Many Thanks

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXRKOCzGO_S52VPA76majIL7vIMH_jCPgf2LXZ-SzLttLZbmXjrvvlcuRZ0xYj_gh6LBoi1nCo8vz5YvR_WppqdYV5mPX6vM-C-XxvXDHH41PFaXZBSWCuMtT4mC_mX-hxLdErIB4Qtqw/s1600/CiMBA-+Best+Classic+Movie+Blog+Event+2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXRKOCzGO_S52VPA76majIL7vIMH_jCPgf2LXZ-SzLttLZbmXjrvvlcuRZ0xYj_gh6LBoi1nCo8vz5YvR_WppqdYV5mPX6vM-C-XxvXDHH41PFaXZBSWCuMtT4mC_mX-hxLdErIB4Qtqw/s400/CiMBA-+Best+Classic+Movie+Blog+Event+2012.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">It was nearly a year ago that I began to think about hosting a blog event focused on Alfred Hitchcock's <i>Vertigo</i>. </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I had just read an English translation of the French noir novel the film was adapted from and wanted to blog about it. But to simply write a book-to-film piece didn't appeal. And a straight-ahead review struck me as not only daunting but - redundant - so much has been written on <i>Vertigo </i>by so many over the years, beginning with France's <i>Cahiers du Cinema </i>set 50+ years ago. So, I thought it might be interesting to try something different. What evolved was "A Month of <i>Vertigo</i>," a more-than-a-month-long meditation on the masterpiece from many angles by many bloggers. This turned out to be much more work than I ever anticipated - and much more rewarding than I ever imagined. The icing on the cake has been the honor of being voted a 2012 CiMBA for "Best Classic Movie Blog Event" by the Classic Movie Blog Association</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">This award would never have come my way if not for the incredible contributions of the superb guest bloggers who joined me in celebrating Hitchcock's great masterwork (now, according to <i>Sight and Sound</i>, the best film ever). I owe a special debt of gratitude to Brandon Kyle Goco (of <i>Brandon Kyle the Cinephile</i>) who created this wonderful teaser/promo as the event prepared to launch:</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/KyZfpNb1ilc" width="560"></iframe></div><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I'd like to again thank each of the bloggers who participated - this award belongs to them as much as it does <i>The Lady Eve</i>:</span><br /><br /><ul><li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">R.D. Finch of <i>The Movie Projector</i>, who kicked off "A Month of <i>Vertigo</i>" on January 1, 2012 with <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"Deadly Obsession: Alfred Hitchcock's <i>Vertigo,</i>"<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> a reflection on the film's structure and themes.</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Whistlingypsy of <i>Distant Voices and Flickering Shadows</i> who offered her contemplation of "Bernard Herrmann ~ Composer of Haunting Music and Treacherous Dreams."</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Blogger and author Christian Esquevin (<i>Silver Screen Modiste</i> is his blog,  <u>Adrian: Silver Sc</u><u>reen to Custom Label</u> is his book) who explored "The Costumes of <i>Vertigo.</i>"</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Brandie Ashe of <i>True Classics</i>,<i> </i>who assessed Kim Novak's greatest role and performance with "Kim Novak in <i>Vertigo</i>: A Hypnotic Presence."</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Michael Nazarewycz of <i>Scribe Hard on Film</i>,<i> </i>who considered the film's iconic setting with "More Than Just the Streets of San Francisco."</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Author Steven DeRosa (<u>Writing with Hitchcock</u>), expert on the Hitchcock screenwriters and screenplays, who explored the story behind Samuel Taylor's best known screenplay with "An Inconsequential Yarn."</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">John Greco of <i>Twenty Four Frames</i>, who had recently interviewed award-winning biographer Patrick McGilligan about his new Nicholas Ray bio - and interviewed him again for our event on the subject Alfred Hitchcock, about whom McGilligan had written a 2004 biography, and <i>Vertigo</i>.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Allen Hefner of <i>Bit Part Actors</i>, a man who knows his supporting players well, who took a closer look at some of the film's unsung character actors (and more) with <i>Vertigo, The Bit Players</i>.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Brian/Classicfilmboy of <i>Classicfilmboy's Movie Paradise</i>, who examined one of James Stewart's greatest performances with "James Stewart: A Walk on the Dark Side."</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Brandon Kyle Goco who contributed not only the promo but also the vlog (video blog), "<i>Vertigo</i>: Alfred Hitchcock's Edifice to Obsession."</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>Vertigo </i>authority Dan Auiler, author of the definitive <u>VERTIGO: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic</u>, who wrote of the film's mesmerizing impact with "<i>Vertigo </i>for Life."</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Joel Gunz aka/the <i>Alfred Hitchcock Geek</i>, who meditated upon one moment of the film with "Hitchcock's Most Beautiful Shot Ever; Or, A Single Frame So Good, 2,000 Words Don't Do it Justice." </span></li></ul><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">(My own contribution, "A Month of <i>Vertigo</i>, The Final Chapter," contemplated the transformation of a genre novel into a cinematic work of art.)</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Thank you to the members of CMBA for honoring the blog event, the contributors and <i>Vertigo</i> with this deeply appreciated award.</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMxab3I1eZ9e-JGaQBsSXGbVoO13VsnrA-W3LoJVoQWHkgH0LeIfWQ04GyZ01oECUqbTdDYQLXm5_LOvNH5Igu7zjLiVdWMD-vLptJTKlnumceQiuXv8dwy5HiOBeRX0GDRCxcMPF4D2g/s1600/vertigo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMxab3I1eZ9e-JGaQBsSXGbVoO13VsnrA-W3LoJVoQWHkgH0LeIfWQ04GyZ01oECUqbTdDYQLXm5_LOvNH5Igu7zjLiVdWMD-vLptJTKlnumceQiuXv8dwy5HiOBeRX0GDRCxcMPF4D2g/s1600/vertigo.jpg" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #cc0000;"> <span style="color: #cc0000;"><a href="http://clamba.blogspot.com/2012/10/and-winners-of-2012-cimbas-are.html"><b>Click here</b></a></span> <span style="color: black;">for the complete list of 2012 CiMBA award winners.</span></span></span>

A Month of Vertigo CMBA The Lady Eve (author) Many Thanks

It was nearly a year ago that I began to think about hosting a blog event focused on Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. I had just read an English translation of the French noir novel the film was adapted from and wanted to blog about it. But to simply writ…

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Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" at Oakland's Paramount Theatre

<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhflegAPtn7trGsqJGV6HqGNPd9Fpgx6PgkA2RjvJ0_AGof815O1zqPSTjWFuBgiN1XvmhXvVxj49oN8qU9dLJ2I-92WiNwJl1PntQ2MibaPFrFoua6K37JYZqJmE4Oq85-zkZio-ub0sbw/s1600/paramount+lobby.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhflegAPtn7trGsqJGV6HqGNPd9Fpgx6PgkA2RjvJ0_AGof815O1zqPSTjWFuBgiN1XvmhXvVxj49oN8qU9dLJ2I-92WiNwJl1PntQ2MibaPFrFoua6K37JYZqJmE4Oq85-zkZio-ub0sbw/s1600/paramount+lobby.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">THE PARAMOUNT THEATRE, AN ART DECO MASTERPIECE</span> </span></div><br /><span style="font-size: small;">Friday night, March 9, Alfred Hitchcock’s <i>Vertigo </i>(1958) will screen at Oakland, California’s spectacular Art Deco movie palace, The Paramount Theatre, as part of its Spring Movie Classic Series. The ticket price is an amazingly low $5.00. And…Movie Classic Night includes a newsreel, cartoons and Jerry Nagano at the Mighty Wurlitzer. Kudos to the sponsors of the series, Vo’s Restaurant (authentic Vietnamese cuisine) and the Pacific Pinball Museum.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF5HfybzrafiAiSYJpinSokZ1pnoJMasQU6HmNWGEKOJdvrY3LGTmPJVoPpWJ2mIT1vngoPZAc9eVQnYc2NSHRk6KwVoqkmhYZIgtKgyWwArvurQ4-t6ohyphenhyphenV19bWh2um-Czc30OmFWHxwT/s1600/Paramount+exterior+night.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF5HfybzrafiAiSYJpinSokZ1pnoJMasQU6HmNWGEKOJdvrY3LGTmPJVoPpWJ2mIT1vngoPZAc9eVQnYc2NSHRk6KwVoqkmhYZIgtKgyWwArvurQ4-t6ohyphenhyphenV19bWh2um-Czc30OmFWHxwT/s400/Paramount+exterior+night.JPG" width="261" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Above, the marquee; at top, the lobby entrance</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-size: small;">The Paramount is one of two great Art Deco movie theaters remaining in America – the other is Radio City Music Hall. Designed by celebrated San Francisco architect Timothy L. Pflueger (who also designed that city's Castro Theatre), its construction was begun by Publix Theatres, the exhibition arm of Paramount Pictures, during the Great Depression. Financial problems forced the sale of the building-under-construction to Fox-West Coast Theatres who completed the project and opened the Paramount in December 1931.</span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1-bE-BsvSqMO5oj2lozVhGf_bcSpW9i5DcAa6kmbpFBGPNc1tbxPTx0Qxm_Q0ouOy7iFr4C-j9GbC6rfbPlPYvQhKOjHLtEQii4qBOD16nUEOEX-mwIfBWk-F6lhHD2Gs3RNUYk7jksDI/s1600/paramount+mosaic+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1-bE-BsvSqMO5oj2lozVhGf_bcSpW9i5DcAa6kmbpFBGPNc1tbxPTx0Qxm_Q0ouOy7iFr4C-j9GbC6rfbPlPYvQhKOjHLtEQii4qBOD16nUEOEX-mwIfBWk-F6lhHD2Gs3RNUYk7jksDI/s400/paramount+mosaic+2.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mosaic exterior</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGkMNhHcJNSg5QxqeHlkocCufwfzeKjJxNAcqszxipZr-5esyIykfn8uEESrxrXVph2Ecn2X92IyAfgcG614kRx6n6OW4mIIyf8xfLh89ntFVqndfhB-u5fUG5bEq3ZbQppddiBDOuyQAD/s1600/mosaic+detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGkMNhHcJNSg5QxqeHlkocCufwfzeKjJxNAcqszxipZr-5esyIykfn8uEESrxrXVph2Ecn2X92IyAfgcG614kRx6n6OW4mIIyf8xfLh89ntFVqndfhB-u5fUG5bEq3ZbQppddiBDOuyQAD/s400/mosaic+detail.jpg" width="277" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mosaic detail</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-size: small;">Though Hollywood studios owned all the major theaters and controlled film distribution completely during the “The Golden Age,” the Depression would bring change and the Paramount would be the last studio-owned movie house built in the U.S.  In its day, with 3,000+ seats, the Paramount boasted the largest auditorium seating on the West Coast. </span><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5V1YoFWGTmYt0UE0IF0wDQQatHi9sRCEh51w_Ggsr-gThY34AAP3luExwgUTSu-cr5rFZvjdqMndX-SRS_jMNCVKBgwKeGu_a1wrlmKqUQ6wW1zvCyjh6TuK2WaHqji4eSGprzsbURDkF/s1600/paramount+stage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5V1YoFWGTmYt0UE0IF0wDQQatHi9sRCEh51w_Ggsr-gThY34AAP3luExwgUTSu-cr5rFZvjdqMndX-SRS_jMNCVKBgwKeGu_a1wrlmKqUQ6wW1zvCyjh6TuK2WaHqji4eSGprzsbURDkF/s400/paramount+stage.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A balcony view of the stage</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">As with so many of America’s once-grand movie palaces, the Paramount suffered a long period of decline following its glory years - but it was more fortunate than most. In 1972 it was purchased by the Oakland Symphony and given a thorough and authentic restoration that was completed in 1973. In 1975 the City of Oakland assumed ownership and the theater became </span><span style="font-size: small;">a California Registered Historic Landmark in 1976 and </span><span style="font-size: small;">a National Historic Landmark in 1977. Today the Paramount is home to the Oakland East Bay Symphony (formerly the Oakland Symphony) and the Oakland Ballet. The theater is a premiere year-round performing arts facility that hosts concerts of all musical genres (from B.B. King to Leonard Cohen), variety shows, stage productions and movies.</span></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC4DoHq-p1vcai0McSnB_UNCCn_P8UZOhtg9LJmTcXMHS6o_hONN5NkIN9-Xu1CdqWRdLQgd1p-8JAbbrQNKa7yx0eGuGSTt54voIZyqrLHagNsM3RXchikdNExm0Qvh0JhS6MqK9lYQzH/s1600/paramount+lobby+detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC4DoHq-p1vcai0McSnB_UNCCn_P8UZOhtg9LJmTcXMHS6o_hONN5NkIN9-Xu1CdqWRdLQgd1p-8JAbbrQNKa7yx0eGuGSTt54voIZyqrLHagNsM3RXchikdNExm0Qvh0JhS6MqK9lYQzH/s400/paramount+lobby+detail.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lobby detail</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR98mG_7_wsgiojBa2s6cdVxM-ZZMJMPbIzl4O_Scv5tjn_GPcrG13gjLnhDOcN6jWhLOrJvYQQZJ5fsCZ4JYzm0UAvFSAgkKZoAVuLT_tg8rpvvJX2x0nrxE0XLtY6OFg0QD2hvlbxoD_/s1600/paramount+lounge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR98mG_7_wsgiojBa2s6cdVxM-ZZMJMPbIzl4O_Scv5tjn_GPcrG13gjLnhDOcN6jWhLOrJvYQQZJ5fsCZ4JYzm0UAvFSAgkKZoAVuLT_tg8rpvvJX2x0nrxE0XLtY6OFg0QD2hvlbxoD_/s400/paramount+lounge.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Theater interior</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA4QwPOBePX9sCjvHZo_02YQglD-Wkc1e-XfLlR6WKDcJcTaXiSvUlU0IqC5NU7dOLmJ1FVskh6HUDbA4CCDWiwcQMSqcfE2UsrWkAV_Im8AdsrUbsXB-NDr2y-bqtP4ERax2Z6f_7epYD/s1600/oak+para+interior+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="381" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA4QwPOBePX9sCjvHZo_02YQglD-Wkc1e-XfLlR6WKDcJcTaXiSvUlU0IqC5NU7dOLmJ1FVskh6HUDbA4CCDWiwcQMSqcfE2UsrWkAV_Im8AdsrUbsXB-NDr2y-bqtP4ERax2Z6f_7epYD/s400/oak+para+interior+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Theater interior</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijkylappTWwMDzHc-SK6t-aJtcXfOiReWF2GBR_u7oKvynzPJR6_CzeOVyB468Ad6hNHnTkQxg3nScLHbVmZ1C44SGwCbuWEQ6E-9O4eNTayCxd7qFFefUUjp-J95lSsIRGTBZKWqMf7d_/s1600/oak+para+corner+chair.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="353" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijkylappTWwMDzHc-SK6t-aJtcXfOiReWF2GBR_u7oKvynzPJR6_CzeOVyB468Ad6hNHnTkQxg3nScLHbVmZ1C44SGwCbuWEQ6E-9O4eNTayCxd7qFFefUUjp-J95lSsIRGTBZKWqMf7d_/s400/oak+para+corner+chair.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Theater interior</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;">Tours of the Paramount, located in the trendy Uptown district, are scheduled on the first and third Sundays of every month, excluding holidays and holiday weekends. Ticket price: $5. <a href="http://www.paramounttheatre.com/welcome.html" style="color: #cc0000;">Click here</a> for more on what’s happening at Oakland's Paramount Theatre. <a href="http://decoarchitecture.tumblr.com/tagged/paramount+theater" style="color: #cc0000;">Click here</a> for more photos.</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtKw-h0omNV9WHs4Ity0Sn_GQtWEkjN4AzrJDJy7FicXFcxHcJNLQCPqZwkJo9IWmTySJ26gC6GQq93rX2cesDRRqIiWsU75wNALm9xdXTbQ6ybQkC5Vg_7g1sKSgjdE2KYzRTw64xYbta/s1600/paramount+auditorium+from+stage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtKw-h0omNV9WHs4Ity0Sn_GQtWEkjN4AzrJDJy7FicXFcxHcJNLQCPqZwkJo9IWmTySJ26gC6GQq93rX2cesDRRqIiWsU75wNALm9xdXTbQ6ybQkC5Vg_7g1sKSgjdE2KYzRTw64xYbta/s400/paramount+auditorium+from+stage.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Auditorium view from center stage</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Vertigo </i>is little mentioned in this post, but for those interested in reading about it at length - <a href="http://eves-reel-life.blogspot.com/p/a-month-of-vertigo-bloggers-their-posts.html" style="color: #cc0000;">click here</a>. It goes without saying that The Lady Eve isn't about to miss her chance to see <i>Vertigo</i> at the Paramount…</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/O888bu0QrMg" width="560"></iframe></div></div>

A Month of Vertigo Alfred Hitchcock The Lady Eve (author) The Paramount Theatre Vertigo Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" at Oakland's Paramount Theatre

THE PARAMOUNT THEATRE, AN ART DECO MASTERPIECE Friday night, March 9, Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958) will screen at Oakland, California’s spectacular Art Deco movie palace, The Paramount Theatre, as part of its Spring Movie Classic Series. The tic…

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"A Month of VERTIGO," TCM and...Synchronicity

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo3dfFiXT04if4kxFnE7LhIBIxDxVSa6a7rQdA97nTTTcJ7cr1wNphyJVHkPApqzegvWw1PM06I26dmJJ-nODeIYYUXTk6dd6bMIAbfj41Qkjr42iWqj4_1E8KrLvQtnw0c5CvVbwyyH4t/s1600/cats13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo3dfFiXT04if4kxFnE7LhIBIxDxVSa6a7rQdA97nTTTcJ7cr1wNphyJVHkPApqzegvWw1PM06I26dmJJ-nODeIYYUXTk6dd6bMIAbfj41Qkjr42iWqj4_1E8KrLvQtnw0c5CvVbwyyH4t/s400/cats13.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Sans Soleil</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">This blog was consumed by <i>Vertigo</i> all through January and half of February. I thought I'd moved on, was looking forward to <i>Mad Men </i>on Sunday nights - and then I opened the March issue of TCM's <i>Now Playing</i> guide.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /><a name='more'></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">One of my <i>Vertigo </i>guest bloggers, Dan Auiler, author of the definitive <i>Vertigo: the Making of a Hitchcock Classic</i>, considered two films by French filmmaker Chris Marker in his piece, <a href="http://eves-reel-life.blogspot.com/2012/01/vertigo-for-life.html" style="color: #990000;"><i>Vertigo for Life</i></a>: <i>La Jetee  </i>(1962) and <i>Sans Soleil </i>(1983). I read of Marker with interest; I was completely unfamiliar with his work, but Dan's references to his films and the links of each to Hitchcock's <i>Vertigo </i>piqued my interest and I put both on my "to watch" list. I did not have to wait for very long...</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">This Sunday night (for some, the wee hours of Monday morning), March 4, Turner Classic Movies will air both films, <i>Sans Soleil </i>at 2:15 am Eastern/11:15 pm Pacific, and <i>La Jetee</i> at 4:00 am Eastern/1:00am Pacific.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7U_INveKKcCLQKyz-sz1VXtrJrBep1vgjvuN3U_0pffWU8VK76nztbClR97kqJ_tDuJH5kzDhR7G-5gk-ks_sn1AZtXiwJwKURT_8K_-c5IHepGJJ-D-LnJ1R2aS_E__wTCXD7Yq7fdi9/s1600/la+jetee.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7U_INveKKcCLQKyz-sz1VXtrJrBep1vgjvuN3U_0pffWU8VK76nztbClR97kqJ_tDuJH5kzDhR7G-5gk-ks_sn1AZtXiwJwKURT_8K_-c5IHepGJJ-D-LnJ1R2aS_E__wTCXD7Yq7fdi9/s400/la+jetee.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>La Jetee</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Chris Marker, born in 1921 and still with us today, studied philosophy with Jean-Paul Sartre in the 1930s and was part of the French Resistance during World War II. He is best known for the two films mentioned as well as <i>A Grin Without a Cat </i>(1977) and the 1985 documentary, <i>AK</i>, on Akira Kurosawa. Marker is classified among France's <i>Left Bank</i> (<i>Rive Gauche</i>) filmmakers, a group contemporary to but considered distinct from the <i>French New Wave</i>. Others in the <i>Left Bank</i> cluster include Alain Resnais (<i>Hiroshima mon amour</i>, <i>Last Year at Marienbad</i>, <i>Mon oncle d'Amerique</i>), Agnes Varda (<i>Le Bonheur</i>, <i>Vagabond</i>) and others - like Varda's husband Jacques Demy (<i>Lola</i>, <i>The Umbrellas of Cherbourg</i>, <i>The Young Girls of Rochefort</i>). </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>La Jetee</i>, composed primarily of cinematically showcased still photos, has been called a Science Fiction masterpiece (even at a short 28 minutes) and has inspired or provided the basis for several later films. Of these, the most familiar to and popular with American audiences is Terry Gilliam's 1995 hit, <i>12 Monkeys</i>, starring Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt and Christopher Plummer.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>Sans Soleil</i> reflects on time and memory and features several locales around the world - including the San Francisco Bay Area where locations shown in Hitchcock's <i>Vertigo</i> are revisited. <i>Sans Soleil</i> is said to recall <i>Vertigo</i>'s structure and themes.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Between <i>Vertigo</i>, the Oscars and <i>Mad Men</i>, I'll be making time to discover Chris Marker this weekend...</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_LTLyIqeB6898d_HYJB65llDmUkTb8bxHsv5wwJ3pU5ggFRgXnv_lzHzQ7HpKVcV2MHvitW2ZYM0QbHvcaLl0EBUAu-6qNt7b7oTN50jCEJqghatgMWDb1TsRkEUJS2fIKROBzIDMJPuG/s1600/Vertigo-trees1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_LTLyIqeB6898d_HYJB65llDmUkTb8bxHsv5wwJ3pU5ggFRgXnv_lzHzQ7HpKVcV2MHvitW2ZYM0QbHvcaLl0EBUAu-6qNt7b7oTN50jCEJqghatgMWDb1TsRkEUJS2fIKROBzIDMJPuG/s400/Vertigo-trees1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alfred Hitchcock's<i> Vertigo</i></td></tr></tbody></table>

A Month of Vertigo Chris Marker Dan Auiler La Jetee Left Bank filmmakers Sans Soleil TCM The Lady Eve (author) "A Month of VERTIGO," TCM and...Synchronicity

Sans SoleilThis blog was consumed by Vertigo all through January and half of February. I thought I'd moved on, was looking forward to Mad Men on Sunday nights - and then I opened the March issue of TCM's Now Playing guide.One of my Vertigo guest blog…

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A Month of "Vertigo," The Final Chapter

<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">by The Lady Eve</span></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge6XJQvDzJ_mQUq1AaToFJNSqPGXggVIXddj4xIgJSDv6M2GxhlEXqkEO1Hf0SqeZRkru1hPGKOdZjzz6Vn58KbF5jmKAPVDfqoX6nNy1iSjlXPRmwcDl7Uc3IP66pmwzu4v-VP96YqvR1/s1600/rooftop+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge6XJQvDzJ_mQUq1AaToFJNSqPGXggVIXddj4xIgJSDv6M2GxhlEXqkEO1Hf0SqeZRkru1hPGKOdZjzz6Vn58KbF5jmKAPVDfqoX6nNy1iSjlXPRmwcDl7Uc3IP66pmwzu4v-VP96YqvR1/s1600/rooftop+4.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /><span style="font-size: small;">It was 1948<i> </i>in post-war France<i> </i>when mystery writers Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac met for the first time at an awards ceremony for the <i>Prix du Roman d'Aventures</i>, a literary award for crime fiction. Narcejac received the prize that year and Boileau had taken the honor ten years earlier; in another two years they would become writing partners. Together the pair forged their own approach to the French mystery novel, placing new emphasis on character and suspense.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Today their work is considered a hybrid of two genres: the traditional whodunit and <i>le roman noir</i> (thriller). <i>Le roman noir </i>of that era was influenced by crime writers like Hammett and novelists of the naturalist school like Emile Zola<i>, </i>but Boileau and Narcejac were more inspired by the likes of Edgar Allen Poe. </span><span style="font-size: small;">What most post-war French crime fiction did have in common was a dark vein of fatalism and, according to Michel Lebrun, another genre writer, Boileau-Narcejac’s work was marked by such persistent gloom that “...the hero, for them, should never wake up from his nightmare.”</span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"></span><br /><a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkyyY5jQZia52HQnhPGb_HDu-rohFoK7RABqT1iz-rLw4BMUd8Chy2nwCAZw0x146hajGylYBoZ88ghOxvTPE82RV4S6OCpocBTCGI1rnmTQsnzihxAHf4gFqoLbxPGMMYiERYfrZpGo0j/s1600/les+diaboliques+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkyyY5jQZia52HQnhPGb_HDu-rohFoK7RABqT1iz-rLw4BMUd8Chy2nwCAZw0x146hajGylYBoZ88ghOxvTPE82RV4S6OCpocBTCGI1rnmTQsnzihxAHf4gFqoLbxPGMMYiERYfrZpGo0j/s320/les+diaboliques+3.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Les Diaboliques</i> (1955)</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;">Their first novel was not immediately published, but their second, <i>Celle qui n'était plus</i>, was adapted to film by director Henri-Georges Clouzot. Re-titled <i>Les Diaboliques</i> and released in 1955, it became a suspense classic. The writing duo’s next book, <i>D’entre les morts</i> (<i>From Among the Dead</i>), appeared the same year. A moody psychological thriller, it tells the story of former police detective Roger Flavieres who agrees to help shipping magnate Paul Gevigne, a one-time college friend, by keeping an eye on the man's unstable wife Madeleine.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Flavieres is a disaffected loner living in Paris at the outset of World War II. He broods endlessly, roams empty streets at night and listens to war reports on the wireless. He loathes Gevigne, envies him, and soon covets his elegant, morose wife to the point of fixation. Flavieres first meets Madeleine when he rescues her from a leap into the Seine. They form an off-balance alliance; he is bewitched by her and she calls him “my poor friend.” When one day she takes him to a remote church with a high tower and disappears up into the belfry, Flavieres is unable to follow. His detested lifelong acrophobia has paralyzed him on the steps. And then, through a window, he sees Madeleine’s body plummet to the ground. Before he flees the scene he laments, “Poor little Eurydice! She would never come back from the nothingness into which she had plunged.” Flavieres will next vanish into the war and out of the country, telling no one, not even Gevigne, what he has witnessed. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">This scenario would be re-envisioned and brought to life on film a few years later:</span></span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/GnpZN2HQ3OQ" width="560"></iframe></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br /><span style="font-size: small;">Paramount Pictures bought the rights to <i>D'entre les morts</i> for Alfred Hitchcock not long after it was published. The film went into production in 1957, a significant point in the director's career.</span><br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2pWZxGpyw4_uZ0mI956sHNyjELjLyS47ju7nCb-slcWb5JaJ45AMwi0T81bnVxOCoENXqgecpU3ybkuKC5UHIG9AvjGvFC8GrjzFTcrrrvCEN0DkNJoYvB7ygkBjm6wNNr7TQ9FQBib7Q/s1600/Dial+M+For+Murder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2pWZxGpyw4_uZ0mI956sHNyjELjLyS47ju7nCb-slcWb5JaJ45AMwi0T81bnVxOCoENXqgecpU3ybkuKC5UHIG9AvjGvFC8GrjzFTcrrrvCEN0DkNJoYvB7ygkBjm6wNNr7TQ9FQBib7Q/s320/Dial+M+For+Murder.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Dial M for Murder </i>(1953)</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;">Though<i> </i>Hitchcock's last three films of the 1940s had failed to attract audiences, he began the 1950s with a series of box office successes for Warner Bros. that reestablished his reputation.</span><i> Stage Fright</i> (1950) was respectably popular, <i>Strangers on a Train</i> (1951) was a rousing hit and <i>I Confess</i> (1952) achieved modest success. In 1953, Hitchcock unearthed his muse Grace Kelly and cast her for the first time - in <i>Dial M for Murder</i> (and 3-D). It was very popular. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In 1954 Lew Wasserman brokered a deal between Hitchcock and Paramount that virtually opened the skies<b> </b>for the director. He would be able to work independently, be granted production budgets far more robust than he'd known at Warners, and would own those films he both produced and directed. The films Hitchcock made for Paramount during the '50s comprise an oeuvre within his oeuvre: <i>Rear Window </i>(1954), <i>To Catch a Thief</i> (1955), <i>The Trouble with Harry</i> (1955), <i>The Man Who Knew Too Much</i> (1956) and <i>Vertigo</i> (1958). <i>North by Northwest</i> (1959) is also part of this collection though it was made for MGM.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtAl7QHrcT5-pZCPJxoWZRnk85UVp3YxKvIb75Gi_nZ_W29R7XBsKSpjBIeMlRX1F6srwQOHcx5oz8NXbGw-D-rX3MNCAXYTew0Xt-b5k0o7v6hugchpZM51YKXabW_l-0A4WS9X2XoZ5x/s1600/the+man+who+knew+too+much.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtAl7QHrcT5-pZCPJxoWZRnk85UVp3YxKvIb75Gi_nZ_W29R7XBsKSpjBIeMlRX1F6srwQOHcx5oz8NXbGw-D-rX3MNCAXYTew0Xt-b5k0o7v6hugchpZM51YKXabW_l-0A4WS9X2XoZ5x/s320/the+man+who+knew+too+much.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Man Who Knew Too Much </i>(1956)</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;">Granted free rein and big budgets, Hitchcock was able to operate both autonomously and lavishly. He was able to attract top stars as well as handpick his creative and technical team. Involved in most or all of these films were cinematographer Robert Burks, film editor George Tomasini, associate producer Herbert Coleman, </span><span style="font-size: small;">composer Bernard Herrmann</span><span style="font-size: small;"> and </span><span style="font-size: small;">costume designer Edith Head. </span><span style="font-size: small;">On <i>Vertigo</i>, legendary title sequence designer Saul Bass began the first of three collaborations with Hitchcock. </span><span style="font-size: small;">All of the Paramount films were shot in Technicolor and, beginning with <i>To Catch a Thief</i>, all were filmed in the VistaVision wide-screen format. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIqk0Kd1rwOMQeTnwy17L8sHqgLI1Ql2yS5bti5s-t1ZZvDiI529pp2F8Kw9zvKLpz0TnJFB2Ew9aLk_ArUeMy6QZvjx2Ob0KYXhcx_hX9opEKKpScPjoxe_MYTPdZ7XqHntKMX6F_vofS/s1600/hitchcock+with+truffaut.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIqk0Kd1rwOMQeTnwy17L8sHqgLI1Ql2yS5bti5s-t1ZZvDiI529pp2F8Kw9zvKLpz0TnJFB2Ew9aLk_ArUeMy6QZvjx2Ob0KYXhcx_hX9opEKKpScPjoxe_MYTPdZ7XqHntKMX6F_vofS/s320/hitchcock+with+truffaut.jpg" width="246" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alfred Hitchcock and Francois Truffaut</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;">There was more. In 1955 <i>Alfred Hitchcock Presents </i>debuted on American television. Hitchcock became a popular TV personality as the series host who opened and closed each episode with dry wit and macabre humor. The series would run until 1962 and help to make him a wealthy man.<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> At the same time, Hitchcock’s reputation as a serious filmmaker was gaining momentum. In the summer of 1956 a month-long Hitchcock retrospective was held at the esteemed <i>Cinemath</i></span><i style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">èque Fran</i></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">ç</span><span style="font-size: small;"><i style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">aise</i><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> in Paris, and in September the influential French film journal <i>Cahiers du Cin</i></span><i style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">éma</i><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> devoted an entire issue to his work. In France during the 1950s, the cinema of Alfred Hitchcock became a subject of deep and lengthy discussion. Eventually, the French view would make its way around the world.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">And so it was that Alfred Hitchcock embarked on the film adaptation of <i>D'entre les morts </i>just as he arrived at the pinnacle of his career.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In 1940 Hitchcock had battled producer David O. Selznick for creative control on the 'picturization' of <i>Rebecca</i>. When he adapted Patricia Highsmith's <i>Strangers on a Train</i> to the screen in 1951 it was under a tight Warner Bros. budget. Regardless of power struggles and financial constraints both films became classics on the strength of Hitchcock's mastery of his medium. By the time he began the film he would christen <i>Vertigo</i>, Hitchcock had reached full maturity as an artist and possessed the resources and the control to conjure a wide-screen Technicolor dreamscape; a very personal expression of timeless themes.</span> </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;">Familiar motifs surface in <i>Vertigo</i> - voyeurism, the lure of an exquisite blonde, a man wrongly accused. And though its plot is set in motion by a mystery and laced with tension, <i>Vertigo </i>was never intended to be a thriller or tale of suspense. Instead, Hitchcock conceived a meditation on desire and illusion, obsession and loss. Rather than "putting the audience through" nerve-jangling terror, he sweeps the viewer into an emotional tailspin.</span><br /><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;"> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Ko9QYkIFezs" width="560"></iframe></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></div></div></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Boileau-Narcejac's well-honed "suspense narrative" would provide the springboard for Hitchcock's imagination...</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh52uVuchgoSD1-DF3AoY095lx65sfahAf8_ijIZ97HKskFhUJLOwMpwF45DRHLsVb-8yUaz40s1Oo8_kqr9ogQWmN_yGlulx9097norqtHDW0yBzd2agEej9blJYI6UoVDH6affVOh5NP-/s1600/Narcejac+Hitch+and+Boileau+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh52uVuchgoSD1-DF3AoY095lx65sfahAf8_ijIZ97HKskFhUJLOwMpwF45DRHLsVb-8yUaz40s1Oo8_kqr9ogQWmN_yGlulx9097norqtHDW0yBzd2agEej9blJYI6UoVDH6affVOh5NP-/s320/Narcejac+Hitch+and+Boileau+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thomas Narcejac, Alfred Hitchcock and Pierre Boileau</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">When Roger Flavieres returned to Paris after the war, he found that Gevigne had been killed in an air raid as he fled the police scrutiny that followed his wife's death. Even Madeleine's grave was blitzkrieged into oblivion. Despondent, Flavieres muses that when Madeleine plunged to her death, he died with her.  Then one day in a movie house he spies a woman in a newsreel who closely resembles her. He manages to locate this woman - Renee Solange, the mistress of a Marseille black marketeer. Flavieres, who has begun drinking steadily and is slowly losing his grip, pursues the woman and despite her denials, tries to bully her into admitting she is Madeleine. He manages to lure Renee away from her lover and then begins making her over in the image of Madeleine. Finally, distraught by Flavieres' incessant badgering, Renee breaks down. She insists she is not Madeleine but confesses she did impersonate her as part of a plot by her lover, Gevigne, to kill his wife for her money. Gevigne had relied on his old friend's well-known acrophobia when he chose Flavieres to be the dupe. But Flavieres had failed to play his part as witness to suicide and the scheme was ruined. Unhinged by her revelation and filled with rage as well as liquor, Flavieres strangles Renee to death. As the police are about to lead him away in handcuffs, he kisses Renee's forehead and whispers that he will wait for her.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span> <br /><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"><span id="goog_254110101"></span><span id="goog_254110102"></span><span id="goog_254110104"></span><span id="goog_254110105"></span>Keeping the novel's essential elements, its basic structure and plot, themes of obsession and destruction, the vague outlines of its principal characters, Hitchcock would re-imagine <i>D'entre les morts</i>. He would shape from it an allegory of aesthetically and technically meticulous images and sounds and with allusions to ancient myth, Medieval legend, 19th century philosophy and modern psychology. And he would endow Boileau-Narcejac's desolate tale with a romantic heart and an eternal soul.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">In transforming a genre piece into an enduring masterpiece, Hitchcock would also create a fascinating portrait of his own inner landscape; a work of art will always reveal the artist.  At the same time, much of <i>Vertigo</i>'s allure stems from its looking-glass effect upon the viewer. French New Wave icon Jean-Luc Godard, one of Hitchcock's great champions at </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>Cahiers du Cin</i></span><i style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">éma</i><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">, could have been contemplating <i>Vertigo</i> when he observed, "Art attracts us only by what it reveals of our most secret self."</span></span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit9e-Vjttcjz0u3clrMOAFRB_6trWax0atNXziYOeipMDV0zpxgvd5Z8RnpGZ8mApfS4EP2zb-ptOqTMFaMIFW4u6qbJwXGr-389cl7krU0wM7YwfeiTdrMhd-b0dL-0tYg4bjy8VzWnFl/s1600/the+end+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit9e-Vjttcjz0u3clrMOAFRB_6trWax0atNXziYOeipMDV0zpxgvd5Z8RnpGZ8mApfS4EP2zb-ptOqTMFaMIFW4u6qbJwXGr-389cl7krU0wM7YwfeiTdrMhd-b0dL-0tYg4bjy8VzWnFl/s1600/the+end+2.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">  </span></span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">A Month of VERTIGO</span></span><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> began on January 1 and, over the last month (plus), has featured a series of posts by 12 diverse and talented guest contributors - and me - on the subject of </span></span></i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Vertigo</span></span><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">. Individually, we have scrutinized Alfred Hitchcock's great masterwork from nearly every conceivable angle. For a complete list of posts, <a href="http://eves-reel-life.blogspot.com/p/month-of-vertigo-schedule-of-bloggers.html" style="color: #990000;">click here</a>.</span></span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">A Month of VERTIGO</span></span><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> has been a success far beyond anything I imagined when the idea first took hold. </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">My deepest gratitude goes out to all who have made it so - from guest bloggers and vloggers to commenters, tweeters, re-tweeters, Facebook friends and those who simply thought it was an interesting concept. A special nod to Dan Auiler whose very fine book, </span></span></i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic</span></span><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">, inspired me to read the English language edition of Boileau-Narcejac's novel (now simply called </span></span></i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Vertigo)</span></span><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> - which led to this blog event.</span></span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>TLE</i></span></span></div>

A Month of Vertigo Alfred Hitchcock Pierre Boileau The Lady Eve (author) Thomas Narcejac Vertigo A Month of "Vertigo," The Final Chapter

by The Lady EveIt was 1948 in post-war France when mystery writers Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac met for the first time at an awards ceremony for the Prix du Roman d'Aventures, a literary award for crime fiction. Narcejac received the prize that…

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Hitchcock’s Most Beautiful Shot Ever; Or, A Single Frame So Good, 2000 Words Don’t Do It Justice

<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.23324399016222996" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">by guest contributor Joel Gunz </span></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeZBpyK9P0sQyZDDBD8rjYleisi7JMz8cxbgrBjXk8xoZIsXur4KhcMiJYpdi7GdL4HIMAon4jrjlxpFiSLGAcFup27rs343j5KPHXJa6S_JuxEP2YIt6_c0n4FqCW8pUOfkYJ81nlKHXp/s1600/Madeleine+by+bay+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeZBpyK9P0sQyZDDBD8rjYleisi7JMz8cxbgrBjXk8xoZIsXur4KhcMiJYpdi7GdL4HIMAon4jrjlxpFiSLGAcFup27rs343j5KPHXJa6S_JuxEP2YIt6_c0n4FqCW8pUOfkYJ81nlKHXp/s1600/Madeleine+by+bay+2.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.23324399016222996" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Practically every frame of every movie Alfred Hitchcock made could be blown up and hung on a museum wall. He had such a clear sense of composition that you can turn off the sound, forget the story and set your DVD player to slo-mo, letting the images parade by.* </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Among the many iconic pictures that his camera has captured, the one pictured above is arguably the most sublime.</span></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.23324399016222996" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Practically everything that happens in the first half of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Vertigo</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> is carefully designed to lead the viewer to Madeleine’s (Kim Novak’s) trip to Fort Point, at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge. Let’s take a closer look at this single frame from the movie. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span><br /><a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Self-consciously artful, the shot is as architecturally balanced as the bridge it depicts. The lighting, the colors, the framing, the composition and, of course, the subject matter leave nothing to chance. For instance, the graceful curve of the bridge draws the eye downward to the lone figure standing before us in the frame’s Golden Mean, while its vertical lines accentuate her statuesque femininity. Likewise, the balance between the man-made (the bridge and sidewalk) and the natural (the bay and mountains) seems to be deliberate as well, signifying Madeleine’s entrapment between these two worlds. Such a composition demanded precise camera placement, blocking and timing to capture the right light. That—among other things—seems to be the point. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Vertigo</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> is Hitchcock’s most sustained and deeply felt meditation on the art of film and this shot is its pièce de résistance. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The scene is observed from Scottie Ferguson’s (James Stewart’s) point of view. For two days now, he has been following Madeleine at a discreet distance, gradually moving closer as he becomes emboldened by her apparent obliviousness to his presence. Yet, he is still far enough away that he could plausibly deny having anything to do with her if she was to turn and question him. He is as close to her as any voyeur would dare get. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The difference between this framing and what Scottie would have actually seen, however, is worth noting. In real life, Scottie’s field of vision would have been much higher and wider. But here, that’s been cut off by the edge of the frame. (Conversely, because of our capacity to focus on small details at a distance, the framing could have been much tighter. And, if all Hitch wanted to do was further the story along, he would have used a lens that allowed Madeleine to fill the frame, but that’s not the case, either.) In other words, though we look through Scottie’s eyes, we are seeing what Hitchcock has decided to show us. The interchangeable relationship between Hitchcock’s protagonist and his camera—always a fluid proposition—has never been more apparent—or transparent. We may share Scottie’s eyesight, but we’re granted Hitchcock’s vision. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">beauty</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> of this picture! Before we go any further, let’s take a moment to let it simply </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">be</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Look again. </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeZBpyK9P0sQyZDDBD8rjYleisi7JMz8cxbgrBjXk8xoZIsXur4KhcMiJYpdi7GdL4HIMAon4jrjlxpFiSLGAcFup27rs343j5KPHXJa6S_JuxEP2YIt6_c0n4FqCW8pUOfkYJ81nlKHXp/s1600/Madeleine+by+bay+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeZBpyK9P0sQyZDDBD8rjYleisi7JMz8cxbgrBjXk8xoZIsXur4KhcMiJYpdi7GdL4HIMAon4jrjlxpFiSLGAcFup27rs343j5KPHXJa6S_JuxEP2YIt6_c0n4FqCW8pUOfkYJ81nlKHXp/s1600/Madeleine+by+bay+2.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This is the moment that VistaVision was made for. Until this point, we have been driving around with Scottie as he follows his charge up and down the streets of San Francisco. Now, however, the camera comes to a full stop at the city’s lowest point: sea level. The camera goes still, along with the actor and even time itself. Now is the time to freeze the frame. It’s as if Hitch was saying to us, “let’s take a bit of time to relax and enjoy the scene I’ve selected for you.” </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Filmed in the late afternoon, Madeleine’s visit to Fort Point occurs during what photographers call the Magic Hour, that special time when shadows deepen and the lowering sunlight results in softer contrast, bringing the subject into almost 3D relief, while the sunset’s golden hues bring out the colors to dramatic effect. (As Dan Auiler notes in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> shooting wrapped at this location at 5:25 PM.) Even if you’re a hack, it’s almost impossible to take a bad picture during the Magic Hour. If the artist is Hitchcock—and the cinematographer is Robert Burks—it can be a masterpiece.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yet, for all its beauty, the Magic Hour is also a melancholy time of day. A lull in the final minutes of sunlight, it’s a prelude to dusk and nightfall, a perfect correlative to Madeleine’s doleful mien. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In fact, everything in this picture is a projection of Madeleine’s character. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Starting with the bridge. As I said earlier, almost everything in the movie up til now is part of a carefully laid plan leading to this moment. The first scene of the film—the rooftop chase—gives us a view of the Golden Gate Bridge at night, enticing us to want a better look. Later, at Midge’s apartment, Scottie muses over the new strapless brassiere that’s modeled on the cantilever bridge. (History nerds will note that the Golden Gate is a suspension bridge. While the original design called for two cantilevers, one at each end, it was rejected because they were as visually unappealing as the cantilevers in Midge’s prototype bra!) In Scottie’s mind (and in the mind of any San Franciscan), the Golden Gate Bridge is the greatest height someone could conquer—or fall from. So, as Scottie pulls out a footstool to stand on in hopes of devising a cure for his acrophobia, he quips to Midge, “Where do you want me to start, with the Golden Gate Bridge?” These moments hint at the scene we’re examining now. As does, of course, Gavin Elster’s yarn (performed by Tom Helmore) about Madeleine’s obsession with Carlotta Valdes and his need for Scottie’s help.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But look again at the framing. While, at the beginning of the film, Hitchcock’s nighttime camera objectively records the entire length of the bridge, this time the nearest end juts out of the top of the frame and the far end is hidden behind a distant suspension tower. As a result, our view of the Golden Gate takes in only its midway point. In effect, it is without beginning or end. And the viewpoint, from underneath, is emphatically </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">subjective</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Such a formal composition emphasizes the artifice before us: sure, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Vertigo</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> is only a movie, but the events unfolding before us once actually occurred for the benefit of Hitchcock and his film crew. It connects the internal reality of the movie with the external fact of its very real location.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Further, the bridge hanging unanchored in midair echoes Madeleine’s suspended condition, caught halfway between the physical world and the spiritual one toward which she hastens. She is neither here nor there. If the Golden Gate Bridge is a masterpiece of suspension, it is a fitting symbol for Hitchcock, the Master of Suspense. I interpret it to be a symbolic cameo appearance by the director, looking down on his creation. At the very least, it is a signature touch, in the fullest sense of the term.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The scene is classical, formal, idealized. A tip of the hat to such 19th century Symbolist illustrators as Maxfield Parrish or R. Atkinson Fox, with all the goofball Blavatskyesque spiritualism fully intended:</span></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsBZZqd_QW7tXCxQgQ2436xveh91-V6Advhizvn7Gh10GFXkLZnsFANpVSfGzkjVbJY9T08sb0mWMQfCC-wbLQcLsYN-0fjJjvdy2jY8sh6hQeNDdCdXP6S1KEYiRMSGpOBoRZwBjvu9JK/s1600/R+Atkinson+Fox+-+Dawn+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsBZZqd_QW7tXCxQgQ2436xveh91-V6Advhizvn7Gh10GFXkLZnsFANpVSfGzkjVbJY9T08sb0mWMQfCC-wbLQcLsYN-0fjJjvdy2jY8sh6hQeNDdCdXP6S1KEYiRMSGpOBoRZwBjvu9JK/s1600/R+Atkinson+Fox+-+Dawn+2.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">R. Atkinson Fox, "Dawn"</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.23324399016222996" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In Sigmund Freud’s dream world, bridges are phallic symbols, standing for the male organ that unites man and woman. Deriving further meaning from that basic symbol, Freud added that a bridge “acquires the meaning of something that leads to death, and … at a further remove from its original sense, it stands for transitions or changes in condition generally.”</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">While those phallocentric interpretations might be outdated, I believe there is a great deal of truth in what he had to say. (And I don’t think it’s much of a leap to suggest that the bridge in this scene is, in fact, phallic.) Bridges carry similar import in the Tarot deck, taking on additional meaning as harbingers of spiritual transformation, linking the earthly world and the spiritual. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Golden Gate’s looming presence also emphasizes the low point at which Scottie and Madeleine have arrived. Looked at in this way, the water carries less of an erotic charge than it does the hellish. This is the level on which the diabolical shipping tycoon Gavin Elster operates. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Classical Chinese</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> shan shui </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">art conceives of bridges as a route to the (inaccessible) divine. The landscape painter Shitao (1641–1720) strove "to express a universe inaccessible to man, without any route that led there,… where only the immortals can live, and which a man cannot imagine. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">That is the vertigo that exists in the natural universe. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To express it in painting, you must show jagged peaks, precipices, hanging bridges, great chasms." (Italics mine.)</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hitchcock’s </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Vertigo</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> is filled with all sorts of references to Chinese wisdom, and I wouldn’t put it past him to have been aware of, if not inspired by Shitao’s aesthetics, perhaps even this painting, which could be read as a schematic diagram for the film’s conceptual design: (<b>look for the tiny bridge</b>)</span></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI9w5xcmQw0RmkyfMgbbdMvNU2GC1HMfJ39uMsVdckGg_4-xP7zAknz6fzOnRbtsMyavBCNlt4Nx6TBheGd78BQCrNAFGXwf59NojJKm5ofR0b2DU6AGx2yrOBgk10RoeYwhn0qurzAWLx/s1600/Chinese+painting.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI9w5xcmQw0RmkyfMgbbdMvNU2GC1HMfJ39uMsVdckGg_4-xP7zAknz6fzOnRbtsMyavBCNlt4Nx6TBheGd78BQCrNAFGXwf59NojJKm5ofR0b2DU6AGx2yrOBgk10RoeYwhn0qurzAWLx/s1600/Chinese+painting.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.23324399016222996" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">At the very least, Hitch participated in this tradition in a general sense.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Not long after it opened in 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge gained notoriety as a favored spot for suicides. In 1956-57, while </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Vertigo</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> was in development and production, no fewer than six people jumped from its heights into the bay, to their death. Thus its status as San Francisco’s most famous landmark is tarnished by this reputation, and Scottie’s earlier crack takes on a darker tone than we might at first have imagined. As such, the location itself points forward to Madeleine’s “suicide,” as well as back to the suicide of her grandmother, Carlotta Valdes.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For a journeyman Symbolist like Hitchcock, all of this was old hat. Here are a couple more symbols, lifted whole from the Romantic art that provides so much inspiration for the film: </span></span></div><ul style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">the bay itself, representing Madeleine’s fathomless subconscious; her sexuality; her feminine mystique and </span></span></li><li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">the distant mountains rising voluptuously above the bay, as inaccessible as Madeleine herself. </span></span></li></ul><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Adding to the somber mood is Madeleine’s navy blue dress, with its high collar and tea-length hem, fit for a funeral. And notice the lavender scarf tied around her neck that drifts and curls in the breeze like ectoplasm, riffing on the multicolored spirals, many of them lavender, that accompany the opening credits. On one level, it enhances Kim Novak’s beauty, who was promoted by Columbia Pictures as a “lavender blonde.” On another level, in Hitch’s color scheme, the color is often associated with death (recall the  lavender “Rest in Peace” ribbon that florist Phillippe Dubois attached to a funeral wreath in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Topaz,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> prefiguring the lavender dress Juanita de Cordoba wore at her death, which was staged to resemble a blooming flower). So much of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Vertigo</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> is rooted in 19th century history that it comes as no surprise that in Britain at that time, lavender was, along with black, the color of mourning. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Special attention seems to have been given to her shoes. With her feet placed one directly in front of the other, we can’t help but get a good look at them. It’s an odd pose, flattening her profile and drawing our attention downward. The camera angle emphasizes the length of the heels and their sharp edges. There’s a hint of danger or fetishism or both. Later, as she is dragged up the stairs of the bell tower, we’ll see those same feet upended by the man who idealized them in this shot.***</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And what is there to say about the nosegay she holds? It’s the bouquet of a bride in mourning.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As beautiful as this shot is, then, upon closer examination, it acquires ominous overtones. You may or may not agree with everything I’ve written above. But on one point we can agree: this picture is at once achingly beautiful and profoundly sad. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Let’s take a closer look at Madeleine herself. We see her in profile, just as we first saw her at Ernie’s Restaurant and at the museum (and, later, bathed in green light, at the Empire Hotel). Shadows in the foreground nearly reduce her to a silhouette, yet in the distance the blue sky also places her out in the open for all to see. The truth about Madeleine hides in plain sight. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Significantly, her body language duplicates the pose she struck moments earlier while standing before the portrait of Carlotta—feet and all:</span></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3s6wC58fgkNAP8AA74jkECofPZ1YiGLQ5kdbhrK7LhCDmLfwEmSDAhVJKBjFMtolwFYzKDNnPgWDUzldRRP2Ov73WqY5QnybsiYx4OHeRCTZy_WoTsuph_GtSC2w_lQdCmdzRtY44OM5k/s1600/Museum+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3s6wC58fgkNAP8AA74jkECofPZ1YiGLQ5kdbhrK7LhCDmLfwEmSDAhVJKBjFMtolwFYzKDNnPgWDUzldRRP2Ov73WqY5QnybsiYx4OHeRCTZy_WoTsuph_GtSC2w_lQdCmdzRtY44OM5k/s1600/Museum+2.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.23324399016222996" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A classical stance, it shows off the beauty of her form while revealing nothing else. Madeleine displays her surface beauty to Scottie while concealing her true self, intentions and identity. As William Rothman writes in his chapter on </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Lodger</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Murderous Gaze</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">: </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“It is characteristic of Hitchcock to frame a figure in profile at the moment of his or her most complete abstraction and absorption in an imagined scene to which we have no access. In such a profile shot, the camera frames its subject in a way that does not allow the figure's interiority to be penetrated. Indeed, such a shot declares that impenetrability; it announces that we have come to a limit of our access to the world of the film.”</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As beautiful as the Fort Point image is and as rife as it is with meaning and symbol, it is ultimately unknowable. Scottie, for whom “there is an explanation for everything,” has met the limits of his knowledge of Madeleine Elster, of women and perhaps of human nature. Unless something new and dramatic takes place, he, along with us, can do nothing more for Madeleine but watch her. If the plot is to move forward, she needs to make a big splash. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hitchcock’s lesson, delivered from the other side of the bridge, is that, despite the books, the articles and, yes, the blog posts, at the end of the day, we are no closer to the truth than Scottie Ferguson. Watching, always watching, but rarely seeing, until it’s too late.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">--------</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">*If you think this is an exaggeration, drop by </span><a href="http://www.hitchcockwiki.com/wiki/1000_Frames_of_Hitchcock"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">1000 Frames of Hitchcock</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, where you’ll see Dave Pattern’s massive frame capture project, where he copied 1000 high-quality frames from all 52 of Hitchcock’s extant movies and posted them on the Alfred Hitchcock wiki for scholars, students and fans to peruse and use. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Hitchcock framed bridges similarly in previous movies, notably </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The 39 Steps</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> (1935), which depicted the Forth Rail Bridge, one of the world’s great bridges and one of the greatest achievements of Victorian British engineering. In a way, this was at the time the Golden Gate Bridge of Britain. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkrGSYrhRGYfZmTMtkv7f4z_xu786BjQyc-DDrviQGYinHUluSUwPFHdAc6b5vfAynPceQPsSUm34NlqH9Gj3eFZDmDkeE1MGLn5DPaAZtviBySMTdd-IVZwz_j2am2Jw-CdsYSQDaDF8X/s1600/British+Bridge+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkrGSYrhRGYfZmTMtkv7f4z_xu786BjQyc-DDrviQGYinHUluSUwPFHdAc6b5vfAynPceQPsSUm34NlqH9Gj3eFZDmDkeE1MGLn5DPaAZtviBySMTdd-IVZwz_j2am2Jw-CdsYSQDaDF8X/s1600/British+Bridge+2.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.23324399016222996" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Just as Freud suggested, for Hitch, bridges often signify psychological, emotional or spiritual transition. It is at this bridge that Richard Hannay escapes from the train to evade the police and is fully transfigured into his role as a fugitive from the police. It’s generally assumed that Hannay jumped into the river. However, I don’t think that’s the case. For one thing, from his perch, as is clearly shown in the movie, such a leap would have landed him at the concrete base of the bridge and killed him. Even a jump into the water from that height would have been too risky. Instead, I believe that he remained hidden until the train left and that he simply walked off the bridge. The reason I bring this up now  is that, up until this point, we’ve tracked Hannay’s movements very closely. So, from whose point of view is this shot taken? It probably isn’t Hannay’s. Instead, it seems to be Hitchcock’s own view, a case of author intrusion into the story. As such, it anticipates the similar framing of the Golden Gate Bridge being discussed here. As in the 1958 film, time stops for a moment. In this case, it gives us a chance to catch up with the action and Hannay’s radical transformation away from an ordinary bloke as he inhabits his extraordinary new role as fugitive, sleuth and espionage agent. </span></span></i></b></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjK_SFyfX7DhOJmxyOZ_D7wqw81mEgBQYTaXCTZ9-bgr0v_BAFzArJYhP4_EfgC4u6545ABJQTsIyGT4HjYmxdcptIj5K8v3TKrmvqgscJ3YfRvedDXSwKkb5OOrx9r3UWUBQHKI0VCTh0/s1600/Scottish+Highlands+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjK_SFyfX7DhOJmxyOZ_D7wqw81mEgBQYTaXCTZ9-bgr0v_BAFzArJYhP4_EfgC4u6545ABJQTsIyGT4HjYmxdcptIj5K8v3TKrmvqgscJ3YfRvedDXSwKkb5OOrx9r3UWUBQHKI0VCTh0/s1600/Scottish+Highlands+2.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN9W_tmp1H05-5Vq9VnQWCHkKnh7zdteJ_sQMp2t2KF8XbFXk4DxBxwJlF9WBZ7p8QPBUFgSZzisG3mWNSvAW3mYSeunxe-pP1iROio1iG0VK-_n4JwPfzJw8qn_7rc5Sti7b04HVutsT8/s1600/Last+Bridge.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN9W_tmp1H05-5Vq9VnQWCHkKnh7zdteJ_sQMp2t2KF8XbFXk4DxBxwJlF9WBZ7p8QPBUFgSZzisG3mWNSvAW3mYSeunxe-pP1iROio1iG0VK-_n4JwPfzJw8qn_7rc5Sti7b04HVutsT8/s1600/Last+Bridge.JPG" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.23324399016222996" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In the shot immediately following, Hannay crosses a small bridge whose ancient stones are a marked contrast to the ultra-modern Forth Rail Bridge previously shown. The previous montage hints at a spiritual journey comparable to that suggested by Madeleine and Scottie’s destined appointment under the Golden Gate Bridge, but with a very different outcome.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">***While making </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Rear Window</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> (1954), Hitchcock spent half an hour arranging a shot of Grace Kelly's shoes. When assistant Herbert Coleman asked why, Hitch remarked blandly, “Haven't you heard of the shoe fetish?” Unfortunately, it was never used in the film. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">~</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: left;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9qQSbA5vl0WkwmoceHg2ToDV1bcq6nJH25mq8pnJoi4B-2Z46mHki3YQXjSL7ronNl3hLQe_Ar_vPcwT4HdoK1RIAAGfef0xudKKcAd-0jhQBFmAuM1CFcFDA_jIchszDCEOA17Pm8Ug0/s1600/AH+Geek+Image.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9qQSbA5vl0WkwmoceHg2ToDV1bcq6nJH25mq8pnJoi4B-2Z46mHki3YQXjSL7ronNl3hLQe_Ar_vPcwT4HdoK1RIAAGfef0xudKKcAd-0jhQBFmAuM1CFcFDA_jIchszDCEOA17Pm8Ug0/s320/AH+Geek+Image.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div>Noted for its fresh perspective and first-rate scholarship, Joel Gunz's <a href="http://www.alfredhitchcockgeek.com/" style="color: #990000;" target="_blank">www.alfredhitchcockgeek.com</a> has been described as the "best Hitchcock blog on the Internet." Meanwhile, its social center, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/HitchcockGeek" style="color: #990000;" target="_blank">www.facebook.com/HitchcockGeek</a><wbr style="color: #990000;"></wbr>, enjoys an enormous and passionate international following. Joel is preparing to publish his next book, <u>Notes from an Alfred Hitchcock Geek</u>. Watch for it!</div><div><br /></div></div>

A Month of Vertigo Alfred Hitchcock Alfred Hitchcock Geek Joel Gunz Vertigo Hitchcock’s Most Beautiful Shot Ever; Or, A Single Frame So Good, 2000 Words Don’t Do It Justice

by guest contributor Joel Gunz Practically every frame of every movie Alfred Hitchcock made could be blown up and hung on a museum wall. He had such a clear sense of composition that you can turn off the sound, forget the story and set your DVD pl…

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Vertigo for Life

<i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">by guest contributor Dan Auiler</span></span></i><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-mSy7uqYMb3N3Bo1O6fcC21NtQ2vcxYG5Bl0iui6xyPbQhNtWVu_gzY33VmsPM8aee8Q1vzQCscmKFSjTvuWvptr-8tPZ1I5JAE9oqGOLIZ8zV6VzmzSF6txYIsm6l87J1dxvBqn8R5hd/s1600/saul+bass+2+b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-mSy7uqYMb3N3Bo1O6fcC21NtQ2vcxYG5Bl0iui6xyPbQhNtWVu_gzY33VmsPM8aee8Q1vzQCscmKFSjTvuWvptr-8tPZ1I5JAE9oqGOLIZ8zV6VzmzSF6txYIsm6l87J1dxvBqn8R5hd/s1600/saul+bass+2+b.jpg" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">A month of <i>Vertigo </i>is light sentence. Most of us who encounter this film end up serving life sentences. Our lives, our thoughts become trapped in the vortex of the strong currents this film produces. <i>Vertigo</i>'s meaning and importance in film have become so varied and vital that choosing one tendril spinning out from one of John Whitney's Lissajous diagrams is challenging - but keeping that line of thought from swirling back into the film's center and tossing you out on some other surprising shore is just about impossible.</span></span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><a name='more'></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/BzB31mD4NmA?rel=0" width="420"></iframe></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The film has become something I can seldom approach head-on, in a straight line. For example, the original idea for this blog post was to look at <i>Vertigo</i> and the films of Chris Marker. But even on the way to introducing the idea, we encounter John Whitney. John Whitney was the groundbreaking computer animation filmmaker who not only invented</span></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">computer controlled animation, but hand-machined the devices himself out of surplus Air Force engines. It was on one of these devices that Whitney created the opening spiral designs that Saul Bass used for the title sequence.</span></span><br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/7yyQeHdQDXU?rel=0" width="560"></iframe><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">And now, aiming still at Chris Marker, detoured out of essence to a brief John Whitney nod, we encounter another 20th century giant, Saul Bass. The very look of the last hundred years, let alone the way movies open, have been impacted by the vision and design abilities of Saul Bass.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Selecting Saul Bass, John Whitney - these are obvious choices today. In 1957, these guys were not household names even to filmmakers. One of Hitchcock's remarkable abilities was his choice in collaborators. Other posts this month have outlined the other key components of the design team for <i>Vertigo</i>. Bernard Herrmann, Edith Head, Samuel Taylor - again, hindsight provokes us to ask how the film could fail.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQWUuqMf7mVMEy2xw1JSOKvmS4w2xeChDm2WtNpJn_1-BiQQRtSQdil1Jk3YGJKaA2ub0ezR00sdjgkyiT0RAW7fU5lskcV546eqQTIathWdAQk3A9pde5YrGc6KOTz8Gi9ujknbIxv1re/s1600/la+jetee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQWUuqMf7mVMEy2xw1JSOKvmS4w2xeChDm2WtNpJn_1-BiQQRtSQdil1Jk3YGJKaA2ub0ezR00sdjgkyiT0RAW7fU5lskcV546eqQTIathWdAQk3A9pde5YrGc6KOTz8Gi9ujknbIxv1re/s1600/la+jetee.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>La Jetee</i> (1962)</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Now I'm far from Chris Marker. But I thought you would appreciate the detour. Marker has also been a life-long devotee of <i>Vertigo</i>. His break-out short film <i>La Jetee</i> references the film's famous tree sequence; <i>La Jetee </i>is a further examination of the aspects of time, obsession and our movable points in time. (here is the complete text to <i>La Jetee</i>: </span><a href="http://www.markertext.com/la_jetee.htm" style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>La Jetee</i> by Chris Marker</span></a><span style="color: black;">)</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Marker, in a later work of opposite dimensions, <i>San Soleil</i>, tours San Francisco and <i>Vertigo</i>'s film locations, marking in film at least the first of the pilgrims to visit Lombard Street, Fort Point, the Legion of Honor art museum, San Juan Bautista. <i>Vertigo </i>aficionados feel compelled to make this pilgrimage. It was my first trip after college. I'm not sure why this was so vital - but I am not alone. (There are several paid tours of the film sites available)</span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i> </i></span></span></span><br /><div style="text-align: right;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAgQqf0jLnHob02A1hhaifwO0bLXSpmmwQlrAfieHwWWHWgsVfW-u6IX3N4EgC63spTcU1YysY3F7jNZEy0G2cbxOhJuefTndZRN32aHRZo8zhanXjlawX4-DAyiI5A0rfj5bAyTOzYOq4/s1600/chris+marker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAgQqf0jLnHob02A1hhaifwO0bLXSpmmwQlrAfieHwWWHWgsVfW-u6IX3N4EgC63spTcU1YysY3F7jNZEy0G2cbxOhJuefTndZRN32aHRZo8zhanXjlawX4-DAyiI5A0rfj5bAyTOzYOq4/s1600/chris+marker.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Filmmaker Chris Marker</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>Vertigo </i>and its production history led me to discover Marker. His reference to the film in his own was the starting point. Now I'm fascinated by his total mess-with-your-head understanding (or non-understanding) of time. The English version of <i>San Soleil</i> begins with these lines from TX Eliot's <i>Ash Wednesday</i>:</span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"Because I know that time is always time</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">and place is always and only place</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">And what is actual is actual only for one time</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">and only for one place."</span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">What then is the time and place for <i>Vertigo</i>? This is a profound question in the structure of the film. It is an even more profound question for us, the film's fans.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">What is the time and place of this film in our lives? For me, it has been the gateway, the worm hole, the central vortex around which all of Hitchcock's films and subsequently my own psychic life turn.</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Use <i>Vertigo</i> as a starting point and then lose yourself as a wanderer. My latest encounter on the <i>Vertigo </i>trail is the three-part video essay curated<span style="color: #990000;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.movingimagesource.us/articles/vertigo-variations-pt-1-20110921" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000; text-decoration: none;">here</span></a></span></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">at</span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> the Museum of Moving Image. This is accessible but heady stuff.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">There are other "better" films even in the Hitchcock canon, but <i>Vertigo </i>is perhaps the most profound pop film. Everyone chooses which films lie closest to their own heart, their own story.<i> Vertigo </i>is that film for me.</span></span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><object height="372" width="448"><param name="movie" value="http://www.movingimagesource.us/flash/mediaplayer.swf?id=158/976"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.movingimagesource.us/flash/mediaplayer.swf?id=158/976" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent" width="448" height="372"></embed></object></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">~</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjax1r6UwNlB9eHzb8KnhG6B9f30w0i8gVxJfLpB1pGkg0z2XVVVwqSnLYXrGx_JZpr79T2ie_jzWJkVvwHttl6Ndm51qO1zVRmvbt5swdrsYuEeJMr_778E5W2-CarNaGnuJkt1ELPpa35/s1600/vertigo+book+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjax1r6UwNlB9eHzb8KnhG6B9f30w0i8gVxJfLpB1pGkg0z2XVVVwqSnLYXrGx_JZpr79T2ie_jzWJkVvwHttl6Ndm51qO1zVRmvbt5swdrsYuEeJMr_778E5W2-CarNaGnuJkt1ELPpa35/s320/vertigo+book+cover.jpg" width="256" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;">Dan Auiler is the best-selling author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005FUEM0E/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_til?tag=hitchcblog-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=B005FUEM0E&adid=0SRR1ZSGX9A4SMT0GPMQ&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Fvertigofalls.blogspot.com%2F" style="color: #990000;"><u>Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic</u></a><i> </i>(St. Martin's Press 1998, Kindle 2011) and <u>Hitchcock's Notebooks</u> (HarperCollins 1999). In addition to his writing, he has taught for more than 20 years in the Los Angeles area. </span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: small;">Dan is considered one of the foremost authorities on Alfred Hitchcock and has made appearances on CNN and other major networks as an expert on Hitchcock, Billy Wilder and general film history.</span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: small;">It was after reading Dan's painstakingly researched and thoroughly insightful book on <i>Vertigo </i>that The Lady Eve was inspired to undertake <i>A Month of VERTIGO. </i>Dan's blog is <a href="http://vertigofalls.blogspot.com/" style="color: #990000;">Vertigo Falls</a>.</span></div>

A Month of Vertigo Alfred Hitchcock Chris Marker Dan Auiler John Whitney La Jetee San Soleil Saul Bass Vertigo for Life

by guest contributor Dan AuilerA month of Vertigo is light sentence. Most of us who encounter this film end up serving life sentences. Our lives, our thoughts become trapped in the vortex of the strong currents this film produces. Vertigo's meaning a…

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