• Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo is nowadays considered one of the top ten masterpieces in the history of cinema. Lets analyse some arguments for and against this statement.

Main body

• The psychological complexity this film develops is so deep and restless that makes the public totally captured by the feature. This is due to how Hitchcock presented love, doubt and suspense.[Refererences:

1)Scorsese, Martin, “Obsessed with Vertigo” (1997), a Harrison Engle film

2)Modleski, Tania , "The woman who knew too much, Hitchcock and feminist theory" (1988)

3) Truffaut, Francois, Hitchcock New York: Simon & Schuster, (1967)]

• By contrast, lets analyse how this genial work could be related to Hitchcock’s personality and his personal life experiences. In fact, reading through his biography and early life events, this could be a legitimate query.

1) Peele, Stanton, summer 1986, Morristown, New Jersey, “Personality, Pathology, and The Act of Creation: 
The Case of Alfred Hitchcock”, The Stanton Peel Addiction website, available from:

http://www.peele.net/lib/hitch.html

2) Mork Rachel, “Alfred Hitchcock biography”, available from:

http://www.life123.com/arts-culture/directors/alfred-hitchcock/alfred-hitchcock-biography.shtml#STS=g1jy00i1.ovh

Conclusion

• Hitchcock’s works are strongly perfumed by his personal experiences. His strict sense for the law and thus his complex of guiltiness, his particular relationship with his mother, can certenly witnesses it. However, he was the Master of Suspense, and he still is. And that is not only due to his private events, but also because of his will, great power of organisation and, of course, that bit of madness that makes every legend to be such. Thus, Vertigo was undoubtedly the product of this genius mix; it was inspired both by his anxieties (since his wife was having health problems in that period) and his ever-green audacity.

Aulier, Dan, “Vertigo, the making of a Hitchcock classic“, (1998) St. Martin’s Griffin, New York

Engle, Harrison, “Obsessed with Vertigo” (1997), USA, American Movie Classics

Finler, Joel, “Alfred Hitchcock, the Hollywood years“, 1992, B.T. Batsford Ltd

Gottlieb, Sidney , “Hitchcock on Hitchcock, selected writings and interviews” (1995), USA, Berkeley : University of California Press

Modleski, Tania , “The woman who knew too much, Hitchcock and feminist theory” (1988), New York, Routledge

Spoto, Donal, “The Art of Alfred Hitchcock, fifty years of his moving pictures” (1976), DoubleDay Dolphin Book

[From this documentary I quoted the followings:

McDowall, Roddy, narrator of "Obsessed with Vertigo"

Taylor, Samuel A. , Vertigo's screen writer.

Scorsese, Martin, director

Katz C., James, Restoration Producer.]

Scott. G., Helen, “Francois Truffaut, Hitchcock” New York, Simon & Schuster, (1967)

Web References

Pictures and videos URL (in appearance order)

Pictures:

Image available from:

http://www.isntlifeterrible.com/uploaded_images/ab12-759350.jpg

Accessed (2009/10/25)

Picture available from:

http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/Widescreen/wingvv2.htm

Accessed (2009/10/28)

Picture available from:

http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblogs/dvd/archives/Vertigo_Art.jpg

Accessed (2009/10/31)

Picture available from:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__uACkPWjuQU/Slks0Rb2bJI/AAAAAAAABvU/Yao0DRo9i8U/s400/Women+Who+Knew.bmp

Accessed (2009/10/31)

Picture available from:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Gdt6SgFdNNw/SiKd4DpTTEI/AAAAAAAAMU0/54-HFqmgQLc/s400/madeleine_drowns.jpg

Accessed (2009/10/31)

Picture available from:

http://media.photobucket.com/image/herrmann%20hitchcock%20sleeping/TGTE/herrmannhitchcock.jpg

Accessed (2009/11/01)

Picture available from:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_f9pvdIisA48/Sek0rRdAwiI/AAAAAAAAADA/aPVC5seTmnM/s320/hitch.fontaine.olivier.jpg

Accessed (2009/11/02)

Picture avalaible from:

http://www.matthewhunt.com/blog/images/thehollywoodstudiosystem.jpg

Accessed (2009/11/03)

Picture available from:

http://noticiasda.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/paramount-logo-history.jpg

Accessed (2009/11/03)

Picture available from:

http://www.paramount.com/studio/history

Accessed (2009/11/03)

Videos:

“Vertigo Shots in Many Movies”, 2007, avalaible from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y48R6-iIYHs

Accessed (2009/10/25)

“Alfred Hitchcock: The Difference Between Mystery & Suspense”, 2009, AFI, avalaible from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xs111uH9ss

Accessed (2009/10/29)

“Alfred Hitchcock was traumatized by his mother”, 2007, avalaible from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q-QAsi7Ge0

Accessed (2009/10/31)

“Eileen Farrell Tristan and Isolde”, available from

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKki2TzH01M

Accessed (2009/10/31)

“Vertigo – Scene d’Amour – Bernard Herrmann”, available from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jic6-CUmAmE&feature=related

Accessed (2009/11/01)

“Alfred Hitchcock interview (part 1 of 6) Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder Fall 1973”, available from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv4BwEGPQbM

Accessed (2009/11/01)

“Vertigo *part 12*”, available from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryUL2csu_ns

Accessed (2009/11/03)

Web references (Written Material)

Travers, James, 2008, “Summary”, available from: http://cinemaforever.com/CF_Vertigo_1958_rev.html

Accessed (2009/10/25)

Press, Salem, 1-1-1994, “Vertigo”, Magill’s survey of cinema, available from: http://hitchcock.tv/essays/vertigoessay.html

Accessed (2009/10/25)

Wikipedia , 28 September 2009, “Dolly zoom”, available from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_zoom

Accessed (2009/10/25)

Petzold, Charles, March 7, 2007
New York, N.Y., “Petzold Book Blog”, Copyright Charles Petzold, available from:

http://www.charlespetzold.com/blog/2007/03/070716.html

Accessed (2009/10/25)

Vanneman, Alan, november 2003, “You got to climb that stairs”, Copyright © 2003 by Alan Vanneman, available from

http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/42/staircases.htm

Accessed (2009/10/28)

Brain-Juice.com, “Alfred Hitchcock”, copyright @ 2000-2002, available from:

http://www.brain-juice.com/cgi-bin/show_bio.cgi?p_id=49

Accessed (2009/10/28)

Peele, Stanton, summer 1986, Morristown, New Jersey, “Personality, Pathology, and The Act of Creation: 
The Case of Alfred Hitchcock”, The Stanton Peel Addiction website, available from:

http://www.peele.net/lib/hitch.html

Accessed (2009/10/30)

Wikipedia, 26 July 2009, “Stanton Peele”, available from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanton_Peele

Accessed (2009/10/30)

University of Southern California, 2009, “Tania Modleski”, available from:

http://college.usc.edu/cf/faculty-and-staff/faculty.cfm?pid=1003547&CFID=8321174&CFTOKEN=55226582

Accessed (2009/10/31)

Mork Rachel, “Alfred Hitchcock biography”, available from:

http://www.life123.com/arts-culture/directors/alfred-hitchcock/alfred-hitchcock-biography.shtml#STS=g1jy00i1.ovh

Accessed (2009/10/31)

Wikipedia, 21 September 2009, “Eileen Farrell”, available from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eileen_Farrell

Accessed (2009/10/31)

Wikipidia, 22 October 2009, “Ophelia (Painting)”, available from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophelia_(painting)

Accessed (2009/10/31)

Library@pobox.upenn.edu, 11-Oct-2005, “Reflection on Ophelia in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo”, available from:

http://tags.library.upenn.edu/ggould/hamlet

Accessed (2009/10/31)

Smith C., Caven, “Bernard Herrmann – Composer-1911-1975-”, The Bernard Herrmann Society, available from:

http://www.bernardherrmann.org/articles/bio/

Accessed (2009/11/01)

Wikipidia, 10 november 2009, “Early Life”, available from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock#Early_life

Accessed (2009/11/01)

Wikipedia, 29 October 2009, “Studio System”, available from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_system

Accessed (2009/11/03)

TM & © 2009 Turner Classic Movies, “Notes for Vertigo (1958)” available from:

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=94742&category=Notes

Accessed (2009/11/03)

Being the Blog something I had never done before, I was feeling quite insecure about the way I had to develop my research.

First of all, I had to make a choice between the material given. We had been told that the blog was meant to be felt like a challenge. Therefore, we should have chosen the farthest subject from ourselves knowledge. However, when I saw Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo as a possibility of research, I’ve gone off the rail. In fact, Hitchcock is one of my favourite directors. When just a kid, he made me love cinema, since I used to watch many of his features with my parents. By contrast, even though I have seen so many films by him, I didn’t really know anything about Hitchcock himself. That is why analysing Vertigo would have meant a great possibility to explore such an unknown and desirable ocean. And that is why I chose it.

The second Week

However, after my enthusiastic derailment, I started to figure out what this choice would have entailed: a great number of difficulties and uprising queries.

First of all, because the scene I chose has a massive number of sources. In fact, it is not easy to follow a particular pattern if it is constantly crossed by other narrow pathways. Therefore, I made a list of Key questions which gave me a personal pattern, so that the other tempting sources would have basically deleted.

Once the key questions list was planned, I started to post my first entries on the blog. Again, another worrying problem bumped into my way: had each entry to be focused on my own thoughts or more on the sources I would find? At first, I opted for the first idea. I was wrong: I had to follow a cross-reference pattern; that means that every note I made had to be confirmed or completed by a source. Therefore, I had to restart from the beginning (which was really frustrating, but, at the same time rewarding, since I finally understood how the blog had to be like).

The third Week

The third week has been the hardest one. I was feeling quite restless since I spent the second week doing something that was not in the way it was meant to be. Therefore, I had just few entries done.

So I started working hard, going to library seeking for interesting material and running through the web begging to find trustworthy sources. What really impressed me was the massive number of books, essays and articles written to Alfred Hitchcock’s honour. He died twenty-nine years ago and he is still living throughout his works. That is what I found incredibly fascinating; and that is due to his brilliance. In fact, while researching, I found out a great number of interesting facts. I was really caught by Hitchcock’s early life experiences. He was such a determinate subject, being able to reach the peak of cinema industry just in few years.

Another aspect that really affected me was his psychological behavior. Indeed, during this week I looked for revealing material that would have shown a link between Hitchcock’s fears and the creative development of his works. As a matter of a fact, I think this is a vital aspect for a aspiring director as I am. To what extent your personal life can affect your creative works? The more I researched in Hitchcock’s past the more I found that link strong. (His relationship with his parents, thus his complex of guilt due to his education and the respect toward law caused by the fear of it -thank to his father strict instruction-, his close and quite equivocal relationship with his mother, his thoughts about women and their role in human society and so on).

The fourth Week

By the end of the third week I had concluded the entries of the blog. What I learned by the research I did was a great number of things.

First of all, I learned how to use WordPress and how to make a blog, which it was something I have never done before and therefore really interesting to me.

Furthermore, I reconfirmed the way I feel better in studying. In fact, when I was in high school, I always preferred to work on nights, since there is something in the nocturnal atmosphere that captures my creative process much more than during the days. However, in this blog experience I developed a new way of studying. As a matter of a fact, when in high school, I was just meant to study on the material given, without doing any kind of research. The essays I worked to in that period were just related to the subjects I had been studying, just adding personal opinions and notes.

By contrast, in this blog experience I fulfilled a more complete pattern of how embarking on the study process, which gives you a massive and useful variety of notions.

What impact did this feature have when first released?

There was no impact at all. In fact, It was only many years after the release of the moving picture that Vertigo started to became popular and considered one of the Hitchcock’s masterpieces. As Restoration Producer James C. Katz says: “Time does things to movies and the way we see them”.

(Restoration Producer James C. Katz:“Obsessed with Vertigo”)

Therefore, what are the reasons that make this film so popular nowadays?

Undoubtedly, one is the conception of love this picture develops. As a matter of a fact, the history of cinema files thousands of love films, but with this movie Hitchcock took a step forward: a deep, unattainable, obsessive love, that makes the viewer truly feel what John “Scottie” Ferguson felt. In fact, the more we know the ex-detective Ferguson, the more we get close to him and his feelings; so that we violently disappear into Ferguson’s character. Samuel A. Taylor, the Vertigo’s Screen writer – who won a Golden Globe for the writing of Sabrina Fair (then directed by Billy Wilder) and whose career film, for a twist of fate, faded after the initial box office failure of Vertigo, says: “In those first talks with Hitchcock, we decided that the more emotion there was in the man, the stronger  the picture would be. And he found without even thinking about it that he was making a picture that went much deeper than most of his pictures. Just because the basic story –not the plot– but the basic story had a true human emotion; this obsession of a man who, for the first time in his life, had fallen deeply in love”.

(Samuel A. Taylor, “Obsessed with Vertigo” by Harrison Engle)

Second of all, the “psychological complexity”, as  Martin Scorsese suggests. “Vertigo somehow stands out, and I think it stands out because it was unabashedly personal. I think that’s where the truth lies in the picture. That’s why I think it sustains over the years. You don’t know exactely –”Well, the person who made this feels this way”. You can’t put it into words, but there is something that is genuine about it, and that is not just dealing with schematics on plot or whatever. That has a very strong heart behind it and a very, very troubling look at humanity, in a way. But it’s something that is honest and true and has a psychological complexity and that is lasted over the years”. The first title Hitchcock gave to the film ”Cold sweat: From Among the Dead” (the French novel “Sueurs froides: D’entre les morts”) better emphasizes this aspect. In fact, the whole film runs in two separate rails. One is Scottie Ferguson’s approach to the events he faces against -which does not represent the truth itself but just the deceptive one-. This fake trail makes both Ferguson and the viewers (they are nothing but the same person, because of the subjective way the film is narrated) suffer and feeling guilty for Madeleine’s death. On the other hand, there is the second rail, which, indeed, represents the “real” reality; a sour, desolate, nightmare-like reality, in which double identity, falsehood and grief are the key words. Therefore, the two rails run in different ways for most of the film length and they just bump into each others on the very end of the film, in a that climatic obsessive race toward Medeleine’s  second death.

(Martin Scorsese, “Obsessed with Vertigo” by Harrison Engle)

(Available from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryUL2csu_ns)

I would conclude reporting Martin Scorsese’s speech, which perfectly summarise and explain why this film is considered one of the top ten films in the history of cinema.

“Vertigo somehow stands out, and I think it stands out because it was unabashedly personal. I think that’s where the truth lies in the picture. That’s why I think it sustains over the years. You don’t Know exactely –”Well, the person who made this feels this way”. You can’t put it into words, but there is something that is genuine about it, and that is not just dealing with schematics on plot or whatever. That has a very strong heart behind it and a very, very troubling look at humanity, in a way. But it’s something that is honest and true and has a psychological complexity and that is lasted over the years.”

(Martin Scorsese, “Obsessed with Vertigo” [1997])

Findings

After the end of my research, I found out a great number of things I did not know and I have always been interested in.

First of all, I learned many interesting elements about Vertigo and its technical aspects:

• How the vertigo effect was made. Furthermore, I discovered this was the first time the dolly zoom was utilised in a feature, thanks to second unit cameraman Irmin Roberts.
• I learnt what a VistaVision format was and its background context in the Hollywood system, since it was developed to compete with Firefox’s CinemaScope format.
• Furthermore, I got closer to the Studio System and its link with Hitchcock’s production of films and Vertigo in particular (since this would have not created without such expensive technologies and a huge capital)
• I developed the essential role of music in films thus leading to a legendary name (which, quite interestingly, I did not know): Bernard Herrmann. I’ve been fascinated by his powerful figure and its great dynamism -he was able to produce such a remarkable soundtrack in an incredibly brief period-.

Second of all, I developed my area of research toward a more particular aspect: the possible connection between Hitchcock’s personal experiences and his creative works.

• In fact, while watching his films, I have been always caught by this continuous feeling: were they personal developments of his own unconscious?

At the end of the research, I found out some interesting information. Anyway, I am still not a hundred percent sure of the affirmative answer of that question. Of course, I discovered Hitchcock’s shocking experiences in his early life such as the one in the German Hotel or his more than particular relationship with his parents; hence, I could suppose that link was existing. However, sometimes the answers I would have liked to find in the sources were not as accurate and deep as I wished. Probably, because of the extremely personal content this kind of research have, thus being the reliable material not (at all) easy to access. In fact, I have tried to seek for academic references in this field, but it was definitely hard, so that I had to try to follow the sources of websites, which are not that reliable and most of the time denying each other.

Moreover, what really impressed me in analysing Vertigo was the way love has been developed. In fact, Vertigo develops such a deep concept of love and furthermore, mixes this word with other worrying elements such as doubt, guiltiness and death. That is why it can be compared with sources like Sheakespeare’s Ophelia or the ancient myth of Tristan and Isolde.

To conclude, I would say that this has been a gratifying possibility to explore what I always wanted to (Hitchcock is indeed one of my favourite directors) and, most importantly, in a new and effective way.

“The original tower of San Juan Bautista was destroyed in a fire long time ago, so Hitchcock and his artists would conjure up one out of paint and plaster.”

(Roddy McDowall, narrator of “Obsessed with Vertigo“, an Harrison Engle documentary about the restoration of the film).

“The wooden tower which was built about 1860 and later duplicated in concrete has been a part of the mission for so long, that when its removal was announced early in 1950, the old residents of the area were genuinely fearful that the structure was being desecrated. The tower, which was not in harmony with the rest of the church, was added by a secular priest in order to make his own tasks a little easier. It permitted ringing of the church bells comfortably no matter what the weather and, since he could not afford to pay the wages of an attendant, his action reveals a practical, rather than an artistic nature. After the departure of the priest, the earthquake of 1906 did extensive damage to the church. “

(Avalaible from:

http://www.californiamissions.com/morehistory/sjbautista.html)

“According to a March 31, 1958 studio memo, the bell tower ‘was painted in on glass for the exterior shots [of already shot footage of the existing mission] and the interior of the Tower was built on the set.’ A July 1982 article in San Francisco magazine reported that the tower mock-up was seventy feet tall.”

(Avalaible from:

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=94742&category=Notes)

As far as the original tower of the Spanish mission had been destroyed, Hitchcock needed a new one to create his most climactic scene of the film. That means two things. On one hand, Hitchcock did not shot the Medeleine’s run toward the death in  the mission, but in a studio (which he definitely liked better). On the other hand, the built-up tower  and the special effected related to it lead us to a key word: money.

“The view down the mission stairwell cost $19,000 for just a few seconds of air time.“

(http://www.pinnaclenews.com/life/contentview.asp?c=226138)

Thus, this perfectely explain why this film needed to be englobed into the studio system.By contrast, what is not clear, or quite unbelievable, is how a such a personal and complex movie could have been supported by this system, as Martin Scorsese suggests:

“Over the years, I kept being drawn and drawn to the picture, like being drawn into a whirpool of obsession. A very, very beautiful, confortable, almost nightmarish obsession. I think, for me, I found it fascinating years later, when I looked back and realised that towards the end of the Stusio system such a highly personal movie could come out of that Studio system with major stars”.

(Avalaible from:

“Obsessed with Vertigo“, an Harrison Engle documentary)

“The studio system was a means of film production and distribution dominant in Hollywood from the early 1920s through the 1950s. The term studio system refers to the practice of large motion picture studios (a) producing movies primarily on their own filmmaking lots with creative personnel under often long-term contract and (b) pursuing vertical integration through ownership or effective control of distributors and movie theaters, guaranteeing additional sales of films through manipulative booking techniques. A 1948 Supreme Court ruling against those distribution and exhibition practices hastened the end of the studio system. In 1954, the last of the operational links between a major production studio and theater chain was broken and the era of the studio system was officially over. The period stretching from the introduction of sound to the court ruling and the beginning of the studio breakups, 1927/29–1948/49, is commonly known as the Golden Age of Hollywood.

(Picture avalaible from:

http://www.matthewhunt.com/blog/images/

thehollywoodstudiosystem.jpg)

(Avalaible from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_system)

Now, lets analyse Paramount company. This label has been seen and admired from millions of people throughout one century. This label, made by a circle of twenty four stars around a mountain mean a great number of things; it has made American and people all around the world dreaming, escaping from reality and has given -and continues to give- two hours of freedom.However, there is much more than this: this mountain represents the illimited force of a company who was able to stay at the peak of cinema industry for such a long period. It means money, determination and, of course, glory.

“Paramount’s lineage dates back to 1912, when Adolph Zukor, the owner of a New York nickelodeon, secured American distribution rights to Sarah Bernhardt’s four-reel film, QUEEN ELIZABETH. The film’s triumphant opening on July 12, 1912, as the first full-length drama shown in the United States prompted Zukor to found the Famous Players Film Company. Famous Players began to produce movies in New York, beginning with THE PRISONER OF ZENDA and THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO. A year later, Zukor invested in a film distribution company named Paramount Pictures.

On June 28, 1916, Paramount’s history was changed forever.  The Jesse L. Lasky Company, which was producing films in Hollywood, merged with Famous Players to form the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation.  The corporation consolidated its production and distribution divisions, and audiences began seeing the iconic “Paramount Pictures” label.

(Image avaliable from:

http://noticiasda.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/paramount-logo-history.jpg)

(Avalaible from:

http://www.paramount.com/studio/history)

Interstingly, the official Paramount website does not mention Vertigo in its history section. Probably because this feature did not have great consideration for a long period.

An aspect we should pay attention to is the context in which Alfred Hitchcock worked. In fact, as we have seen in the entry of Hitchcock’s background, between 1925 (when Hitchcock got his first director position with the debut of “The Pleasure Garden”) and 1939 the director used to work in England. However, from 1939s on, the British legend and his wife moved to America, where the studio equipment and resources were far more advanced than those in his country.

(Alfred Hitchcock, Joan Fontaine (as the second Mrs. de Winter), Laurence Olivier (as “Maxim” de Winter) , in the set of “Rebecca”-1939-, the first feature Hitch directed through the Sydio System,

Image avalaible from:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_f9pvdIisA48/Sek0rRdAwiI/AAAAAAAAADA/

aPVC5seTmnM/s320/hitch.fontaine.olivier.jpg)

As we know, Vertigo was produced on 1958, in the American VistaVision Paramount format. Thus, when the British director move to US and for what reasons?

“Hitchcock had become interested in America and the American cinema from an early age. He first began reading the film trade papers  at the age of 16 and was first attracted to working for American, rather than British, film company, a few years later. ‘In actual fact, I started out in 1921 in an Amarican film studio that heppened to be lacated in London [Famous Players-Lasky in Islington] and never set foott in a British studio until 1927.’

Hitch was first employed in the titles department in 1920, but since it was a small studio, he was able to familiarize  himself with every aspect of the film-making process. He graduated to head of the editorial department, did some script writing, served as assistant director and editor and had even designed sets and costumes before he was given the opportunity to direct his first feature, The Pleasure Garden, in 1925. Thought he directed a variety of pictures during these early years, Hitch had his biggest success with thrillers such as The Lodger (1926)and Blackmail (1929)…But he never felt that he was really appreciated in Britain and was well aware of the British intellectual snobbery with regard to the cinema in general and the popular thrillers with which he was most closely identified in particular. By 1937, he was becoming increasingly unhappy with filming in England on relatively modest budgets with limited technical resources. He was well aware of the opportunities offered by the large American studios. But, having enjoyed a large degree of creative freedom on his British productions, he was wary of the Hollywood studio system where the contract directors generally had little control  over the projects to which they were assigned. A number of Hollywood studios had expressed an interest in hiring him, and he finally visited the US for the first time in the summer of 1937 after completing the filming of his latest feature, Young and Innocent. The best offer he received was from indipendent producer David Selznick. He signed with Selznick in July 1938…”

(Joel Finler, “Alfred Hitchcock, the Hollywood years“, first published in 1992 by B.T. Batsford Ltd, [page 30-31])

What is revealing of this passage is Hitchcock’s strong determination. In such a short period he was able to became one of the most famous directors in England so that the Hollywood system would have noticed him. In this hard and undetermined field will (and lack of course) are unfailing words. Hitchcock, of course, knew them well.

“Their relationship extended off-screen as well; like other friends and coworkers, Herrmann and his family were often guests at Hitchcock’s Bel Air home. As Herrmann’s third wife recalled, after dinner “Benny used to wash dished with Hitch, and they’d talk about what they’s do if they weren’t in the film business. Bunny wanted to run an English pub, until somebody told him you actually had to open and close at certain hours. Benny asked Hitch what he would want to be. There was a silence. Hitchcock then turned to Benny, his apron folded on his head, and said solemnly: ‘A hanging judge‘”.

(Dan Aulier, “Vertigo, the making of a Hitchcock classic”, [page 140])

What is revealing of this chat is the answer Hitch gave to Herrmann: “A hanging judge”. Of course, that could be interpreted as a joke, but, if we look at Hitchcock’s persona, we would probably change our mind. In fact, one of the most worrying and important aspect of life for Alfred Hitchcock was the sense of law and its strict respect.

“On numerous occasions, Hitchcock said he was sent by his father to the local police station with a note asking the officer to lock him away for ten minutes as punishment for behaving badly. This idea of being harshly treated or wrongfully accused is frequently reflected in Hitchcock’s films.“

(Avalaible from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock#Early_life)

When interviewed in the “Tomorrow Show” by Tom Snyder Fall in 1973, this is what Hitchcock said about “What are you afraid of?”:

(Avalaible from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv4BwEGPQbM)

He answered to this question in an interview made in 1930s:

“The first and obvious use is atmospheric. To create excitement. To heighten intensity. In a scene of action, for example, when the aim is to build up to a physical climax, music adds excitement just as effectively as cutting…Music can also be a background to a scene in any mood and a commentary of a dialogue…It is the psychological use of music, which you will observe, they knew something about before talkies, that the great possibilities lie. It makes it possible to express the unspoken. For instance, two people may be saying one thing and thinking something very different. Their looks match their words, not their thoughts. They may be talking politely and quietely, but there may be a storm coming. You cannot express the mood of the situation by word and photograph. But I think you could get at the underlying idea with the right background music. It may sound farfetched to compare a dramatic talkie with opera, but there is something in common. In opera quite frequently the music echoes the words that have just been spoken…The basis  of cinema’s appeal is emotional. Music’s appeal is to a great extent emotional, too. To neglet music, I think, is to surrender, willfully or not, a chance of progress in filmmaking.”

(Alfred Hitchcock, when interviewed in 1930s)

In our three minutes and half scene, music plays an essential and shocking role. In fact, we have seen how the great fear of heights is figuratively represents by the invention of the “vertigo effect”, which its made by the simultaneous zooming forward and backward. However, without the tempestuous Herrmann’s motif, the powerful restlessness and anxiety we feel would not have been that dreadful. As Hitchcock said: “You cannot express the mood of the situation by word and photograph. But I think you could get at the underlying idea with the right background music.“

(Sidney Gottlieb, “Hitchcock on Hitchcock, selected wrtitings and interviews” Berkeley : University of California Press, ©1995)