Vertigo

I enjoyed watching the movie Vertigo probably more then the rest of the movies so far in class. As a huge fan of horror movies, I usually can figure out what is going to happen next in the plot and this movie threw me for a loop. I like movies that keep me guessing and there were numerous times that I didn't see what was coming next. I also liked the fact that it really was a mystery movie and it had you guessing right up until the end unlike Laura where when she comes into the picture the movie changes directions.

First, I thought that Scottie was defined by only two things: his acrophobia and the fact that throughout the movie he becomes more and more obsessed with Madeline. Scottie also reminds me a lot of McPherson. Both of them I wanted to be able to identify with. I wanted them to be the hero's in the end and neither one of them were. Also, they both became obsessed with a portrait more then the actual person and they went from being the good guys to just weird. Scottie was this good guy and friend in the beginning trying to help his friend and by then end of the movie he became way to obsessed. He was obsessed with turning Judy into Madeline and thats all he was worried about.

Obviously like everyone else I had a problem with the portrait of Midge as Carlotta. Im pretty sure when I saw the portrait I jumped out of my seat. I never saw that coming and was freaked out by it. To me, Midge was like the girl next door. She was plain, down to earth, a good friend, and just very normal. She also seemed like the mother figure asking if he wants dinner and caring about him a lot. However, the portrait then threw me off because I never saw her character doing something like that. Her reaction afterwards didn't really bother me though. The fact that she painted it did but if the guy I liked just left I might do something like she did and play with my hair or whatever. After they showed the painting I had thought that she did go off the deep end and I honestly thought that her reaction was going to be worse then it actually was.

Another thing that really bothered me was when Judy had her hair done but it wasn't put up like Madeline's. Im not sure why this bothered me so much but I really wanted to jump through the screen and grab a brush to do her hair like Madeline's. I feel that as an audience Hitchcock wanted us to really get into Scottie's mindset and I feel I became almost obsessed with Judy's look almost as much as he did. Even when Judy was trying on all the different outfits I found myself saying no, wrong, try again. At last, when she finally steps out with the right outfit and her hair done I felt it was finally right.

I also thought there was a lot more interesting things done with the camera in this movie. I really did feel like that in certain parts the camera almost played more as a character. There were a lot more up close shots like in the beginning with just showing the person's eye. I also thought there were more jarring shots like when she just got up and left after Scottie came out of his bedroom. The music I thought also played a big part because it was creepy music and it would get louder and louder (like when they drove out to the woods) and I really thought that she was going to have jumped off something but instead it just gets you wondering what was going to happen next.