My primary investigation into the clip was looking at Robin Wood’s analysis of the film, which led me to want to look at two ideas to do with the clip. These were reactions to viewing suicide, from a first hand experience or from an onscreen fabrication. I couldn’t however find any information I felt was relevant on this topic, so I moved on to the other idea I found interesting from this text. Protagonists and romantic leads in Hollywood.
I could not find the kind of information I wanted to on this topic. I did however find information I could draw my own conclusions from. This was a list of Hollywood icons that played romantic leads up until this point in cinematic history. James Stewart was somewhat out of place in terms of the typical lead both physically in himself and in terms of the character he was portraying. This character isn’t dissimilar to other characters he has portrayed with a genuine and likeable almost ‘everyman’ quality.
Kim Novak did not look out of place for a female lead. She was however, jarringly younger than Stewart. Typically male leads are older than their female counterparts, but there’s something not quite right in the age difference between them. Other than that Novak doesn’t look out of place for a female romantic lead, however, the personality of Madeleine could be argued as unusual for a female lead in a film, particularly at this time. Let’s face it, in King Kong, Fay Wray didn’t act, she looked pretty and screamed. Women were there to be weak and vulnerable for the simple reason that that’s what women were meant to be. Madeleine however was mysterious and had a challenging personality. She had her own agenda, which, in this clip, clearly wasn’t based purely on getting married and settling down. This film really challenges the gender roles of men and women.
This line of thought, and some texts I read lead me to question whether Scottie really loved Madeleine, looking at the concepts of not just love, but also fetishism and the need to hold control and possession over another individual.
The first concept I looked at was fetishism. I found out about the origins of the word fetish and several definitions of the word fetish, and looked at how Madeleine could be viewed as a fetish object in multiple ways. At no point did I find any reason not to believe that Madeleine was a fetish object to Scottie.
The next concept in this little triage I was looking into to explore the concept of love I did look at was the idea of possession of an individual. Looking at the symptoms of possession and fear, it’s quite clear that these were elements that Scottie was feeling. The article I was looking at also lead me to want to look at two further questions. That of how Scotties relationship with Midge effects the one he has with Madeleine and the other to do with Scotties masculinity, and whether he feels emasculated by his inability to save Madeleine.
I however continued to peruse the avenue of investigation I was already on, not wanting to leave it until I ad reached a conclusion I felt satisfied with. The final topic that there was to look at was love. It took me a while, but I finally found a very good article, outlining several theories of love, which seemed to boil down into 2 simple ideas to me. Romantic love and obsessive love. I concluded that Scottie saw Madeleine as an object of fetish and something, contrary to what he was saying, that he wanted to ‘posses’. On the realization that this is something he is unlikely to attain, he tries his hardest to hold on to her, seemingly more concerned with keeping her in his life, than her general state of wellbeing in my opinion. He feels an obsessive love towards her, rather than a romantic love, which would be the idea in any kind of ‘normal’ relationship, people who enjoy S&M excluded.
I then went back to a question I asked myself during this avenue of questioning, not wholly related to what I was looking at, but not wholly independent either. Does Scottie feel emasculated by his inability to save Madeleine? I found an article looking at Scottie’s masculinity throughout the film. Not just in this scene. It becomes apparent that Scottie is feminized right from the start of the film, being unable to fulfil his duties in the masculine role of policeman, and being forced to wear, for medical reasons obviously, a very female corset. He manages to begin to regain his masculinity in part when he is following Madeleine, feeling as though he was once again doing his macho job. When he has the inability to save Madeleine he looses the ability to do anything, ending up in a sanatorium.
Next, I looked at Midges relationship with Scottie, and it seemed to me that his inability to maintain a domestic/romantic relationship with Midge, a seemingly idea domestic partner, and his apparent lack of any relationship since, leads him to fall for her complete opposite. Midge is down to earth, has a career, looks after Scottie and has the air of being easy to understand. Madeleine on the other hand is glamorous, lives off her husband, and has an aurora of danger and complexity. It seems as though Madeleine being Midges complete opposite is something that drew Scottie to her.
Now for the music. I do not have the greatest ability to ready music technically, but I do remember how to look at it critically from my year 9 music lessons without actually knowing a great deal. I found that the construction of the music was somewhat marvellous, and incredibly thought through in this scene, and my readings on the music backed up everything I said about it, the use of a rapid succession of notes for example, building up the tension in the piece.
Looking at the building of tension led me to go on to look at ‘The vertigo shot’ and how and why and all kinds of other things to do with it. The two key points it has from an audience reaction stand point are showing Scottie’s vertigo and disorientating the viewer, helping them empathize with Scotties situation.
The final thing I looked at was the location. The surroundings show several different things about the piece in relation to the characters. Firstly, concerning Madeleine. The setting put her in a historical context, signifying her possession from an ancestor, and the religious themes of the place signifying a spiritual quality.
