Vertigo: Judy's transformation

• LS inside a salon, studio filming – sets were common under the Hollywood system
• In a LS - typical for classical Hollywood - Scottie tells what he wants done to M's face: he has complete control over her which is reflective of HC as a director.
• Like Sal, Scottie is asking M to remove her identity as a woman, and RR as an African American.
• AH portrays a man's obsessive love for a woman and then for her ghost, the necrophilia that drives him to reconstruct his ideal woman through Judy.
• Ironically, Scottie loves a woman who does not exist.
• While Elster reconstructs Judy in a plot to murder his wife, Scottie does it because of his necrophilic love for a ghost, a fantasy. In either case, the reconstruction of Madeleine reinforces the idea of female beauty as a male construct (male gaze)
• MONTAGE – ECU fragmented her into makeup, hair, face, and nails – she is not a complete woman, showing the most valuable things about a woman. Sexualisation into aesthetics valued more than personality. Makeover to become a character she has played before – all for a man’s desire.
• The montage ends with a fade into a LS back at Judy's hotel room: a place she could once call her own that was taken over by Scotties presence.
• The Bernard Herrmann score is dreamlike and dazy, alongside the panning camera which is reflective of the expanding technologies
• In a medium two shot Scottie dominates the frame, showing his masculine assertion over Judy, which is similar to SL's framing with Sal and RR.
• Judy is unable to refuse his orders to change her hair: reflecting the star system Kim Novak was under.
• There is a green light shining in from the window, creating a green fog that surrounds Judy as she emerges from the bathroom fully embodying Madeline.
• She smiles soft in a LS as she approaches Scottie, her hope that her moment to be loved by Scottie has arrived.
• Kim Novak: “It was so real to me, coming out and wanting approval. It was the ultimate defining moment of anybody when they’re going to someone they love and want to be perfect for them”.1
• The Green ghostly aura. Green light – a cool colour which makes vertigo differ from a noir and more distinctively Hitchcock = death, ghostly.
• The green light creates the effect of the final true elements of Judy are dying, the final element which is her hair style dies as she returns to the role of Madeleine.  
• PUSH IN from MLS to MCU of Scottie with the off-screen ambient sound of the door opening, the reveal. There is a focus on Scottie, HC's subjective camera work reflecting how Judy’s return to Madeleine is for his benefit, everything Judy is doing is for his love. (the male gaze)
• The audience being in the unknown of her reveal makes her mysterious, just like Scotties ideal woman.
• BH score emphasises the dramatic reveal, the resurrection of Madeliene.
• Eyeline LS match as J emerges from the bathroom into the room.
• Scottie has removed all of Judy's identity to fulfil his obsession with a dead woman, a woman that never existed.
• Scottie is an unlikeable protagonist.
• KN embodies deep love she has for Scottie as she smiles. She works for the male gaze (Mulvey) when she plays Madeleine, she is willing to replace herself for Scottie’s love – infatuated with him just as much as he is her (the character she plays.) Mirror theme – Elster also did this to her.  
• The camera rotates in a spiral arc around the pair: referencing themes of obsession and spirals.
• The background shifts into the tower and looks just as it does when S+M kissed for the final time: return to the past.
• Foreshadows return to the bell tower. J looks limp and pale, Scottie’s desire to love a dead thing = agoraphobia. Unconventional camera.
• German expressionism - placed into Scottie’s thoughts and memories – subjective camera work.
• Bernard Herrmann score is powerful, its envelopes the entire scene and it would be very different without. It rises and falls, when they come together it is like a fairy-tale but with a chilling hint in it – just like their love story.
• Negative representation of woman – saying that a woman’s raison d’etre is to function for the desire of a man – Mulvey’s male gaze theory.
• HC's representation of women is less wide compared to Lee's representation of black men, he does show an active women through Judy but then takes it away from her: and she continues to function for the male gaze
• Grey dress was controversial for Kim Novak, she argued with H over it as said that grey was not a blonde women’s colour and he said, ‘you can wear any colour you like as long as its grey.’
• However, the green dress makes her appear more ghostlike and works well for the character.
• Reflects context of the tinme
• Kettle loc
• Hitchcock blonde
• Power of production heads.