Film Analysis: Vertigo

Vertigo (1958) Director-Alfred Hitchcock

One of the first films we viewed in order to research and understand how psychoanalytical theory can be applied to cinema was Vertigo which is a psychological thriller by renowned director Alfred Hitchcock. The narrative revolves around John "Scotty" Ferguson,  a retired San Francisco detective who suffers from a crippling fear of heights, who is tasked with following his friends wife Madeline at his friends request because she has been acting strange. John begins following her and quickly becomes obsessed with her and subsequently falls in love with her. However the reason Madeline is acting strange is because she is supposedly possessed by the spirit of an ancestor from the 1800's, fearing she is going insane John attempts to try and care for her and make her remember what happens when she is "possessed", although some time after meeting John she attempts to commit suicide by jumping from a bell tower of a church, and unable to save her due to his fear of heights she dies. Not long after John, distraught and in despair, begins to see her everywhere and even begins following strangers who faintly resemble her to fuel his obsession. A few months later John runs into a mysterious woman named Judy who is the spitting image of Madeline, after spending a short time with her, he forces her to dress like Madeline and even to the extent of wearing the same kind of shoes and dying her hair. Towards the end of the film John discovers that Judy was hired by Madeline's husband to pretend to be her and act as if she was being possessed by an ancestor. This was all due to the making up of an elaborate story so that John would believe her and would be preoccupied while the real Madeline was murdered by her husband, Judy being paid to go along with the plan to fake Madeline's suicide so that John would most likely take the blame for not stopping her and suffer the guilt. Realising this John takes Judy to the exact same church where Madeline "died" and tells her that this time it will be different, he drags her up the tower in an attempt to "save" Madeline and conquer his guilt, as she protests Judy claims that she fell in love with John however the sudden appearance of a nun startles her and she falls from the tower, at which point the film ends with John looking down in despair at the same dead woman for a second time.

After watching this film I felt slightly disturbed as it ended so suddenly and the lead up to the films conclusion was a twisted and most often uncertain path. I didn't know what to think about this film as the extent to which the character of John became obsessed with Madeline, following her everywhere seemed strange, almost stalker-like behaviour, which actually seems to highlight the theme of obsession and desire within the film. Once John begins following Madeline he becomes completely obsessed and even after she dies he still sees her everywhere in all of the locations he used to frequent and places he visited with her, and even after meeting Judy he even forces her to dress like Madeline due to his obsession running so deep within his mind. The theory concerning drive and desire could be applied to this film as Johns obsession with Madeline seems to be the only thing that keeps him going, he is driven to follow Madeline everywhere, to find out who she is and why she behaves in the way she does. After her death the only reason driving him forward is his obsession with Madeline as he sees her wherever he goes and when he meets Judy that obsession fully comes to the surface, as he forces her to dress like Madeline, to be identical to a dead woman simply so he can fuel his obsessive desires to be with her again. I found this film rather disturbing in that aspect as this wouldn't be considered normal behaviour, and as the film progresses you can see Johns slow psychological breakdown as he becomes more involved with Madeline. This film was however quite intriguing as the way in which near the end when all of the key narrative points all came together and took an unexpected twist to find out that Johns obsession was all for nothing, since he never knew the real Madeline. It made me feel rather confused as it made watching all of the events that led up to the point John realised he had been played in a convoluted plot by his friend, rather revealing and twisted as the narrative had included so many different aspects all leading up to the big reveal at the end, all so Johns psychological state would deteriorate and he would be blamed for Madeline's death, so the end to the film seemed rather sudden and unexpected.