I’m Always Home. I’m Uncool.

Okay, so now that I’ve had time to let Vertigo sink in, I think I’m starting to understand it a little bit better. This could also be because I’ve decided to do my paper on Vertigo and needed to start focusing and making connections. Actually, I was originally going to do my paper on Fast, Cheap & Out of Control but I changed my mind today, after realizing that I just couldn’t get Vertigo out of my head.

What startling conclusions have I made? Well, I’ll tell you. All day today I kept my mind chewing on Vertigo, and not its plot. I was trying so hard to focus on everything except for the plot that I think I missed everything about the film entirely. That is, until I read a review of the film by Mr. Roger Ebert. He made it click for me. After reading this review, I began to focus on Vertigo as a part of the larger unit we are studying, and not just as an individual film. All of this led me to one, solid, conclusion: Eben and Scotty are the same person. Both are trying to create a woman who, arguably, does not exist. Hitchcock himself is doing that in the film (as Craig says in his post, all his leading ladies fit certain parameters). Boom. That blew my mind. That is now also the topic of my paper. Now to find an essay in the FTC book that’ll help me out with all of this…

Woooossshhh!

That’s the sound of Vertigo going right over my head. I tried so hard to use all the things Dr. C told us about in class, and every bit of knowledge about film theory and composition that I have at my disposal — and I still feel completely lost.

This was the first Hitchcock film I had ever seen, and it definitely delivered what I thought it would: confusion, frightening parts (I love Jimmy Stewart like nobody’s business, and am now rather freaked out by him), and things that make you just go “huh?” So basically, I can’t wait for class for Dr. C and some of you to help me through this maze of a movie and out onto the other side safely.

By the way, I think the greatest shot in the whole film is right after Madeline has “killed” herself, and we see the nuns and priests climbing up the ladder to get to her. The camera is set high and is focusing on the mission (by the way, I’ve been there; it’s a pretty neat place). On the left side of the steeple we see Madeline’s body, and on the right, staggering out of the door of the mission, Jimmy Stewart. Pretty neat shot, I thought.

Talking about Hitchcock in class today got me thinking about obsessive people and the things which they obsess over. Most artists, I would argue, have something that they obsess about. Actually, I would argue (and I think so would a lot of other people) that it is from this obsession that the artist creates. I mean, look at Eben in Portrait of Jennie (I know, I know, why beat a dead horse, but stick with me for just a second), his “masterpiece” comes from his obsession with Jennie. She is, after all, the object of his painting. And then there is Hitchcock himself. Obviously, if he had had a different set of obsessions, Vertigo would probably by a very different film.

This actually reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend the other day. I was joking with her that “naturally all great artists are substance abusers – I haven’t written anything great because I haven’t found a substance to abuse yet!” Then, seriously she replied to me: all great artists are mentally ill, you know. I’m not sure I buy into that. But after today’s class it got me thinking: are obsessive people mentally ill? I would say no. I would argue that everyone has an obsession, whether or not they are cognizant of it is a different story. Does that mean everyone is mentally ill? Well if everyone suffered from the same mental illness, wouldn’t that make it a normal state of being?

So, are artists crazy? Is obsessiveness crazy? I don’t know. I don’t think so.