The plot of Vertigo revolves around an elaborate conspiracy. Gavin Esther was a shipbuilder and his wife Madeline was a wealthy woman. In order to defraud a huge inheritance, Esther devised a conspiracy to murder his wife. He first picks detective Scottie (James Stewart), who suffers from acrophobia, and tells him that Madeleine is possessed by one of her ancestors who committed suicide, and hires him to keep his wife safe. Scottie stalks his wife. Little did Scotty know that he was stalking Judy, Madeleine's stand-in, a murder accomplice hired by Gavin to play the soul-possessed character. Scottie is fascinated by this mysterious woman, he sees "Madeleine" in various abnormal behaviors, and rescues her in time when she is about to commit suicide by jumping into the sea. "Madeline" then tells Scottie an "event in her memory" that appears to be a memory of her dead ancestor. Scottie described taking her to St. Juan Baptist Church, thinking this was what "Madeleine" remembered, but she disagreed. She left Scotty and climbed to the top of the church tower, which Scotty tried to stop, but the dizziness caused by the fear of heights left him powerless. Esther dropped the real Madeleine at the top of the tower, and Scotty, who left the church in fear, became his alibi. After the police officer who rescued him fell to his death at the beginning of the film, Scotty failed to prevent Madeleine's "suicide" because of his fear of heights. The double blow made him fall into depression, and the first paragraph of the film ended. In the second segment of the film, Scotty encounters Judy on the street, which reminds him of Madeleine. During their relationship, Scotty forces Judy to dress up as Madeleine. Judy knows that doing so will put her in danger of revealing a conspiracy, but she can't refuse because she's in love with Scotty. In the end, a necklace originally belonging to Madeleine became evidence of her murder. Scotty understands what's going on, and he takes Judy to the church and forces her to the top of the tower with her. The presence of a nun terrifies Judy, causing her to fall to her death on the roof where Madeleine had fallen, while Scotty's fear of heights has healed. Like Hitchcock's other masterpiece, Psycho, Vertigo is split into two paragraphs by the heroine's death. In the first paragraph, Ester planned the murder, which is similar to the production process of a movie. The story of soul possession that Esther made up was a film script he carefully wrote, and "Madeleine" was the heroine of the play. Esther is very clear about the selling point of this "movie" -- suspense first. The story Ester made up has both ups and downs plots, as well as fantasy elements of time travel and soul possession, which can easily provoke the audience to want. The curiosity to know the end of the story. Next is the charismatic heroine. The beauty, trance, and mystery inherent in Judy makes her the perfect choice to play Madeleine. The last and most important point is the emotional resonance of the audience with the script. The process of "Madeleine"'s destruction has a Greek tragic fatalism, which makes it easy for audiences to identify with this character; and the melodrama mode of Madeleine's ancestor who committed suicide after being abandoned by her husband can also make some sentimental audiences sigh A handful of bitter tears. Having said that, in most of Hitchcock's works, the existence of three elements is also indispensable. Suspense and blondes are the exclusive labels of Hee's films. As for the seductive melodrama routines, they are not uncommon in Hee's works. Heath himself has said that the murder mastermind and the director have many things in common, and perhaps Esther in Vertigo is the best footnote to his point. No matter how well a movie is made, it cannot live alone without the affirmation of the audience. Scotty in the first half of Vertigo just happens to be the audience for Esther's "movie." Scottie has several characteristics of a qualified moviegoer. For one, he has plenty of time. Having just emerged from the shadow of acrophobia, he is on a semi-vacation state, so he has the premise of becoming an audience; secondly, Scotty has a strong curiosity. As a good police officer, he has an excellent ability and a strong desire to observe the bizarre events around him. In addition, Hitchcock chose Stewart as the hero of Vertigo over the romantic and humorous Cary Grant or the righteous Henry Fonda, in my opinion, precisely to take advantage of the "Rear Window" Among them, Stewart is deeply rooted in the image of the curious young man. Third, and most importantly, Scotty is prone to emotional identification with the "movie" that Esther planned. The film opens with the story of Scotty's indirect cause of the death of a fellow police officer. The self-conscience condemnation made Scottie desperately need a chance to save others, to unload his moral burden and get out of the psychological shadow. At the same time, he and the "Madeline" in the play are haunted by memories and nightmares. Only by facing these fears can they be redeemed. Scottie fell in love with this mysterious woman during the tracking. He believed that this love was a process of mutual healing, which was exactly when he persuaded Madeleine to go to the church to face the nightmare. The words he used were not The reason "you" is "we". Unfortunately, the "movie" is different from reality after all, and the written ending cannot be changed at will. Scottie, who was too deeply involved in the play, entered the film, trying to become the hero who saves the beauty heroically, but is destined to be just a pawn in the director's hands. He sees himself His lover fell from the tower but could not do anything, and the tragedy ended. There is also Judy who can't tell the difference between "movie" and reality. As an actress, like the male protagonist in "The Purple Rose of Cairo" mentioned above, she fell in love with the fans who were supposed to be just bystanders on the screen. Judy's dilemma when she is in trouble is evident in this line before the murder: Madeleine/Judy: It's too late. There is something I have to do. Scotty: There's nothing you have to do. You are with me and you are safe. Madeline/Judy: No, it's not fair! Things shouldn't be like this at all. None of this should have happened at all! Scotty: But it's destined to happen. We love each other, that's the most important thing. Madeline/Judy: Do you believe I love you? Scotty: Believe it. Madeleine/Judy: Even though you are about to lose me, you know that I love you. And I want to keep loving you. Scotty: I'm not going to lose you. Madeline/Judy: Let me go to church alone. A person. The subtlety of this line comes precisely from its ambiguous ambiguity. When I watched it for the first time, these lines were not ridiculous to the point of being unreasonable, but they were as long and contrived as Qiong Yao's drama. Only when watching it again, under the mask of Madeleine, does Judy's own true voice emerge. The end of the "movie" will bring Judy and Scotty a goodbye, although Scotty and the audience are also kept in the dark by the director (Ester/Hitchcock) at this time. Judy's emotions are so strong that she almost breaks through the precise narrative structure that Esther has designed, but she finally fulfills her role as a hired actor and does not let the "movie" end up in a mess. And this is also Hitchcock's foreshadowing for the second half of "Vertigo". In the second half, the focus of the film turns to Judy. After explaining Scotty's depression, Hitchcock asks him to run into the street with Judy, who takes off her mask. Scotty is straightforward about why he wants to be with Judy, who naturally denies any connection between herself and Madeleine. After Scotty leaves, Hitchcock uses Judy's monologue and a few flashbacks to explain to the audience the truth of the conspiracy in the first half of the film. Although adventurous, Judy still hopes to be reunited with Scotty, believing that Scottie will fall in love with her real self. The problem is that Judy's hopes are in vain, and Scotty is obsessed with the illusory heroine, not the makeup-removing actor Judy. So he forced Judy to gradually dress up as Madeleine in an attempt to return to the "movie" that had ended. In this passage, Hitchcock makes a metaphor for the reality of the film industry on a deeper level . In layman's terms, Judy and Madeleine are metaphors for two kinds of movies. Madeleine is more commercial and more exciting, which is in line with the expectations of most audiences; while Judy is plain but real, symbolizing the film's return to its original literary and artistic temperament. In theory, there is no difference between the two, but the essence of film is a commodity after all. When money intervenes, the latter will be replaced by the former. Hitchcock's point of view is reflected in the scene where Scotty buys Judy's clothes. Scotty's favorite is Madeleine's gray dress in the play, which Judy strongly rejects. After weighing, the clerk raved about Scotty's taste, and Judy lost control over her appearance. In this way, after money intervenes, Judy, as a woman, is reduced to a gorgeous commodity wrapped in money, and a machine that creates desire for Scotty. As a symbolic movie, she was eventually kidnapped by money and the audience's desire, and became a part and appendage of the market. Corresponding to Judy, Scotty, who holds money, plays the role of consumer and filmmaker on these two levels. He is both Cecilia in "Purple Rose of Cairo" who expects the same movie to be repeated over and over again. , also inadvertently replaced Esther as Pygmalion who wrapped Judy. Judy takes an adventure for love, but cocoons herself into Madeleine's destiny. The ending of "Vertigo" not only has a noir-style fatalism, but also leaves viewers a broad space for thinking because of its ambiguity and ambiguity. Scotty takes Judy to the church after discovering the incriminating evidence, and exposes the truth of the murder on the top of the tower. Judy tries to convince Scotty to forget she was with her, but is startled when the nun shows up and falls off the top of the tower. Hitchcock didn't explain any of Scotty's views, we got only two messages, one is that Esther's movie ending is as ironic as Scotty expected, and the other is that Scotty's fear of heights is cured . Judy's death did not receive any comments from Hitchcock. According to common sense, Judy's death is the inevitable retribution for participating in a crime, but when the audience watched the film many times, they often found that Judy was the most important character in the film. A sympathetic person, because her sacrifice was not for money, but out of love for Scotty; it was Scotty's morbid pursuit of the dreamy character Madeleine, which eventually led to Judy becomes the sacrifice of his dreams. From a metaphorical point of view, Judy's death symbolizes that in the struggle between money and art, the artistic side that represents the expression of individuality in the film is bound to be destroyed. Perhaps Hitchcock's metaphor of despair, unfortunately, is the fate of the last ten years of his directorial career. After experiencing the creative peak represented by "Vertigo", "North by Northwest" and "Psycho", Master Xi in the late 1960s lost due to the impact of the TV industry A series of privileges, forced to make compromises in art. Since then he has never produced a work of the quality of his masterpieces of the 1940s and 1950s. Ironically, Vertigo's status is as paradoxical as its ending. After experiencing a lackluster response in the early days of its release, the film's artistic value has been continuously recognized by a new generation of young filmmakers. From New Wave Chris Mack and Truffaut films to New Hollywood Kid De Palma and Scorsese; from Tim Burton's comic rave "Batman" to Peter Jackson In the epic masterpiece "The Lord of the Rings", the shadow of "Vertigo" can be seen. It is the focus of analysis in various essays and a frequent guest on various movie history lists. The intricate relationship between film and reality is once again reflected in the fate of Vertigo. I believe that in the repeated understanding of film history, the value of "Vertigo" can be re-evaluated by more people.
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