Vertigo Film Opening Analysis

By Jade Dowse

Vertigo Film Opening • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CZfSc6nJ8U

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7sznnL0NZ0

Introduction• The film Vertigo was made in 1958 and directed and

produced by Alfred Hitchcock. It is based on the 1954 novel called D’entre les morts.

• The leading actors are James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes and Tom Helmore.

• The synopsis of the plot is that a retired San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia and vertigo investigates the strange activities of an old friend’s wife, and becomes dangerously obsessed with her.

• In the 1950s, the style of the opening of this film would have been very different to the audience at that time.

Titles • The title of the film is bold and the font colour is

white against a red background giving the connotations of a thriller as red connotes blood, danger and violence.

• The names of the director and the cast of the film are in the opening scene establishing to the audience who is in the film. This technique is a key convention in a film opening.

Genre• The genre is a thriller as can be seen from the

dark atmospheric background and the red screen at the beginning of the titles. The music helps establish the mood.

• The dark mysterious feel and death at the beginning of the action are key conventions of a thriller genre.

Audience• This film is intended for an audience of older

viewers and it is not intended for a younger audience as the storyline is dark and complex.

Camera• The only camera shot used in the title sequence is a close up

shot of the woman’s mouth and pans up to her eyes. The screen turns red connoting blood and danger. It focuses on the physical beauty of her face although she is in shock as shown here with wide unblinking eyes and twitching lips that enhance the creation of suspense which is another key convention of the thriller genre.

• In the rooftop chase there are many camera shots used such as an establishing shot to show the location to the audience that it is set at night. A shallow depth of field is shown with the close up shot of the hand giving the audience a sense of enigma before we see the next shot of who the hand belongs to. A point of view shot from the main character looking down at the alleyway below connotes his fear of heights.

Sound• The music starts as soon as the universal logo fades. Eerie

music reaches a climax building up suspense for the audience so that it creates an enigmatic feel. The music gets louder and faster paced so as a result the audience can expect something to happen. The non-diagetic music runs throughout the whole film opening to give the audience the sense of the genre of the film.

• The rooftop chase shows that the music continues from the title sequence to continue the eerie music and build up suspense. There is little dialogue which is from the policeman’s perspective. Some diagetic sound in the opening scene creates lots more enigma for the audience.

• When the policeman falls the music deepens echoing the mood.

Editing• The scene with the woman’s face is one long take meaning

it has a slow pace to the film opening to build up suspense for the audience.

• They have added graphical geometric shapes and special effects to come from a distance and fill the screen to show when it is coming out of the eye it symbolises vertigo which the main character has. Also it shows the inner workings of the mind. These spirals are repetitive as one spiral leaves another comes showing the never ending fear.

• Transitions used are slow paced to convey the dark mood of the entire film and draw it out so that it is long. Straight cuts are used to make the scene dramatic and at the time the film was done they didn’t have the same technology that we have today.

Mise en Scene-Costume

• In the title sequence we don’t see much of what she is wearing showing that we are only focussing on the close up shot of her face and her physical beauty even though her emotions are showing fear.

• However in the rooftop chase, three men are in the scene showing formal costumes. One is a policeman wearing a policeman’s uniform showing he has higher authority.

• The main character is in a suit which is formal and not what you expect to wear in a chase adding enigma. It also signifies his profession and status.

Mise en Scene-Lighting

• The lighting is low key to make the atmosphere dark and mysterious, just like the genre of the film. The woman’s face has light shone from one side to cast shadows.

• The second part of the opening also has low key lighting but natural as it is set at night. The street lights and the darkness contrast light and dark which symbolises good and evil that is shown in this scene.

Low Key Lighting

Mise en Scene-Actors

• Only one actor is used at the very beginning. The woman shows her facial expressions of fear; the wide eyes when the title comes out of her eye links with the music when the music changes; her mouth is nervously twitching introducing anxiety and that she wants to speak but she can’t, as if she is in a dream where you want to yell but you can’t. The unblinking eyes moving around show she is clearly on edge and not comfortable with the viewers scrutiny. We don’t know what she is afraid of adding to the enigma of the film opening.

• Three actors used for the second part of the opening. Emotions are shown from the main character of shock when he is hanging on to the guttering showing his fear of heights as the camera view is a point of view shot looking down.

Mise en Scene-Make-Up

• Her face is pale connoting that she is in fear as if the colour is drained out of her. As it is black and white the colour is not shown much but is effective in showing the thriller genre.

• In this scene not much make up is shown except for the sweat on the main character after running showing hard work and that this isn’t part of the equilibrium of the film as it starts off with a chase scene.

Mise en Scene-Props

• No props are used at the very beginning making the scene simple to the viewer. A lack of props makes us more focused on the action in the scene.

• Only one prop is used throughout the film opening and that is the gun on the policeman that was fired multiple times make the scene like an action sequence and to show the policeman’s status.

Mise en Scene-Setting

• We don’t know where the woman is set as the background is dark and makes it mysterious.

• We know that the second part of the opening is set in San Francisco on the rooftops. They run along the rooftops to symbolise the danger of the situation.

Enigma• There is a lot of enigma in the opening scene of

Vertigo as the audience questions… • Why are we looking at the woman’s face?• Why does the screen go red?• Why can’t she speak?• Why is she scared?• What is the significance behind the spirals? • Who’s eye is it?• Why are they running on the rooftops?• What is the backstory of this scene?

Conventions used and challenged and their impact

• Most of this film’s opening titles challenges the conventions of a film opening sequence. But the rooftop scene meets most of the conventions of a film opening.

• Instead of an establishing shot of the location we get a close up shot of a woman’s face in the title sequence. Although in the chase scene there is an establishing shot showing to the audience that it is set at night and there is a chase scene happening.

• The title sequence shows the title coming out of the eye symbolising what the title means. The names of the cast, producers and director are also shown which meets the conventions of a film opening and the studio logo is shown.

• There is a lot of enigma and lots of non-diagetic music to show the mood and genre of the film.

• However a film opening convention that is challenged is that there is no equilibrium at the start of the film showing that the action is straight away.

• We don’t know who the main characters are just from the start of the film but you can get a sense of who it might be with the woman and the man hanging on to the gutter.

Stand out moments• In my opinion I think the stand out moments of

this film opening is the graphical spirals and the non diagetic music played.

• The spirals symbolises the conditions of Vertigo which is effective to the viewer as it is different than live action.

• The non diagetic music helps create the suspense of the film and establish the genre.

What makes it such a good film opening and why?

• It is intriguing and simple and doesn’t show much of the story or the characters. It does show us the main characters but we don’t know that just form the film opening. This helps creates a lot of enigma for the audience. Although the rooftop scene helps set the scene for the audience with an establishing shot and the music sets the mood.

• I feel when the film was first shown this opening would have been one that stayed in their memories and has stood the test of time as to being an unusual and clever film opening.