Vertigo revision
Compare how your chosen films reflect their production and institutional contexts - 40 marks
Compare the extent to which your chosen film directors could be seen as auteurs
KEY SCENES FOR VERTIGO:
-Titles and beginning scene
-Scottie's nightmare
-Scottie first sees Madeleine
-
Beginning scene (&titles)
Scottie First sees Madeleine
Mise en scene: RED is the colour with utter dominance throughout the sequence, the walls, chairs, Scotties tie etc... this is directly contrasted with Madeleine's bright emerald dress that makes her character stand out immediately even in the first long shot that we see her. Exaggerated Mise en scene= shows influence from the German expressionist movement.
Within the use of props, there is a refreshments mini table directly in front of where Madeleine is seated, so that there is no dinner table of people blocking the view of her. The spectator's gaze is automatically drawn towards Madeleine. - Male gaze.
As Madeleine exists the restaurant the mirror next to the door allows the spectator to witness through scottie's gaze, a final shot of Madeleine's face
Sound: As soon as the camera starts to zoom in on Madeleine, classical romantic music with violin strings start to play
Cinematography: Camera pans the restaurant, focuses in a long shot of everyone sitting at their tables, The camera then slowly begins to zoom in on Madeleine as romantic classical music starts to play with violin strings. The camera films behind Madeleine so that intrigue is created, the spectator wanting to see her face.
Performance
Scotties Nightmare
Cinematography:
Closeup of scottie in bed, then colours start to flash.
Cartoon flowers are then pictured.
Mix of cartoon and camera picture, of Scottie with the colored stripes around him
-Repetition of the shot of Gavin Elster and Scottie, but with Carlotta in between them
reflects his inner psychology of being traumatised by the mysterious case of Madeleine.Scottie is obssessed with Madeleine therefore, her being possessed by Carlotta means that Carlotta will constantly be Scottie's mind. This is highlighted with the flashing red colour in the mise en scene. And in peformance, Carlotta turns to look at Scottie in a sinister way, her presence in his mind is threatening and traumatising. - Relates to German expressionism - Auteur. - Relates to gender because the woman is the catalyst for the plot rather than driving the plot. Carlotta in this instance is present in Scotties dreams but not effecting. The audience view the situation from Scottie's perspective meaning that the spectator is detached from the character of Carlotta.
Performance: Exaggerated facial expressions are highlighted with the closeup shot of Scottie in bed. - Reflect mind set. - German expressionism.
Empty grave in mise en scene, represents how she has escaped from the grave and come back to life in Scottie and Madeleine's mind. The theme of horror inspired imagery is a feature of the German expressionism again reflecting Scottie's inner psychology
Mise en scene:
This is a classic example of how Hitcock shows his influence from the German expressionist movement by using exaggerated mise en scene to reflect the inner psychology of the characters. In this dream sequence there are multiple shots of scottie walking toward the camera closeup with a prominent red in the colour pallette, everything appears red.
green, flowers, carlotta hallucinations flashing orange picture, scottie walking flashing red to black walking in the graveyard, flashing red on the empty grave.
Black outline of a figure of scottie falling onto the tower.
The audience are put into Scottie's frantic and distressed mindset of how he feels about the mystery of Carlotta possessing Madeleine.
Sound: The ascending scale in the music gets louder as the colours flash
Clashing chords are played when scottie opens his eyes
alternates between a chromatic scales and 2 octave jumps in the violin strings. The non-diegetic music is at a high volume. This complements the surreal atmosphere created by the obscure use of colour.
The Tower Scene
Sound:
- Octave leap
- Sudden changes in dynamics (terraced dynamics)
german expressionism emerged post world war one therefore the traumatised mindset of the world was influential on the emotions that the characters portrayed
-Vertigo effect used in cinematography: Distorts the screen, and is an example of German expressionism, the dramatic camra movement reflect scottie's panicked mindset, and this links to german expressionism: they used distorted mise en scene to reflect the inner psychology of the characters.
- The low key lighting used creates a distinct similarity to German expressionist art. Also makes the atmosphere more intense.
Performance: In german expressionism they used exagerated and dramatic performaces; this is relflected in this scene through Scottie's horrified response.
Gallery Scene:
Symmetry within shot -> Scottie spoils the symmetry -> Interfering with Madeleine's life.
-Low angle - Makes gallery look intimidating -> Creates a Euphoric atmosphere/phantasmogorical.
-Low-key lighting = dreamlike -> Euphoric atmosphere
-Scottie = diegetic audience -> camera tilt shows upward movement of scottie's gaze
Cinematography:
Editing:
Sound:
Mise en scene:
Institutional context
-German expressionist movement:
German Expressionist films are therefore notable for their dark themes of insanity, horror, death and fatality that translate prevalently into the film’s mise-en-scene and narrative. It counters the principle of realism and practises extreme distortion as means to communicate inner emotional reality (Johnson, 2010).
World war 1 brought feature film production to a near standstill as resources became scarce. Prior to ww1 films fell largely into the category of 'Cinema of Attractions'- Designed for entertainment.
Germany was left with a huge infrastructure for film production and distribution that grew during the war; whilst the rest of Europe's film industry was decimated, therefore they could compete with hollywood after the war.
-The first films made by UFA (the largest German filmmaking company) were Beautiful Costume Dramas (Kostumefilme). Their aim was to compete with the popular, large scale spectacles made by Italy before the war, to entertain and distract the spectator from the devastated economy.
What made Kostumefilme stand out was the use of Mise en scene- Exaggerated, distorted Mise en scene to reflect the inner psychology of the characters; Caligaris innovation was to use Mise en scene expressionistic rather than realistically...deliberate distortion of everything within the frame. Highly subjective to the characters, as the spectators are put into their mindset.
KEY SCENES FOR VERTIGO:
-Titles and beginning scene
-Scottie's nightmare
-Scottie first sees Madeleine
-
Beginning scene (&titles)
Scottie First sees Madeleine
Mise en scene: RED is the colour with utter dominance throughout the sequence, the walls, chairs, Scotties tie etc... this is directly contrasted with Madeleine's bright emerald dress that makes her character stand out immediately even in the first long shot that we see her. Exaggerated Mise en scene= shows influence from the German expressionist movement.
Within the use of props, there is a refreshments mini table directly in front of where Madeleine is seated, so that there is no dinner table of people blocking the view of her. The spectator's gaze is automatically drawn towards Madeleine. - Male gaze.
As Madeleine exists the restaurant the mirror next to the door allows the spectator to witness through scottie's gaze, a final shot of Madeleine's face
Sound: As soon as the camera starts to zoom in on Madeleine, classical romantic music with violin strings start to play
Cinematography: Camera pans the restaurant, focuses in a long shot of everyone sitting at their tables, The camera then slowly begins to zoom in on Madeleine as romantic classical music starts to play with violin strings. The camera films behind Madeleine so that intrigue is created, the spectator wanting to see her face.
Performance
Scotties Nightmare
Cinematography:
Closeup of scottie in bed, then colours start to flash.
Cartoon flowers are then pictured.
Mix of cartoon and camera picture, of Scottie with the colored stripes around him
-Repetition of the shot of Gavin Elster and Scottie, but with Carlotta in between them
reflects his inner psychology of being traumatised by the mysterious case of Madeleine.Scottie is obssessed with Madeleine therefore, her being possessed by Carlotta means that Carlotta will constantly be Scottie's mind. This is highlighted with the flashing red colour in the mise en scene. And in peformance, Carlotta turns to look at Scottie in a sinister way, her presence in his mind is threatening and traumatising. - Relates to German expressionism - Auteur. - Relates to gender because the woman is the catalyst for the plot rather than driving the plot. Carlotta in this instance is present in Scotties dreams but not effecting. The audience view the situation from Scottie's perspective meaning that the spectator is detached from the character of Carlotta.
Performance: Exaggerated facial expressions are highlighted with the closeup shot of Scottie in bed. - Reflect mind set. - German expressionism.
Empty grave in mise en scene, represents how she has escaped from the grave and come back to life in Scottie and Madeleine's mind. The theme of horror inspired imagery is a feature of the German expressionism again reflecting Scottie's inner psychology
Mise en scene:
This is a classic example of how Hitcock shows his influence from the German expressionist movement by using exaggerated mise en scene to reflect the inner psychology of the characters. In this dream sequence there are multiple shots of scottie walking toward the camera closeup with a prominent red in the colour pallette, everything appears red.
green, flowers, carlotta hallucinations flashing orange picture, scottie walking flashing red to black walking in the graveyard, flashing red on the empty grave.
Black outline of a figure of scottie falling onto the tower.
The audience are put into Scottie's frantic and distressed mindset of how he feels about the mystery of Carlotta possessing Madeleine.
Sound: The ascending scale in the music gets louder as the colours flash
Clashing chords are played when scottie opens his eyes
alternates between a chromatic scales and 2 octave jumps in the violin strings. The non-diegetic music is at a high volume. This complements the surreal atmosphere created by the obscure use of colour.
The Tower Scene
Sound:
- Octave leap
- Sudden changes in dynamics (terraced dynamics)
german expressionism emerged post world war one therefore the traumatised mindset of the world was influential on the emotions that the characters portrayed
-Vertigo effect used in cinematography: Distorts the screen, and is an example of German expressionism, the dramatic camra movement reflect scottie's panicked mindset, and this links to german expressionism: they used distorted mise en scene to reflect the inner psychology of the characters.
- The low key lighting used creates a distinct similarity to German expressionist art. Also makes the atmosphere more intense.
Performance: In german expressionism they used exagerated and dramatic performaces; this is relflected in this scene through Scottie's horrified response.
Gallery Scene:
Symmetry within shot -> Scottie spoils the symmetry -> Interfering with Madeleine's life.
-Low angle - Makes gallery look intimidating -> Creates a Euphoric atmosphere/phantasmogorical.
-Low-key lighting = dreamlike -> Euphoric atmosphere
-Scottie = diegetic audience -> camera tilt shows upward movement of scottie's gaze
Cinematography:
Editing:
Sound:
Mise en scene:
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