Vertigo

Marcus Woelfel

Philosophy of Film

April 28, 2014

Dr. Langguth

Vertigo

            The definition of vertigo is a whirling or spinning movement, or a subtype of dizziness.  I feel that this is a great name for the movie because throughout the film it keeps you thinking and wondering what’s going on.  The film Vertigo is about a San Francisco detective who has acrophobia, which means he suffers from the fear of heights.  Throughout the film John is investigating Madeline, because he was asked by his friend to follow her around since she has been acting weird lately.  Madeline’s husband is Elster that’s who asked John to follow her around and investigate what she is doing.  John had to go through a lot to follow her around by driving all over the place investigating what she is doing.  He also gets tricked throughout the movie by her in certain situations which I believe that the film maker Hitchcock did on purpose to keep the watchers into the movie and to keep them wondering.

            When John is Following Madeline around he follows her to the bay where she tries to commit suicide by jumping in, where John jumps in after her and ends up saving her life.  Once John saves her life he begins to hang out with Madeline a lot and he begins to fall in love with her.  Once I he falls in love he begins to change her appearance so she can be just like someone he knew from the past.  He changes her hair color and the hair style that she had, the way she dresses everything about her.  I remember the scene where he argues about the suit he buys for her because it’s not perfect and he wants the same one the other lady wore.  She ends up running away from him at the end of the movie to the top of a steeple where she ends up falling off to her death which I think is from the vertigo.

            I really enjoyed this movie in class since it kept my attention the whole time.  I’m a fan of this type of movie because if you miss part of the movie you’re lost and can’t catch back up, which I think Hitchcock did a great job.  Throughout the whole movie you keep getting these little clues that keeps making you think and try to put each scene together in the whole movie.  The movie I feel is a thriller and a mystery movie.  The movie keeps you on your toes and gives you the rush that you want to find out more and more.  The ending of the movie was not the best because Hitchcock makes you think about why this all happened and doesn’t give you an exact reason.  That is why as Dr. Langguth said this the best movie that was ever made is.