene at Ernie’s restaurant. He watches her as she sits and walks out elegantly, while he is sitting in one corner. Hitchcock captures the scene with by taking a tracking shot of the restaurant to give the viewers the feeling of the romantic ambience. The tracking shot zooms out of Scottie to the other side of the room on Madeleine, whose back is facing the camera. This suggests that Hitchcock wants to continue with the theme of suspense throughout the movie, which is why he first takes shots of Madeleine’s back to the camera, followed by the profile shot from a distance. The profile shot is marked by a wooden doorway that frames Madeleine as if she is in the spot light, which she is for Scottie. The camera then zooms in for a close up shot of Madeleine’s profile. The sharp feature of the profile shot highlights...
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...Reginald Beauvoir Mrs. Pellegrini IM1401 10/14/2012 Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo While researching film made in the Nineteenth Century I found that the use of technology brought new idea and cause a revelation that effected movie goer worldwide. The following time line shows how each innovation had an effect on the technology that was introduce in that time period. The expectation of movie goers was high as a result the film makers came up with new way of composing motion picture on the big screen. The thought process was open to new possibility. The use of movie projection called magic lantern was introduce in the Seventeenth Century. The use of different filming technique was on the rise. The thought process of movie composer consists of what they were exposed to and to shoot at different perspective. It was well thought out. A movie that was directly influenced by a technological advancement was Alfred Hitchcock, “Vertigo”. To achieve my point, I have organized my paper into four main sections, two of which have sub-sections. In the first section, there is a record of three important events in twentieth century motion picture history: technological changes, the information revolution, a film by Alfred Hitchcock. The techniques he used and how it paved the way for movie director that came after him. It discuss articles a about how the movie Vertigo played an important role and how it impacted the twentieth century film making producer and filming in connecting...
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... I recently had the pleasure of viewing Alfred Hitchcock’s movie titled “Vertigo”. It is based on the 1959 novel “D’entre les morts” that was written by Boileau Narcejac. Jimmy Stewart who was portrayed “Scottie” was stellar in this film as well as Alfred Hitchcock’s presence and directorial style; paramount. Cinematography, which is the combined art and technology of films and how it is created, was evident in this film (Cinematography). One of the features that Alfred Hitchcock is heavily noted for is the use of color to draw in feeling and emotion within a scene. For instance, in the opening scene of Vertigo, the first thing you will notice is the use of red, blue, and green. The colors shifted from one to the next with the changing of objects and certain panning techniques that were used to focus the audience on a certain point of the frame and color significance. Most importantly, Hitchcock used those colors as a lead in to the rest of the entire movie, which they are used throughout every scene and have a specific meaning and connection. For an example, the color red was used in a matter that would have the viewer assume that emotions like that of terror, fear, and horror. However, throughout the film the same color is used in flowers, wallpaper, and other scenery, which had a different meaning as in warmer emotional feelings. The color blue was used in connection with Scottie’s case of vertigo, paranoia, guilt, and supernatural like elements. It was also common throughout...
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...remodeling in the middle ear. During Otosclerosis, this remodeling process disrupts the ability of sound to travel from the middle ear to the inner ear. This disease typically causes conductive hearing loss, which occurs when sound is not conducted efficiently or effectively through the outer ear canal to the eardrum and the ossicles of the middle ear. This disease affects more than three million people in the United States, and in most cases, Otosclerosis is passed down from parents. Another common disease that causes deafness is Vertigo. Vertigo can be one of two ways, peripheral or central. Peripheral vertigo is the cause of deafness. This is due to a problem found within the inner ear. Vertigo occurs when the inner ear becomes inflamed because of illness, small crystals, or stones typically found within the inner ear, which can cause irritation to the small hair cells found deep within the inner ear. One disease that goes hand in hand with Vertigo is Meniere's...
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...Nia Nguyen A Blame on Nothing and Nothingness Abject: A Rereading of Vertigo “In a male libidinal economy… the only good woman is a dead woman.” Slavoj Zizek, A Pervert’s Guide to Cinema Robin Wood began his landmark studies, Hitchcock’s Films (1965), with the rhetorical question, “Why should we take Hitchcock seriously?” Yet it was also Wood himself who revised the question in 1983. He asks, “Can Hitchcock be saved for feminism?” While there is no denying the brilliance of Hitchcock’s subjective camera and his skillful manipulation of identification processes, one cannot help but loathe the pungent misogyny prevalent in his works. Vertigo (1958) is arguably no exception. Laura Mulvey, a vocal and influential feminist film critic, contends that Vertigo elucidates an active sadistic voyeurism of the male gaze that subjects the woman, as object-of-desire, to realize his impossible fantasy, time and again at the cost of brutish violence against her body and psychological wellness.[1] Also exploiting Freud’s theory, Tania Modleski deciphers female suffering in Vertigo as a punishment for her inherently close relationship with the mother with which the men envy.[2] In drawing on the phallocentric models of Freud and Lacan, these criticisms bear a blind spot in that they assume certain essentialist sexual development characteristics to formulate the backbone of their analysis, such as Mulvey’s reading of object-of-desire or Modleski’s draw on bisexuality...
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...Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 Vertigo is known as Hitchcock's “masterpiece” because of the use of different memorable techniques. The film is about Scottie, a retired detective due to his development of acrophobia, who was hired by Gavin Elster to spy on his wife, Madeline, due to her strange behaviors. Madeleine is apparently haunted by her dead family member, Carlotta Valdes, and as the movie progresses she becomes Scottie’s love interest and his dream girl. Looking at Vertigo through the feminist lens, it is evident that through Hitchcock’s representations of women’s appearance and their interactions with men portrays women in a negative image compared to men. This film suggests that women are inferior to men in all aspects of life, such as women’s reliance on men. Analyzing Vertigo through the feminist lens, Hitchcock is degrading women by creating their existence solely in their relations to men. For instance, Madeline is...
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...Midge Wood (Barbara Bel Geddes) in Vertigo (1958) is a girl friend, fiancée and a mother figure combined into one. As Scottie Ferguson’s (James Stewart) fiancée she tries to pacify and help him when she finds him lonely and withdrawn in the hospital sequence after Madeleine’s death. She tries to be brave and amusing and adds more emotion. Midge as a girl friend stands by Scottie’s side at the time of the difficulties and during his mental breakdown. She is very much loyal to him. Like a true friend and mother Midge tries to console and embrace Scottie saying: Please try, Johnny. You’re not lost-Mother’s here . . . You don’t even know I’m here, do you? Well, I’m here.” (Spoto 289/qtd from the film). According to Spoto Vertigo is “as much the tragedy of a lost and exploited woman as it is the bizarre story of an abused man” (291), and in the end only one survives and the other is lost forever. The victim is the woman. These words suggest that woman is ready to sacrifice her life for the sake of others. Woman is just a plaything in the hands of a...
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...Film as Mirror in Hitchcock's Vertigo Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo is a master's class in subtle and effective filmmaking - its noirish tale of obsession and loss is considered one of his best works. This is due in no small part to the directors' use of the various elements of film as a mirror. Hitchcock intends to create a sense of repetition and a cyclical nature to the life of the characters in the film; following Scottie (James Stewart) through his descent and ascent into madness deals significantly with themes of duality and obsession. Furthermore, the use of film as a mirror onto ourselves is made very clear in the audience's relation to Scottie throughout Vertigo. In this paper, three instances of the film as mirror will be detailed in Vertigo, as well as how they inform the concept of film as mirror through their existence and varying properties. Metz describes film as a mirror in that "the cinema involves us in the imaginary: it drums up all perception, but to switch it immediately over into its own absence, which is nonetheless the only signifier present" (p. 250). The audience, like a child, sees themselves as an other; by identifying itself with its 'other' other, it can separate itself from that subject and look at the mirror objectively. In the case of Vertigo, the 'other' is Scottie, and look at his visage on the screen as a mirror unto itself. Thus, we can project our own feelings and insecurities onto Scottie, which helps us relate to his desperation and madness...
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...A properly functioning ear includes a cochlear vestibular system. The oval window allows sound waves into the inner ear scala vestibular through the stapes footplate. The round window involved in the release of the sounds and mechanical energy from the scala tympani. Formation of a third opening or third window between the superior semicircular canal and the middle cranial fossa results in Superior Semicircular Canal Dehiscence Syndrome (SSCD). SSCD was discovered by Minor Et Al in 1998. SSCD can lead to vertigo and hearing loss. Vertigo is dehiscence in the semicircular canal. Hydro acoustic waves flow through the cochlea and inadvertently transmitted throughout the labyrinth system. Vertigo transmit a message to the brain of whirling, loss...
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...Meniere's disease is a chronic inner ear disorder that primarily affects the ears’ membranous labyrinth. When one has Meniere’s disease, there is an excess amount of fluid present in the inner ear, this affects the ears hearing and balance mechanisms. Although research on Meniere’s disease is still under way, that endolymphatic hydrops (increased pressure in the ear) is the main cause of the symptoms, which are experienced. Furthermore the endolymphatic hydrops causes an imbalance in the fluid management of the ear, thus leading to an increase in accumulation of the endolymph as well as an increase in pressure, this is followed by the rupturing of membranes which line the emdolymphatic space. Because of this imbalance, the endolymph and perilymph fluids, which are ionically different, mix together thus intoxicating both the neural and sensory structures in the inner ear (Seikel,King & Drumwright, 2005). The physical imbalance caused by the increase of endolymph, leads to mechanical disturbances of the otolithic and auditory organs. The saccule may experience dilation which will later make it adherent to the footplate of the stapes. Furthermore the periodic shrinkage and dilation of the utricle, also offers plays a role. The disruption of these so called normal ear functions can cause the attacks, as well as a sense of unsteadiness even during remission periods. The distention also causes a mechanical disturbance in the organ of corti. The repetitive attacks causes the death...
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...Meniere's disease is a condition that causes a problem with your inner ear. The cause of this disease has not been found as of yet, but may be related to the inner ear having a buildup of fluid. This can be a bother to anyone having Meniere’s. Meniere’s disease is not fatal or contagious. Meniere’s disease is “a disorder characterized by recurrent prostrating dizziness (vertigo), possible hearing loss, and ringing sounds (tinnitus)” www.everydayhealth.com. The disease comes on suddenly and is an ongoing problem. People who have the disease experience symptoms of vertigo and tinnitus. These symptoms are not ongoing, but when people have the symptoms, they are called an "attack." “Attacks may happen often, or only sometimes. Attacks may last from 20 minutes to 2 hours or longer. Meniere's disease usually occurs in only one ear, although some people” www.everydayhealth.com. Meniere’s disease is not curable but is treatable. Once diagnosed, the physician my prescribe medications for vertigo, to give some relief of the attack. Medications such as diazepam or meclizine might be given for the vertigo to help with the nausea and vomiting. Dyazide may also be prescribed as a long term medication to reduce fluid retention. Though Meniere’s disease is not fatal or ongoing , it is permanent and it can or may “ may affect your interaction with friends and family, your productivity at work, and the overall quality of your life.” www.mayoclinic.com. Support groups are suggested...
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...ARTH334/ 5160 August 11, 2013 VERTIGO I do not whether I like this film or not. I say this because, the film had a dark yet dry feeling to me. I am not saying that the story was not good. Somehow the film’s sound and effects and plot did not really capture my attention. That being said, I thought that the film had many good qualities to make it a great film for this time. The acting was pretty dry, by that I mean that movements and dialogue were slow at times. My guess is that the director intended to create a feeling of confusion or build a sense of feeling of that of someone with vertigo. The script was good, and it really follows the story it intends to tell, in its dark dramatic ways. It was a drastic way of telling a romantic story, but very much inline with Hitchcock’s The scenes transitions were very fluid, motion, the landscape was complementing to the plot. This film was very diverse in the use of colors, sounds, and especial effects; from the introduction to some of the screenplay action, all of this effect added to the emotion it intended to produce. The locations were suiting to the setting in which the story could be more effective. The actors seemed to be very original or involved into their characters. The editing of this film must have been very complex, especially when the soundtrack had to be match to the scenes. The scenes in which the director wanted to have a special reaction; such as the dreams and the vertigo effect, seemed simple but for the...
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...ARTH334/ 5160 August 11, 2013 VERTIGO I do not whether I like this film or not. I say this because, the film had a dark yet dry feeling to me. I am not saying that the story was not good. Somehow the film’s sound and effects and plot did not really capture my attention. That being said, I thought that the film had many good qualities to make it a great film for this time. The acting was pretty dry, by that I mean that movements and dialogue were slow at times. My guess is that the director intended to create a feeling of confusion or build a sense of feeling of that of someone with vertigo. The script was good, and it really follows the story it intends to tell, in its dark dramatic ways. It was a drastic way of telling a romantic story, but very much inline with Hitchcock’s The scenes transitions were very fluid, motion, the landscape was complementing to the plot. This film was very diverse in the use of colors, sounds, and especial effects; from the introduction to some of the screenplay action, all of this effect added to the emotion it intended to produce. The locations were suiting to the setting in which the story could be more effective. The actors seemed to be very original or involved into their characters. The editing of this film must have been very complex, especially when the soundtrack had to be match to the scenes. The scenes in which the director wanted to have a special reaction; such as the dreams and the vertigo effect, seemed simple but for the...
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...or high place. Many people with acrophobia can become dizzy, excessive sweating, nausea, sick to their stomachs, shaking, dry mouth, and unable to speak. One of the main symptoms of acrophobia is fear of dying. Some of these symptoms can then turn into a full blown anxiety attack. “Discomfort anxiety tends to be specific to certain uncomfortable or dangerous situations- and consequently shows up in such phobias as fear of heights” (Ellis, 2003, p.83). It is only believed that between 2 and 5 percent of the world’s population actually suffers from acrophobia, and that twice as many woman are affected by acrophobia then men. A common misconception with the fear of heights is people calling it vertigo. Vertigo happens to people when they are on a tall building and look down from the top. Vertigo is a sensation that causes a person to feel like they are spinning even though...
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