Believe me, I know there are many things wrong with this (ex: my title assumes that my TA knows who Hitchcock is (snicker). While I'm more than 1000000% sure I know she knows who Hitchcock is, it's not right to assume. It makes an ass out of u and me :p) I also started to get pretty exasperated at the end, so apologies Kaja Silverman, Alfred Hitchcock, Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak :/
Women in Hitchcock’s Vertigo
Throughout the history of film, the role of woman seemed to be well defined on the screen. She is demure yet complex, quaint yet common, and always beautiful. Until recently, women had not broken this mold, and even today the breakage is questionable. Kaja Silverman’s essay Sutures [Excerpts] tells about the idea of the suture theory and how the method is used to immerse the audience. However, Silverman explores the idea of the use of women as a catalyst for the suture. This idea is exemplified in Alfred Hitchcock’s movie Vertigo (1958). With its two main female characters, played by Kim Novak and Barbara Bel Geddes, Vertigo took the extra step of not only using beautiful women to satisfy the viewers but to explicitly make women a spectacle.
Silverman’s article begins with the ideas of the shot/reverse shot and how the sequence is used to suture the audience. Later, she argues that this same method is used to highlight the male gaze to a woman. “Classic cinema abounds in shot/reverse shot formations in which men look at women.” [1] Within Vertigo the first time John “Scottie” Ferguson (Jimmy Stewart) sees Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak) the shot/reverse shot it used, and even toward the end of the scene the shots are used quickly. Aside from the shot, the way Novak is introduced to the audience is in itself a sort of show. Among a red room, with patrons in neutral colors, Novak is dressed in an emerald gown and her blond hair signifies that she is the woman the audience is to advert their gaze.
The same concept is contradicted in an earlier scene between Scotty and Midge (Barbara Bel Geddes). The beginning of their dialogue is void of any shot/reverse shot, meaning that Midge is not the focus of the audience’s or Scottie’s gaze. In fact, in the middle of one of Scottie’s lines, the focus is not on him, but on the picture that Midge is drawing, implying that neither of their attention is really on one another so the audience is left feeling disengaged from the conversation at that moment. Another incident that detracts Midge from the gaze is a point that Scottie criticizes Midge for being motherly, in which the first close-up reveals Geddes’ homely look – horn rimmed glasses, conservative sweater, simple hair and unflattering camera angle in which we have only seen Midge midpoint and upward.
While an audience can gawk at a woman throughout a whole movie, Silverman, as does her contemporary Laura Mulvey, explains that the arousal the woman may cause needs to be “neutralized” and that there are two ways to do this. The first “involves an interrogation calculated to establish either the female subject’s guilt or her illness.”[2] In Vertigo the main storyline is Madeleine being possessed by a troubled spirit. Through this the audience no longer views Novak as a sensual figure, but is focused on her actions that would lead us to believe that she is in fact possessed. Hitchcock does this deliberately through his choice of shots: the bouquet of flowers and the style of hair are that in the portrait of Carlotta Valdes (Joanne Genthon). The zoom-in on both objects is highlighted to the audience that something is not right about this woman.
The second “negotiates her erotic overinvestment”[3] which leads to an interruption within the narrative. The only distinct scene from Vertigo is when Scottie brings Madeleine back to his apartment and we see that she is probably naked (or half naked) in his bed. Although this is not a complete diversion from the narrative, it raises erotic questions within the viewer. Such as, “Did Scottie undress her himself?” which he probably did since she is passed out at the introduction of the scene. “Did he marvel at her? Or did he carry out his job professionally?” All these questions lead to something that Silverman refers to as the “dis-placement of the viewer”[4]. While we wonder all these things, we forget that she is unclothed in a stranger’s bed for a reason – to carry on a story.
Between these two “problems”, Silverman suggests that both are vital in understanding the locus of women especially since the “[erotic overinvestment] contains the potential to subvert the [guilt or illness].”[5] The next scene is such an example. When Madeleine enters the room to join Scottie she is in only a red silk robe and is accompanied by tonal, sultry music. Taking a seat on the floor next to the fire, Scottie interrogates her about falling into the San Francisco Bay and other activities throughout the day. Even though the shadow of uneasiness and supernatural is present, the chosen angles and shots of nearly all close-ups of Novak accentuate her beauty to the point that she almost mesmerizes her audience.
After getting over these two dilemmas, the characters on the screen must establish who holds the power. Silverman says, “The power relations which are inscribed into classic cinema through its scopic regime are by no means as stable as is the regime itself… [T]he identification of the female subject with specularity and the male subject with vision does not necessarily assure the later a dominant position.”[6] However, true to classic cinema, the male gaze dominates throughout Vertigo. The concept of the power of the male gaze is used before the sighted in the last paragraph. Right as Madeleine appears in the doorframe of Scottie’s bedroom, the camera shows Scottie from a low-angle shot (giving the feeling of power) and giving a longing gaze in her direction, definitely not from Madeleine’s point of view. The camera then switches to Madeleine, with the feeling of apprehensiveness and exposure in the red robe, from Scottie’s exact point of view.
In the end, Silverman claims that “writing a narrative by means of which [the woman] is defined.”[7] Which to Silverman, who uses the works of Mulvey, “the woman is made to confess by a male character.” Nothing is more explicit to this example than Scottie’s craze and need to transform Judy back into Madeleine. Hitchcock even plays with this idea of confession when Judy sits in silhouette form in her apartment aptly stating that she reminds Scottie of “her”, while her profile is a reflection of the shots back in Scottie’s apartment. Over time, Scottie becomes manically obsessed with the type of clothes Judy should wear, what color her hair should be and how it should be worn. When the time comes that Judy put together the full package for Scottie, Hitchcock creates a green haze across the camera as if she is coming out of a dream and confessing that she is the woman he has been laboring over.
Even as Vertigo is considered one of the greatest American movies, it can be difficult to realize the role of women in the film. Acclaimed movie critic Roger Ebert has even stated, “Every Hitchcock woman was humiliated.”[8] So while the role of woman seemed to be well defined in Vertigo, she actually remains undefined and common. In an idealistic world, the women, especially Kim Novak, harnessed the power of the suture through her beauty and wit. However, it is through the gaze of the man, Jimmy Stewart, which defines the woman and her role.
[1] Silverman, Kaja. Excerpts from chapter 5 The Subject of Semiotics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983). 230.
[2] Silverman, 230.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Silverman, 230.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Silverman, 233.
[7] Silverman, 234.
[8] Ebert, Roger. Vertigo (1958). rogerebert.com, October 13, 1996. Web. July 29, 2011. <http://www.rogerebert.com/>
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