Royale With Cheese

For class on 4-25-2007.

I cannot see Vertigo as a film that is all about men possessing women. I see it as a film that is more about how men and women construct desires within each other. This idea was brought up in class, and after seeing a few clips I thought this idea fit the best.

Madeleine/Judy is the MacGuffin in the film; she pulls Scotty away from the real crime. Judy fell in live with Scotty who was following her. This adds to the whole fact that Judy just wanted to be seen and loved by Scotty. He saw her, but not the real woman underneath; only the woman Judy was dressed up as. Judy had tied an invisible rope around Scotty and, as we stated in class, she led him where she wanted him to go. Or rather, where she wanted to go with him.

Judy jumped into the river, and then Scotty pulled her out. “Madeleine” was not truly possessed by Carlotta; Judy was trying to get closer to Scotty. How much closer can you get than being underdressed by the man she loves, then lying naked in his bed. She felt bad about what she was doing, but the love she felt for Scotty was overpowering. Judy had constructed feelings inside of Scotty, and they overpowered him as well.

Once Judy’s desires could no longer be pursued, Scotty took on Judy’s former job. He had lost his love, Judy’s representation of Madeline. He had become obsessed with Madeleine, and began seeing women who looked like her everywhere. Finally we see the original MacGuffin herself, Judy. Scotty then goes on to not only to reconstruct his desires for the blond he once loved, but he also reconstructs Judy in the woman who was once Madeline.

There is a need to be seen, in Judy’s case, but also a need to see, for Scotty of course. That is why Scotty follows her everywhere, and I mean everywhere, she goes; and also why Judy just lets him do.

For the class on 4-18-2007

“Vertigo” was set up to be a MacGuffin, it just was. After seeing the film, I could fully understand what Professor Campbell meant when he used this term. Right from the beginning of the film Det. John ‘Scottie’ Ferguson (James Stewart) begins watching Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak), who is staring at a the “Portrait of Carlotta,” and he becomes intrigued by this piece of art. So he starts asking about it and learns more, while viewers are taking on for the ride. Movies are usually set up to have viewers follow one protagonistic character within, usually, a small group of people. Well, Scottie is exactly that, and he is thrown off in this direction by Elster’s; they’re playing a MacGuffin on him. He then, in turn, plays a MacGuffin on us, as viewers. But the one who started the whole ordeal ends up losing.

It’s an endless cycle, spiraling around just like the image in that woman’s eye through the introduction.

I don’t know if I would have followed the MacGuffin or not, because before I saw the movie I already had a pre-existing knowledge of the real focus of the film and of what a MacGuffin can do.

I found this site which has a ton of commercials for many different things, but each one of the videos are MacGuffins. Then I remember something. I made a MacGuffin commercial in high school. I was in a Computer Art class and one big project that spanned across the entire year was the creation of our own individual art museums (not a real one of course). We had to draw up blueprints for it, pick actual works of art that we would put in there and we give information on them as well. I think we also had to make a website for the museums as well. At the end the final piece was a commercial of some sort that would promote our fictional art galleries. We had a video camera, but I chose to make an animation on the computer. Basically, I had a guy jump out of a flying airplane (while he was falling, I switched to first person view so you could see him getting closer and closer to the museum), fall through a tube on top of a building (which was the art museum), he rides through the tube going deeper into the building, shoots out of the cylinder within the art gallery, he’s flying through the air, passing other works of art, and his head pops through the Mona Lisa, replacing her head with his. Then I wrote something like “Joey’s Art Museum” – (the slide changes) – “Drop in any time.”

I was really cool. But I thought that was what would sell. Give viewers a little something extra causing them do actually remember the commercial later on to tell to their friends. I didn’t say what the building was or what was in it or anything for that matter; my MacGuffin was just a guy falling through the air and into a building. The same type of thing happens in movies, and it is, indeed, working within “Vertigo.”

I didn’t even know there was a true name for it what I, or Hitchcock, were doing. I feel where he’s from from, though; not making any money off of it. I was given a low B on the assignment for not advertising my museum very well.