Judy, the false Madeleine, thinks that she
has set a trap for Fergusson but she does not realize that she is the victim who
will be deceived. Judy thinks she is using Fergusson for her own purposes
but it is Fergusson who will kill her. Fergusson must fall into a trap in order
to get rid of his past, this is the reason why he is courting disaster.
Madeleine dies twice because she trusted two incompetent men. Fergusson’s
shadow projected on the wall of his apartment when Madeleine is leaving is the
image of a demon and will appear again in the form of the shadow that
scares Madeleine causing her fall from the tower at the end of the film.
Fergusson loses the woman he loves because he does not want her to love him.
The view of
Coit Tower makes Fergusson’s apartment unique and it is symbolically connected
with the bell tower of the mission of St. John the Baptist which is the
location where Fergusson’s ordeal will take place. Madeleine is a woman
dominated by the past in a city without a past. The only event everybody remembers
about San Francisco is the major earthquake in 1906. The Portals of the Past,
where Madeleine spends most of her free time, remind us that the disasters of
the past should be forgotten. Fergusson and San Francisco share a past disaster
they want to overcome.
The
inconsistency of the first meeting between Madeleine and Fergusson is
symbolically expressed through the different nature of their homes. Fergusson’s
is simple and unimportant, Madeleine’s is magnificent and grandiose. The
meeting between two individuals so far apart in terms of social status seems
unlikely. Yet we do not perceive the inferiority of Fergusson’s dwelling. We
see the detective’s apartment for the first time immediately after Madeleine’s
suicide attempt. The apartment is small and absolutely ordinary but it has
something special that makes it unique. Coit Tower is visible through the
lounge window and creates a special atmosphere when it is lit up at night.
Fergusson, however, claims that he had never felt grateful to the tower before
it helped Madeleine find his apartment.
Immediately after the intimate night scene in
Fergusson’s small apartment we see the imposing palace where Madeleine lives, the
luxurious Fairmont Hotel near Grace Cathedral. This building is after all a
poor imitation of an ancient European palace. This building looks fake and
seems to belong to a distant and incongruous past. On the front of the building
there is a marquee and a doorman greets Madeleine when she goes out. There is
no written indication that Madeleine lives in a luxury hotel, only Madeleine’s
car is parked in the courtyard. We must think that Gavin Elster and Madeleine
are immensely rich. Anyway one has the impression that Madeleine lives in a
place which does not belong to her. Actually this is the truth, Judy is not
Madeleine and only pretends to live there.
Gavin Elster’s success does not crush
Fergusson, although the latter is only a retired loser. Madeleine’s luxurious
mansion is false, the same Madeleine is fake. This sense of inauthenticity
devalues the importance of Gavin Elster and his wife. The palace where they
live badly mimics the tradition of Western architecture. It is pompous and
false while Fergusson’s small apartment is a real place.
It is still possible to see the apartment
that Hitchcock used in the film as Fergusson’s dwelling. It is located at 900
Lombard Street. In the same street and just one block away you find Russian
Hill, one of the most famous sights in San Francisco. Russian Hill is a place
everyone has seen because the cars are forced to follow the tight bends of the
steep spiral and labyrinthine descent. San Francisco becomes a labyrinth that
encloses Fergusson’s apartment and Madeleine finds it difficult to locate it.
Madeleine seems lost in San Francisco when she is looking for Fergusson’s
apartment and repeatedly returns to the starting point. Madeleine can find
Fergusson’s apartment only because she remembers seeing Coit Tower. The hairpin
bends in the Russian Hill evoke the spiral movement of Madeleine’s car in San
Francisco. In the film the spiral is a recurring theme and it is already
present in the opening credits, where we can see a series of spirals emanating
from the eye of a woman. You can get lost watching this female eyes which
reminds us of the myth of the sirens and, in fact, the eye was the attribute of
the mythical sirens. The portrait of Carlotta Valdes presents a bun that again
recalls the circular motion of a spiral. The chignon is an indispensable
attribute of Madeleine’s hair and Fergusson makes sure that the new Madeleine
replicates that hairstyle. It is the last stand for Judy, she tries to defend
her identity as if this bun was the most intimate and original element of
Madeleine’s look. The theme of the spiral that winds around itself is also
present in the flight of stairs leading to the top of the bell tower of the
mission of St. John the Baptist. Hitchcock attaches great importance to the
staircase and uses a number of special effects to show the depth of the ramp.
The height of the tower appears to be greater than it is, the spiral labyrinth
seems insurmountable to Fergusson.
Fergusson’s apartment is special because it
is located on a steep slope immediately after the famous Russian Hill and also
because, in this portion of Lombard Street, you can see the massive Coit Tower
on a distant hill. After a winding path which seems illogical, Lombard Street
goes down and then it climbs up the hill on which Coit Tower stands.
Fergusson’s apartment is a metaphor for the
past and the future, and even the balustrade creates a sense of mystery because
it has a pattern reminiscent of incomprehensible ideograms belonging to some
far Eastern language. Russian Hill represents a dangerous turning point and may
be symbolic of Fergusson’s failed ordeal. Bill Cosby, in an album of 1965,
highlights how difficult it is to drive in the winding Lombard Street, a place
where many people were buried after car accidents. Russian Hill is a dangerous
transit, a rite of passage, similar to the gap between a building and the other
which causes Fergusson’s fall at the beginning of the film.
After Russian Hill and Fergusson’s apartment,
Lombard Street leads to Coit Tower, another famous sight. Before Fergusson’s
apartment there is a tortuous and dangerous maze and then the street leads to a
tower, a phallic symbol of power and glory. A small detail is very telling.
Just before the front door of Fergusson’s apartment there were some plants that
were small in 1958, when the film was shot, but now, in 2013, they have become
very large and hide from sight the entrance of the apartment immortalized in
Hitchcock’s film. Hitchcock knew that this place would not remain the same and
this must have increased its appeal.
Fergusson’s attempt to transform Judy into
Madeleine is a cover. It is actually Madeleine who is desecrated. Madeleine
loses her aura and turns into Judy, an ordinary woman who will do anything to
win Fergusson’s love. It seems another version of the Cinderella story. Judy
impersonates Madeleine to deceive Fergusson but it is also true that
unknowingly Fergusson is attracting her into a trap. Fergusson follows Gavin
Elster’s plan because he unconsciously knows he can take advantage of Judy.
When the fake Madeleine comes to his apartment, Fergusson is surprised because
he does not understand his own scheme and has not yet realized that he is
implementing a secret plan that will trap the woman. Fergusson thinks he can
fall in love with a transformed Judy but it is impossible if he can control it
all. Fergusson should gain a better understanding of himself and of his own
wishes. Fergusson is already moving towards the future and towards
self-realization but goes crazy because he does not understand the logic of his
own actions.
A rich lady could hardly seek the company of
a pensioner who is already secretly in love with her. Fergusson is not completely
unaware of his own shortcomings and is suspicious. He knows he cannot attract
the real Madeleine. The beautiful Madeleine is actually the ordinary Judy who
will be dumped by her lover after taking some money to help him get rid of his
wife. The failed detective could never be an attractive man able to offer
companionship to a great lady who dines at Ernie’s every evening and lives in a
luxurious mansion. Fergusson in part realizes that an insignificant person can
only attract another nonentity, a woman ditched by her lover. Fergusson and
Judy can meet again only after they have suffered a total setback. The great
detective has been deceived and the charming lady is just a vulgar provincial,
devoid of any distinctive element.
Fergusson is not grateful to Coit Tower even
if it gave Madeleine the opportunity to locate his flat. He knows the false
Madeleine is challenging him and that he is not able to solve the riddle of
Madeleine’s true identity. Abandoning the false identity and going towards the
true one involves suffering. Coit tower, which led Madeleine to him, is both
ominous and a promise of happiness. Fergusson dimly perceives to be the victim
of a plot which can prove to be a positive turning point in his life.
The fall from dizzying heights may
be considered a metaphor of the narcissistic fall. Fergusson is unable to
regulate his self-esteem and to find within himself the foundation of his own
value. Fergusson causes Madeleine’s second fall because she loves him. When
Madeleine reciprocates his love she becomes Judy and so Fergusson cannot love
her. Fergusson argues that the only error Judy commits is to be too romantic.
The last missing detail is emotional detachment. Judy loves him and therefore
can never become Madeleine. Fergusson cannot stand that Judy idealizes him. He
still feels guilty and the more he will after being unable to prevent the fall
of the woman who loved him.
Carlotta is the past identity which makes
Madeleine so special and Judy is the future towards which this threefold woman
is moving. Judy is an ordinary woman who has renounced Carlotta’s grandiose
illusions. We witness Madeleine’s transition from Carlotta’s identity to Judy’s
and then back again because after all even the simple Judy is not real. Carlotta,
who lived in the McKittrick Hotel, is completely phony and this is the reason
why her life ends in despair. All in all, Vertigo is a quite realistic film,
the only thing that you cannot explain is the appearance and disappearance of
Madeleine in McKittrick Hotel. Everything is fake in this Hotel. When Fergusson
arrives the concierge is passing olive oil on the plastic leaves of fake
plants. Even Fergusson provides a false identity saying he is still in service.
One of the themes of the film is the elusive margin that separates the false
and derivative from the imaginary and the sacred.
After jumping into San Francisco bay Madeleine
is brought to Fergusson’s apartment. Madeleine is trapped, she is naked and
cannot leave the apartment. She can escape thanks to Gavin Elster’s call, which
is part of the plan to deceive Fergusson. Fergusson leans on the banister near
the front door of his apartment and stares at Madeleine’s who is moving away.
Hitchcock contrives a hyper-realistic scene. The frame of Fergusson leaning on
the railing of his apartment seems a deliberate quotation of Hopper’s
paintings. Fergusson’s shadow projected on the wall of his apartment is uncanny
and has an expressionist flavor. This shadow seems to be Fergusson’s symbolic
double. Psycho, the film Hitchcock shot after Vertigo, features a protagonist
who has a double personality and in fact Norman Bates unknowingly kills the
women who attract him. The weird shadow Fergusson projects on the wall of his
flat may hint at a hidden side of his personality. We may say that Fergusson
hides a misogynist tendency like the protagonist of Psycho because in the end
he causes the death of an attractive woman. After the completion of the
investigation into the death of Madeleine, Gavin Elster, Madeleine’s husband,
tells Fergusson these words: "You and I know who killed Madeleine."
Indeed Fergusson helped Gavin Elster kill the true Madeleine. Judy is
suspicious of Fergusson and says she fears he may turn out to be Jack the
Ripper.
Madeleine’s second death has at least a
positive element, it will make the revelation of the crime committed by Gavin
Elster inevitable. This evil father figure hides behind Fergusson’s
shortcomings should be punished in the end. This was the alternate ending that
Hitchcock discarded. Fergusson fails because he is unable to fall in love with
the woman who loves him and because he wants to take revenge on Gavin Elster.
If he had chosen love instead of revenge he could have accomplished his mission
and would have made happy the woman who loved him.
The first place Madeleine and Fergusson visit
is the forest of Big Basin, south of San Francisco like the mission where
Carlotta grew up and that Madeleine will use to get rid of Fergusson, after
having exploited him for her purposes. The first trip to the redwood forest
prefigures the second to the mission of St. John the Baptist. The sequoias are
living beings which were alive before Madeleine was born and will be alive
after her death. They are similar to the mission where time stands still.
Nothing more will change in the mission and in the wood, they transcend human
life. The forest and the mission are two sacred places that dominate the short
life of the individual person. They are eternal and immovable places which are
very dangerous to Fergusson who can stay alive only by being on the move.
Fergusson risked his life because he failed to make a dangerous jump to
overcome an obstacle. He stopped and tried to resist hanging from a gutter but
this could not be for long and he fell. The bar that can be seen at the very
beginning of the film will soon be caught by the bandit on the run. Fergusson
is himself a hunted man on the run who causes the death of those who try to
help him. The other policeman thinks he can help Fergusson who is hanging over
a chasm, but Fergusson does not give him the hand. The fall is inevitable, help
can only come from below and not from above.
Hitchcock’s love for San Francisco seems to
be the one of the reasons why the film was shot. Everything has its own place
in this sacred city. Even a minor and complementary character like Midge lives
in a place that can be clearly located because it is not far from the seafront.
At the end of the fifties, San Francisco showed a cultural vitality which gave
birth to the unforgettable flowering of the hippie culture of the sixties. The
magazine Views & News can be seen
on the dining room table of detective Fergusson’s small flat. This could be
also considered an allusion to the fascinating views of the city. Hitchcock
could feel the presence of the past in a place where it was radically absent, a
place all projected into the future. A place that was going to live an
unforgettable season.
The first scene shows a spooky late evening
San Francisco. Fergusson’s failure causes the death of the man who rushed to
his aid. Fergusson holds on to the gutter long enough to receive only minor
injuries. Fergusson is trying to endure and Midge is rushing to the rescue. The
scene in which Fergusson has vertigo climbing on a stool and the one in which
the zoom makes the stairs of the tower appear much higher than they are suggest
that Fergusson’s fall was not so dangerous after all. He must accept the fall to
get a second chance. Fergusson does not receive serious injuries in the fall
and will have the opportunity to make the most of the second part of his life.
Fergusson has renounced his great ambitions and this is the reason why he is a
free man who can make a fresh start.
The shadowing in the car is one of the
magical moments. Fergusson shares the intimacy of Madeleine‘s private moments
without ever being close to her. Always together, whilst being away, they visit
the most fascinating historical sites of San Francisco. It is ironic that a
city without a past becomes a place of memories. Both Madeleine and Fergusson
seek their past in the very place where there is no past. The magical moments in
the museum of the Legion of Honor create a European atmosphere in the least
European city in the United States. Fergusson seeks the past because he wants
to get rid of it.
Madeleine’s dramatic jump into San Francisco
bay forces Fergusson’s physical approach. Both Madeleine and Fergusson had to
fall. Fergusson’s flat is so ordinary but it seems so full of life when it
gives hospitality to the mysterious woman who was saved from herself.
Madeleine's clothes can be seen in the small kitchen and she is lying in the
bed. Madeleine must have been stripped by Fergusson before being put to sleep. The
helpless Fergusson is attracted by a sleeping woman who thinks to be a dead
woman. The night makes their first conversation much more intimate.
The few moments that Fergusson and Madeleine
spend together are magical because they already belong to the past. The great
redwood trees turn a sunny day into a night. Everything appears and disappears
and light turns into darkness. The truth makes its way obscurely in Fergusson’s
mind. The calm waters of San Francisco bay are transformed into the mighty
ocean waves. Everything has two faces that seem interchangeable. One can take
the place of the other without notice.
Madeleine
goes to Fergusson’s apartment at the beginning of a new day but he does not
want to go straight to the mission. In fact this is the place where his
relationship with Madeleine will end. Fergusson’s self-delusion will last one
more morning. Fergusson tells Madeleine to return in the afternoon. At the end
of this last day Fergusson and Madeleine’s dream will be destroyed. It has to
be dark. The road from San Francisco to the mission is overshadowed by tall
trees.
Madeleine’s death is caused by Fergusson’s
inability to climb up to the top of the tower where he could have discovered
the truth. The simple truth was that Madeleine was actually Judy and loved
Gavin Elster. Fergusson is belittled in public for the failure that led to
Gavin Elster’s wife death. Fergusson could not bear the consequences of his own
weakness and ran away. Night falls on San Francisco and on Fergusson’s mind.
Escaping from himself and from the past is impossible. It is impossible to be
happy again. There is no atmosphere in Fergusson’s room at the asylum. His life
there is devoid of sensations and therefore senseless. A dreary light falls on
everything.
A splendid panoramic shot of San Francisco in
the morning announces Fergusson’s return to life. Nothing is as it was before.
There must be a way to recover the fascination experienced with Madeleine.
Fergusson approaches women that from a distance look like Madeleine but they
are different. Fergusson ends up dating a woman who is the antithesis of
Madeleine but he knows he can transform her as if he were a Pygmalion. Judy is
an ordinary person who has been created by the mass culture of entertainment
and showbiz. Judy is a vacuum and can take on the appearance of that privileged
woman. Suddenly time accelerates and Fergusson is in a hurry to return to the
past then there will be no haste.
Judy tries to resist, but Fergusson gives her
the chance to become what she is not, he idealizes her. Fergusson's love is
intoxicating but it is not Judy he loves. Fergusson loves the appearance of a
woman who does not exist, who is not alive. Madeleine pretended to be a woman
dominated by an ancestor who had taken possession of her. It is actually
Fergusson who is dominated by the image of a woman belonging to the past.
Fergusson behaves as though he was rich, he asks Judy to leave work and to be
supported by him. Fergusson takes the place of Gavin Elster and spends his
money to get back the woman he lost. Money made Madeleine and Gavin Elster
fascinating and successful. There is no mystery. Money will restore Fergusson
to his lost dignity. Fergusson buys the clothes that will recreate Madeleine in
the most expensive and exclusive stores and behaves as a wealthy and demanding
client. Wealth is the illusion that alienates Fergusson from himself. Wealth
allows him to transform a common woman into Madeleine and wealth can also
transfigure a loser. The trick is revealed and the ideal woman loses her magic
appeal. Money transmutes and gives shape to illusions that have no substance.
It destroys reality.
Fascination bursts forth only when all the
components are in the right place. Fergusson’s love is like a lock that is
triggered when the combination is complete. When Judy mimics every detail of
Madeleine the lost woman is finally found and happiness is total. Intimacy and
relaxation replace anxiety. When Madeleine is finally regained Fergusson sees
around him images of the stables of the mission, it is night though. The place
where Carlotta, Madeleine’s ancestor, lived is disturbing. It is clear
Fergusson must face reality and must return to the mission of St. John the
Baptist. Night wraps Fergusson just when he thinks he has it all figured out.
He thinks he just has to do only one last thing to get rid of the past.
Fergusson realizes what happened when the new
Madeleine adds a detail of her own initiative, the medallion. Everything has to
be repeated twice. On top of the tower there are three people. Once again it is
a triangular relationship but this time there are two women and one man.
Fergusson is able to climb all the stairs and to overcome the defect of
agoraphobia. Climbing up to the top of the bell tower, Fergusson loses forever
Madeleine and his happiness. In the darkness that surrounds the tower a female silhouette
that looks like a ghost appears. Judy is terrified and falls down. This time it
is a true fall. Everything is explained but this does not make Fergusson happy.
The illusion was more important than the reality. In the last sequence
Fergusson is a soulless puppet even though he has no fear of heights and of
falling down.
It may seem
weird that a person living in Lombardy should be obsessed with all this details
about Lombard street.
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