I've been wanting to write something since watching a video of Mark Cousins discussing Vertigo in the school's online resources recommended by the school in August. As one of my favorite movies, every time I watch it, I can find a different "spatial" inspiration. Now I hope to use this article to commemorate this legend who has taught at AA for more than 40 years. figure. Although Mark focused more on the meaning of images and the psychoanalysis of character behavior in his lectures, the logic and framework of his lectures re-inspired my thinking about film narratives. Compared to the spatial montage and scene design discussed by architecture students in the past when talking about this film, what I want to discuss here is more about the characteristics of the film's narrative text.
This article will be divided into two perspectives to interpret the narrative of Vertigo. The first part focuses on how the two interrelated plots in linear time lead the protagonist Scottie to become lost step by step, and the other part is through the plot framework. Consider the relationship between the director, the characters, and the movie audience.
First of all, as many people have discovered before, the narrative of this film can be disassembled into two parts, and the two narratives are divided by Madeleine's death. Even if the film ends here in the first part, it can still form a complete film narrative. In the second half, the narrative of the film is sublimated by switching the narrative perspective. But we can still use Syd Field's three-stage structure to re-disassemble the film, combined with the film's title animation and the metaphor of the film's name Vertigo (literally translated as: vertigo), we can finally find that this is a A narrative text with spatial form symbols.
The first scene is the chase scene on the roof at the beginning of the movie, from which we can learn the origin of Scottie's vertigo, but in addition to the background information of the protagonist, this scene also implies that Scottie is unable to save his fellow policeman. Thus laying a foreshadowing for the subsequent development of the plot. The subsequent plot is that Scottie is ordered to protect Madeleine (the actual character is Judy), and this scene is also the confrontation between the protagonist's inner self and desire and fear. But this confrontation failed again when Madeleine (the real body) fell off the bell tower. Then we can see that Scottie's psychological and behavioral motivations become unstable, especially when he meets the role of Judy, his behavior becomes more and more uncontrollable. Here, Scottie has gradually lost his way, and finally this loss and sadness culminated in the moment Judy fell from the clock tower. Under such a unified linear narrative logic throughout the film, the protagonist Scottie's confrontation with fate and psychology failed again and again, and finally fell into an endless endless loop, which corresponds to the English title of the film Vertigo - the whole film The narrative structure of the novel is like a spiral staircase, and the viewing experience of the audience and the encounter of the protagonist Scottie are like traveling downwards in space again and again, and finally get lost in this spiral space.
Image metaphors about spirals and falling elements appear several times in the film. The most likely to be found is the poster pattern and title of the film. The filmmaker has used the spiral image to hint to the audience the story experience of the protagonist and the psychological effect that the film wants to present.
In addition, the most classic scene, the zoom shot showing the stairs of the clock tower in the movie, echoes this theme again in terms of spatial structure and image logic. This textbook shot has been discussed by many movie and space lovers to this day. object. In addition, in the clip of the museum, there is also a close-up shot showing Madeleine (Judy) hairstyle to the audience, and the hairstyle pattern corresponds to a spiral shape.
In addition to the aforementioned, the script of the film itself is like a spiral staircase that is continuously spiraling downwards. There is also a very interesting structural relationship between the characters and the characters, including the audience and the director and the characters. You can also think of it as a form of space, like a multi-nested recursive structure.
In the first part, the audience's perspective is limited to the protagonist Scottie, and all the clues the audience gets come from Scottie's experience. The audience is like a jigsaw puzzler, a detective, who has insight into the truth of the incident step by step, and then all these clues are broken again in the second part.
We turn our attention back to the first paragraph of the film's narrative, that is, before Madeleine's death, where the film's perspective has always followed the protagonist Scottie, and the audience's clues and perceptions of events also come from Scottie's character. But in the second part, as the identity of Judy's character was revealed, the film's presentation of clues and information gradually borrowed Judy's character to play a role. At this time, the audience and Scottie came from Judy's narrative and behavioral flaws. to rediscover and piece together the ins and outs of the whole thing. It can be said that the existence of Scottie's role is a metaphor for the group identity of movie audiences. Therefore, we can find that the film also has a "play within a play" structure, which actually shows a relationship between watching and being watched.
For the audience, the first segment of the film is also a story with a complete narrative logic; at the same time, you can also understand it as a drama staged in a fictional theater, a virtual reality interactive game. It's just that the audience in this scene is only Scottie, and the audience can watch the plot of the play and Scottie's reaction at the same time through the camera set up in the "theater". The "director" of this play, the corresponding character is Gavin Elster, Madeleine's husband, who makes Scottie lost in the murder he designed by creating all kinds of falsehoods. As the planner of the event, by creating illusions, arranging stand-ins, and misleading Scottie, all of this is like a narrative game played by the director on the audience in many movies.
Regarding the concept of nested narrative text and play-in-play, the more classic and popular one is Nolan's "The Prestige". At the beginning of the film, the three parts of a magic show are explained to the audience. The narration of the subsequent film also uses these three steps to compile the narrative maze; at the same time, the film does not follow the logic of linear narration, and most of the content presented in the shots comes from the diaries of the two protagonists, so it is also inaccurate. Sex and fiction. The whole movie is a magic trick performed by the director to the audience, and it is also a movie about the magician's notes in the movie.
Beyond that, similar nested structures recur throughout the movie. For example, when Judy went to see Carlotta's paintings at the museum, the necklace, a recurring element in and out of the painting, once again blurred the line between the real and the fictional world. The necklace also serves here as a MacGuffin, an object that drives plot development and character motivation. In my opinion, the presence of this element elevates the meaning of the film itself to a philosophical topic about what is "real".
Although there are various versions of speculation, some borrowed the necklace as an element, and even speculated that the entire movie might just be a dream of Scottie's insanity. But I don't want to conclude that any of these assumptions are the real intention of Hitchcock's narrative. In my opinion, perhaps the intention of creating this work is to cause different disputes, so as to guide the audience to think about reality and fantasy. Scottie's story line development also corresponds to a theme. He went from being a "spectator" at first to finally sinking into this fictional "drama" and became unable to extricate himself. What he loves is not Madeleine, nor is he Judy, but a fictional phantom of a character in his own mind. The sinking into fictional reality also eventually led to his insanity and hysteria.
The cinema is a dream machine, and the film itself is a fictional dream and vision. Perhaps the question of what is "reality" is not important, perhaps each layer of "reality" has its meaning. But as a viewer, after waking up from a dream, you should understand the boundaries of each layer of "reality" so as not to get lost in it.
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