1. HITCHCOCK’s
VERTIGO (1958)
EXAM REQUIREMENTS / ISSUES /
EXAM QUESTIONS

2. Exam requirements
• Paper
• FM4, section C
• Timings & Marks
– 2 ¾ hours for exam
– Allow 45 mins for this question
– Worth 30 marks
• What will the examiner expect to see in your answer?
– Knowledge of some of the different critical responses provoked by the chosen film
– An appreciation of the film’s status:
• as a stylistically innovative film or a significant auteur work
• contribution to the way we think theoretically about film.
• Understanding of the issues underlying its (possibly diverse) critical reception
• Issues relating to theme, style and structure.
• An appreciation of how one or more critical approaches applied by the candidate
has enhanced understanding and appreciation of the chosen film.

3. To get an A...
• Level 4 candidates will be distinguished by:
– confident understanding
– very detailed, accurate and precise reference to the film.
– Effectively structured.
– a clear and distinctive 'voice' developing.
– evidence of a high level of understanding of the film and film issues
– coherent analysis of film & critical and contextual issues
– excellent written communication
– fluent, well-structured and accurate

4. Main issues / debates / themes /
perspectives arising in Vertigo?
• THEMES
– identification
– Obsession
– misrecognition
• VERTIGO’S CRITICAL RECEPTION
– then (Sight & Sound & Variety reviews)
– now (BFI top 10s / Obsessed with Vertigo / James Maxfield / Martin Rubin)
• VERTIGO’S CANONICAL STATUS
• Exemplifies achievements of studio system Hollywood film production
• Mastering of film form - camerawork, editing, special effects, score and use of
mise-en-scene
• Complexity of narrative, plot and themes

5. Main issues / debates / themes /
perspectives arising in Vertigo?
• SIGNIFICANCE AS A HITCHCOCK FILM
– Hitchcock as AUTEUR
– USE OF LOCATIONS
– RECURRING MOTIFS & SYMBOLS
– SUCCESS OF THE FILM AS A THRILLER
– PURE CINEMA and innovations in CINEMATOGRAPHY
• REPRESENTATION OF GENDER
– THE MALE GAZE
– Gender roles (in wider society & in film itself)
– Archetypes of Beauty
– DOPPELGANDER – The Madeline / Judy split
– Masculinity in crisis

6. Main issues / debates / themes /
perspectives arising in Vertigo?
• SPECTATORSHIP
– The Spectator’s relationship to Scottie as Protagonist
– NARRATIVE structure / plot devices
• CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES / APPROACHES
– Feminist & Post Feminist Theory (Psychoanalytical theories of Freud &
Lacan)
– Auteur Theory
– Marxist Perspective

7. Hitchcock as auteur...
• Extensive body of work
• Considered by critics to have a signature style:
– “a Hitchcock film” despite working with Studios
• Signature style established using
– film form
– plot devices
– use of characters
– manipulation of audience
• Genre focus
– Exclusively crime, suspense, with comedy hybrids

8. A film about spectatorship
• What is a spectatorship?
– a person who sees or watches something without taking an active part
– An onlooker
• How does Vertigo address ideas about spectatorship?
– Scottie becomes a spectator of Madeline’s supposed pshycological
regression
– We watch Scottie watch Madeline
• Encouraged to identify with the protagonist
– We watch Scottie’s increasingly obsessive behaviour and regression
• Encouraged to passively watch the protagonist – breaks the bond of
idenitifcation
– We question our own role as spectator of a film – who are we looking at,
why do we enjoy it?

9. Past exam questions
Jan 2010
• What does your chosen film reveal about the usefulness of one or more critical approaches
you have applied?
• Consider debates that have arisen in the critical reception of your chosen film, either at the
time of its initial release or now or both.
• Film scholars have argued that Vertigo is a film about cinema and about spectatorship. How
far do you think this is true?
June 2010
• How useful has a particular critical approach been in gaining a deeper understanding and
appreciation of your chosen film?
• Explain how your understanding of your chosen film has been influenced by critical debates.
• What do you consider to be the important themes and ideas Hitchcock explores in Vertigo
through the use of the Madeleine/Judy character?

10. Past exam questions
Jan 2011
• Explore some of the ways in which placing your chosen film within a broader critical
framework has helped to develop your appreciation and understanding of specific
sequences.
• How far has critical debate about your chosen film shaped and altered your response?
• Discuss the significance of the recurring image of the spiral in Vertigo.
June 2011
• Explore some of the ways in which you have gained fresh insights into your chosen film as a
result of applying one or more specific critical approaches.
• How important have been the responses of others, such as film reviewers, in influencing your
own response to your chosen film?
• Explore some of the ways in which Hitchcock attempts to manage the audience response to
Scottie as the narrative of Vertigo unfolds.