tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8509825018139758536.post6582883493096585929..comments2024-02-05T21:23:49.249-08:00Comments on Lady Eve's Reel Life: VERTIGO: More than just the streets of San Francisco...The Lady Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11963115499930520653noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8509825018139758536.post-4773450596005353512012-01-21T12:39:42.138-08:002012-01-21T12:39:42.138-08:00The city is a character itself, and you did a grea...The city is a character itself, and you did a great job of describing how the city impacts this story and its characters.Classicfilmboyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01278928051994100842noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8509825018139758536.post-31672250638944329902012-01-21T12:39:02.582-08:002012-01-21T12:39:02.582-08:00What a marvelous study on how Hitch and San Fran w...What a marvelous study on how Hitch and San Fran were such a fine romance, Michael. Very well done. I especially like the points you made about the twisting, turning streets and how that echoes Scotty's mind (and, let's face it, our heroine's hairstyles!). I can't wait to read what The Lady Eve shares about the novel and how Paris provides its own geographic confusion. After all, the arrondisments are designed in the shape of...you guessed it...a snail's shell, which just happens to look a lot like our gal's "relaxed" hairstyle, the coiled bun. This is SUCH a great series! I'm loving it!<br />Thanks to all the contributors!<br />Kay<br />www.moviestarmakeover.comMarlinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04442632575933706511noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8509825018139758536.post-59904383973418876452012-01-16T03:57:36.960-08:002012-01-16T03:57:36.960-08:00Fascinating observations on the importance of plac...Fascinating observations on the importance of place (San Francisco) to storyline. Hitchcock not only captured the city but integrated it into the storyline almost making it another character. Great cities like San Francisco, New York, Boston, Paris or London have a unique aura about them that cannot be duplicated, though filmmakers constantly attempt to use other cities (for financial reasons) to represent, say New York, and it just comes across as false. <br /><br /><br />JohnAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8509825018139758536.post-36925983698471062922012-01-15T12:57:22.639-08:002012-01-15T12:57:22.639-08:00Michael, I was quite fascinated by your extraordin...Michael, I was quite fascinated by your extraordinary depiction of the physical and psychological importance of the city San Francisco in “Vertigo”. In my research on Bernard Herrmann, I read the composer initially found two faults with the film: the casting of James Stewart as John Ferguson and the use of San Francisco as the setting. He was incredulous that Stewart would feel the passion necessary for the role, and he thought the film should have been set in New Orleans because of the city’s steamy reputation. We know, from watching the film, how Stewart’s ordinary man persona acted as the perfect vehicle for his character’s downward spiral of obsession. We also know, as you have so beautifully described, how San Francisco acts equally as a character in the film and as a co-conspirator in Madeleine/Judy’s deception. I have been to New Orleans, and while this “Crescent City” can be beautiful with an old world charm, it is a city of the mind and the writer’s page. I cannot imagine the film set in any other city, a city of treacherous physical and psychological beauty.whistlingypsyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06126688373252306609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8509825018139758536.post-73208481315513815142012-01-14T16:49:27.090-08:002012-01-14T16:49:27.090-08:00For those (doc and FlickChick) who've mentione...For those (doc and FlickChick) who've mentioned the "Vertigo tour," I'll be posting a nicely done video of one fan's tour on my sidebar soon. The novel was set in Paris.The Lady Evehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11963115499930520653noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8509825018139758536.post-73813596497393034382012-01-14T16:39:06.628-08:002012-01-14T16:39:06.628-08:00Great article - the city is such an important part...Great article - the city is such an important part of the story. I have always longed to go there and see all of the places Scottie and Madeleine visited. Think I'm nuts? There is a hotel in San Francisco called "The Hotel Vertigo" and they offer "Vertigo tours." It's on my bucket list!FlickChickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17351624749230610755noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8509825018139758536.post-92220730128750342162012-01-14T09:32:53.656-08:002012-01-14T09:32:53.656-08:00Michael, Awesome article!! I never realized that t...Michael, Awesome article!! I never realized that the setting was such an important part of the story. I just thought it was a backdrop to a great film. With that said.. I can't imagine the film, VERTIGO being filmed anywhere else.Dawnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03476174860119487509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8509825018139758536.post-67690336321193217212012-01-13T22:48:20.191-08:002012-01-13T22:48:20.191-08:00great analysis with interesting insights...there i...great analysis with interesting insights...there is a whole culture devoted to the sites visited by SCOTTIE...like the RAYMOND CHANDLER tour of LA/HOLLYWOOD...was SF the city in the original story???doctom666noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8509825018139758536.post-32302160969261695352012-01-13T21:42:17.445-08:002012-01-13T21:42:17.445-08:00Michael, I truly enjoyed reading your analysis of ...Michael, I truly enjoyed reading your analysis of why San Francisco was the ideal location for Vertigo. I'd never really thought about what role the city's landscape played in the plot. Yet, knowing Hitch, I should have known it was important. Just a really great article.Kimberly J.M. Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09078951928157843937noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8509825018139758536.post-30085471617583531172012-01-13T20:19:52.678-08:002012-01-13T20:19:52.678-08:00Michael, I thoroughly enjoyed your examination of ...Michael, I thoroughly enjoyed your examination of how San Francisco is integrated thematically into VERTIGO. Settings often play a critical "role" in Hitchcock flms (e.g., Quebec City in I CONFESS). Like you, I can't imagine VERTIGO taking place anywhere else. That's why I find it fascinating that the most indelible image for me--the mission's bell tower at the climax--doesn't take place in San Francisco.Classic Film and TV Cafehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09548537117263337339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8509825018139758536.post-16189396767006620302012-01-13T15:02:23.150-08:002012-01-13T15:02:23.150-08:00Michael – Fascinating interpretation: San Francisc...Michael – Fascinating interpretation: San Francisco as a reflection of Hitchcock’s themes and the protagonist’s psyche. I suppose my impression of the city in "Vertigo" has been, to some extent, linked to the Madeleine character: beautiful, desirable, precarious, impossible to possess. But your point is very well taken and masterfully expressed. The style and momentum with which you navigate the plot virtually sweeps the reader along with Scottie to his moment of reckoning.<br /><br />You make the distinction between acrophobia and vertigo. I've suffered acrophobia most of my life, but nothing remotely similar to the pervasive disequilibrium and hallucinations that haunted Scottie Ferguson night and day. Hitchcock devised for him a malady far deeper and more deadly than a case of acrophobia (‘nothing more than a plot-point’, as you note).<br /><br />Thanks, Michael, for a wonderfully creative analysis.The Lady Evehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11963115499930520653noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8509825018139758536.post-11659479797431054012012-01-13T12:11:44.200-08:002012-01-13T12:11:44.200-08:00I lived in San Francisco for many years (I'm s...I lived in San Francisco for many years (I'm still only 30 minutes away) and for me "Vertigo" makes the ultimate use of the city's unique beauty and mystery - for me it's THE San Francisco movie. Excellent job, Michael, of mapping out the psychological along with the physical terrain that Scottie is drawn through on his "fool's journey". I liked your use of the word "labyrinthine" - this aspect of San Francisco, it's twists and turns, ups and downs, are a great part of it's mystique and what, in part, contributes to it's magnetic pull for dreamers of all kinds (sleeping ones and waking ones). The City is a kind of bewitching maze. San Francisco is urbane and sophisticated but, at the same time, surrounded by the bay and the vastness of the ocean, it's also, on a visual and psychological level, still connected to nature. Hitchcock made insightful use of this connection - Madeleine's leap into the bay, the ancient redwoods, and the crashing waves of the Pacific -to establish the irresistable force of nature that inevitably overcomes civilization and man's attempts to repress it. I felt that Scottie was on a journey to solve the ultimate mystery - not just the mystery of love, but the mystery of his true nature. There is a mythic undertow to the film. Like Dante descending into hell to find his Beatrice, Scottie searches for his feminine ideal - the fact that San Francisco resembles heaven far more than Hades was perhaps ironic but also a fundemental part of "Vertigo's" hypnotic beauty and timeless appeal.Motorcycle Boynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8509825018139758536.post-40681874081828398812012-01-13T11:47:14.848-08:002012-01-13T11:47:14.848-08:00Excellent analysis! I never thought of the city as...Excellent analysis! I never thought of the city as having more to do with Scottie's psychology than just being a mysterious and beautiful looking location. But every point you presented is grounded with great detail! I especially love your observation of the continuos climb downwards in his growing obsession of Madeline. It reaffirms the "downward spiral" theme that exist in nearly every aspect of the film (i.e., the music, cinematography, Saul Bass' title sequence, repetition of events, etc.). It is indeed true that Scottie won't get any closer to Madeline by ascending! In fact, his inability to ascend is his and "her" downfall. Excellent article! Wonderful addition to a prolific event! I cannot imagine what will happen when February comes and we don't have anymore Vertigo! I guess by then, its great to start rereading. :)<br /><br />Well done, cannot wait to share my piece!<br />- Brandon Kyle The Cinephile, @bkthecinephileBeatlebrandonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16003409576171128178noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8509825018139758536.post-77492009870806040072012-01-13T11:29:39.018-08:002012-01-13T11:29:39.018-08:00I always thought Vertigo was Hitchcock's valen...I always thought Vertigo was Hitchcock's valentine to San Francisco, and I consider it to be the quintessential San Francisco movie because the city itself is a character within itself, and Hitchcock knows this so well and works with it, preceding Woody Allen by twenty years. <br /><br />Michael, this is a great article. I would have never have thought that such locations chosen would further emphasize Scottie's psychological struggles and how symbolic they are to the development of his character. I will look you up at the Classic Film Union definitely.hepclassichttp://fan.tcm.com/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=7681590&as=66470noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8509825018139758536.post-56330102027254565512012-01-13T10:20:49.202-08:002012-01-13T10:20:49.202-08:00Michael, an impressively thorough examination of t...Michael, an impressively thorough examination of the way the setting of "Vertigo" is so carefully matched to its themes and how the progression of settings cues us to the progression of Scottie's state of mind, a spiraling descent into a labyrinth of obsession and self-destruction. In addition to this, I like "Vertigo" because it shows us San Francisco, a city I know well, as it once was and never will be again, by using real parts of it in a stylized and idealized way. Compare it to, say, "Bullitt," and you'll see why "Vertigo" is the best--the most intriguing and atmospheric--San Francisco movie ever.R. D. Finchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05045080274131718843noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8509825018139758536.post-16017677583603146212012-01-13T09:54:25.008-08:002012-01-13T09:54:25.008-08:00Michael, I was quite fascinated and impressed with...Michael, I was quite fascinated and impressed with your post about the role that San Francisco itself plays in VERTIGO! I’m impressed with all the symbolism you discussed in this post, and how it pertains to Scottie and Madeleine both emotionally and geographically. You made a particularly good point that Scottie is doing the following while his ostensible quarry Madeleine is in fact doing the leading; as The Marvelettes sang, the hunter is captured by the game! I’m impressed with all the symbolism you discussed in this post, including your observation here: “The further down the hills of San Francisco Scottie follows, the further down the path of obsession and madness Madeleine leads,” both literally and figuratively. Great post, Michael!DorianTBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01357778472575080022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8509825018139758536.post-46264137628908795412012-01-13T09:34:44.855-08:002012-01-13T09:34:44.855-08:00I pity the movie goer who watches Vertigo and simp...I pity the movie goer who watches Vertigo and simply sees a great murder mystery. Michael, you must have a degree in psychology!<br /><br />I am learning so much about this film, that I don't know if I will ever see a movie the same way again. <br /><br />On a lighter level, San Fran is certainly the best city to film a chase scene in a movie. Think of how Bullitt, The Rock or What's Up Doc? would have done if filmed in a flat city. Could Rocky have made his run there, rather than in Philly? I must visit someday.<br /><br />Thanks for a great post. I wonder how much of that was consciously scripted by Hitchcock, or did his genius simply take over?Allen Hefnerhttp://bitactors.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.com