Vertigo - Scene Anylysis

Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock 1958)

Studied Through Mulvey's Psychoanalysis

Hitchcock's film Vertigo is a film that can have psychoanalysis applied to it such as Laura Mulvey and her theory on patriarchal cinema. When observing this film you do it through the eyes of a male protagonist and the direction of Alfred Hitchcock which in of its self may be male centred but not exactly patriarchal. The idea of something lacking leading to the obsessive looking through the eyes of a man and the enjoyment gained from that. This brings together elements of Mulvey's theory which can be explored and applied to this film.

The 1st moment in the film where the male gaze can be spotted is in the opening of the film where there is a female form, fractured and shown in extreme close up and tightly framed. The technical signification of having the parts of a female tightly centred and framed make it become the focus for the audience, a fractured female meant to be seen as an object and in this case in mystery. The camera throughout is the audiences view point and by showing us this we become interested in wanting to know the whole image. It was technically edited to have a red filter on the womans eye too giving us the idea of a mysterious woman is dangerous but a woman is to be sexually desired with the many meanings of the colour applied to this one shot of passion and danger.

2nd I would point out the scene where Scotty is peaking out at the female character, Madeline, from a slightly opened door where we see a flower shop. When he first peeks the framing has a whole third dedicated to flowers to highlight that it is pretty and women should be pretty. You could go further and draw lines to that women like flowers only bloom for a short while which is why it is mainly the young women are shown by them or even that women are a commodity like the flowers able to be purchased, acquired for a price.

Throughout the film the young women are placed in front of flowers and by placing women by these flowers in the miss en scene we can confirm connections between the two and infer that Hitchcock finds the beauty of women is to be looked at and framed to heighten this.

Not only that but in the flower shop scene in particular we see the male gaze portrayed by cutting back to Scotty peeking through and watching, affirming that you too are meant to watch like a male, making men copy the actions and women to aspire to be passive. A similar example is also of the art piece in the gallery where Scotty observes Madeline observing a painting but from the point of view of the camera as Scotty, the audience, the "male", it becomes a painting of its own.

Scotty late in the film after having lost what he perceived to be his love but may have just been what filled his lack. He wants to fill it again but not anyone will do, he wants his pretty woman back just as he remembers when he sees someone in the street who looks remarkably similar he pursues. From this encounter he becomes fixated on making her look as she does in his mind, you could say he is trying to craft her who sort of fills his lack to fit perfectly. To make her into his perfect woman through his male gaze it is then shown technically with shots that pause like the mystery is being peiced together and music which portrays the slight sadness that she does not yet look like Madeline, exploring the scopophillic side. The narrative informs the audience by having her buy the same dress and dye her hair the same colours. "I just want you to look nice." Said by Scotty in the dress shop. Heavily implies the male gaze by stating that I (the male) want you (slightly dominating) to look (scopophillic) nice (perfect, the way you should as you are a woman).

There is the Hair Dye Scene 

Finally when the image is completed the Scotty who quite shyly is looking towards he changes once she has finally submitted and became the passive being he wants to see. It is shown by a mid shot of him turning with loose framing and the focus on Scottie. We then have the reverse showing another mid shot but a but tighter framing before we return back to a close up of Scottie's face. This is a close up of his face so we can see him looking, gazing, at her but also to see his pleased expression on viewing her in her perfect form. The shallow depth of focus in this shot gives us just the face to see, to affirm the male gaze to the audience.

The male gaze is definitely at play here in Vertigo and it was prevalent in many of Hitchcock's movies, He being a heterosexual man himself would have high probabilities in being the director and having a predominantly male crew (as seen in credits) of showing the male view and an older sexist view of women. What would make this theory less prevalent now would be people following mulveys theory and would be aware of this and also with people of more backgrounds making film different sexual view points are exploited like female and queer gaze.