Great Moments From Cinema - 3

Scenes From A Memory
Movie: Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock Productions and Paramount Pictures; 1958)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Screenplay: Pierre Boileau (book), Thomas Narcejac (book), Alec Coppel and Samuel Taylor
Major Cast: James Stewart and Kim Novak

Film Synopsis: Stewart plays cop who is forced to retire since he is suffering from vertigo. When asked by an old friend to spy on his wife, played by Novak, Stewart starts getting obsessed with the enigmatic woman. When she dies under mysterious circumstances, Stewart is disconsolate, until he sees a person who looks exactly like her.

My Favorite Moment: Stewart forcing Novak to change her appearance to resemble the dead woman

Why I Like It: This is another of Hitchcock’s masterpiece, if not his best. Stewart has fallen in love with his friend’s wife ‘Madeleine’, whom he had been following for days, at one point even saving her from drowning. His friend is worried since his wife is acting strangely and had thus asked Stewart to keep and eye on her. In doing so, Stewart had grown increasingly attracted to her mysterious persona and genuinely believes ‘Madeleine’, when she claims to be the reincarnation of her own ancestor. When ‘Madeleine’ dies by jumping off a tall church tower, Stewart is struck with grief, especially since he was unable to follow her, due to his vertigo. After several months, he spots a woman, ‘Judy’, who looks just like ‘Madeleine’ and his old passion is rekindled. He doesn’t realize that this is in fact the same person and the entire charade was a plot by his friend to kill his wife with Novak being a hired actor. However, while playing the role of ‘Madeleine’, ‘Judy’ has also fallen in love with Stewart, but cannot get herself to tell him the truth. Thus, she is ready to do whatever he says, even change herself to look like ‘Madeleine’.

Stewart takes ‘Judy’ out shopping and makes her try out several dresses and shoes to match what ‘Madeleine’ used to wear. He makes her change the color of her hair and even forces her to tie it in exact same fashion. As ‘Judy’, dressed like ‘Madeleine’, walks out of the bathroom door, Stewart gets up to look at her. Hitchcock lights the scene with a green neon sign outside the room making Novak look like a mirage and by using blurred focus, makes her appear like a distant memory, because that’s what she is to Stewart. ‘Judy’ for him, does not exist since he has become blind with his desire. The camera makes a 360 degree turn as Stewart holds her tightly, and the background changes to recreate, in Stewart’s mind, the surroundings where he and ‘Madeleine’ used to meet.

Stewart plays the part to perfection. It is a dark role, of a man possessed by the image of his passionate love. He doesn’t realize that the more he forces ‘Judy’ to be like ‘Madeleine’, the more distant he is pushing away a person who wants him to love her for what she is. But there are no happy endings and when Stewart learns the bitter truth about the deception which Novak was forced into by his friend, he screams out broken-hearted and in agony, “Did he train you? Did he rehearse you? Did he tell you exactly what to do, what to say? You were a very apt pupil too, weren't you? You were a very apt pupil! Well, why did you pick on me? Why me?” At the tragic end, Stewart is once again left with a memory that was never real.