Viewing notes

• Opening scene:
• J-cut of Bernard Herrmann's score playing


  -Prev collaborator

  -Fills audience with dread/anticipation before we even see what's occurring

  -Establishes main theme of vertigo/falling early on
• Opening shot - CU of hands grabbing rail


  -Audience has no bearings - in medias res

  -Subverts standardised Hollywood aesthetic usually opening with establishing shot
• Camera pulls out to LS, fixed as other characters run past

  -Character centrality

  -Know Scottie's main character as camera waits for him
• Shot in studio


  -Standardised Hollywood aesthetic

  -Hitchcock had more control
• Fast paced --> constant character movement, pans, intoxicating non-diegetic score


  Overwhelming/overstimulating for viewer
• CU of Scottie as he's hanging on, light illuminating his face

  -Emphasises fear

  -Solidified as main character
• Eyeline match as Scottie looks down, dolly-zoom of the ground below

  -Dolly-zoom --> Irmin Roberts, German expressionism as it shows Scottie's emotions, innovative filming

  -Breaks production context of standardised Hollywood aesthetic
• Subverts expectations of character archetypes:

  -Robber gets away, main character morally grey -kills police officer

  -Hitchcock gets around Hays code
• Ernie's restaurant...
• Establishing shot of Ernie's displaying red light through stained glass

  -Est. shot --> standardised Hollywood aesthetic

  -Red --> auteur, connotes visual motif of danger/romance
• Soft dissolve to Scottie mid frame, deep focus


  -Dissolve --> standardised Hollywood aesthetic

  -Framing --> centrality - main character

  -Focus --> draws viewers attention to background as well
• Shot in studio:

  -Standardised Hollywood aesthetic

  -Hitchcock control
• Scottie looking around room, eyeliner match POV shot of room

  -Room --> kettle location - auteur

  -Eyeline match --> Hollywood

  -POV --> voyeur
• Fluis camera movement as it pans in MLS and stops on Madeleine, score swells

  -Fluid camera --> auteur

  -Score --> Bernard Herrmann

  -Audience drawn to M as she's only young, blonde in room - Hitchcock blonde

  -Costume green --> auteur, juxtaposes red mise-en-scene
• POV LS of M at table, positioned frame within a frame

  -M seen as ‘ideal woman’ like art in frame

  -S’s control over her --> auteur

  -Eludes to how she’s constructed, unreal
• CU shallow focus (SHA) of M’s profile shot, performance –turns slightly towards S 


  Calculated, foreshadows of her knowing she’s being watched
• S’s POV LS as M and E leave, passing a mirror

  Foreshadows duality 
• Scottie following Madeleine...
• S spots M and pulls away to follow her, follows 30-degree rule cutting between his face and him in car  

  standardised Hollywood aesthetic
• Driving through city almost every shot is POV eyeline match SRS between him and surroundings, S positioned CU centre frame


  spectator positioned with S, male gaze, voyeur, Kudashov effect
• Roughly 6 mins of pure cinema


  stylises film as H’s auteur signature (influenced from early career starting out in silent film era) 
• H uses visual storytelling through subjective access and Stewart’s performance –facial expressions, kinesics as substitute for dialogue 

  Auteur
• Judy’s transformation scene...
• J + S positioned in front of mirror, within the rule of thirds, lit by 3-point lighting 


  -mirror --> auteur

  -rule of thirds, lighting --> standardised Hollywood aesthetic
• J emerges from door in LS (structural parallel to M+S --> spiralling), standard eyeline match with S

  -Voyeurism

  -Male gaze - Laura Mulvey
• J lit by green neon lighting

  -Auteur feature

  -Ghostly/surreal

  -Judy presented as being dead --> taboo sexuality
• Judy furthered as being dead when swoons in S’s arms when they kiss, tipping her head back

  -Strict gender roles (passive female/active male)

  -Taboo sexuality shocking to 1950s audience  
• Camera pans around them as they kiss, playing M’s leit motif

  -innovative camerawork

  -dizzying feeling –continuing theme of spirals and vertigo 
• Background changes around them to reflect S’s feelings

  -German expressionism

  -subjective access 
• Kiss fades to black (SHA) -H implies S + J have had sex as she’s changed outfit when we next see her


  -Subtly gets around Hays code

  -Subverts traditional cinema expectations