This document provides exam advice and discusses key topics to analyze for the film Vertigo. It recommends doing either the Critical Review/Writing question or the Specific question as they are easier than the Critical Approaches question. For Vertigo, some of the main debates that could be analyzed are how it is a film about film through identification and obsession, its portrayal of the gendered look and female object, use of recurring motifs and symbols, and interpretation of the Madeleine and Judy characters. It also lists debates around the spectator relationship to the character Scottie, use of locations, success as a thriller, problems from a narrative realist perspective, its undisputed status, and critical reception.

1. Section C – Exam advice
Do the Critical Review/Writing question or the
Specific question.
This is easier than the Critical Approaches question
(feminist film theory (psychoanalysis)
narrative theory
genre theory
auteur theory (the idea that the director is the sole
creative force upon a film and thus the film reflects some
of the directors principle beliefs.)
Vertigo – the key debates about this film are:
- A film about film: identification / obsession /
misrecognition?
- A film about film: the gendered look, the female object
- The significance of this as a “Hitchcock” film
- Recurring motifs and the possible symbolic patterning
of the film
- Interpreting the Madeleine / Judy split
- The spectator relationship to Scottie as the film
develops
- The use of locations

2. - The success or otherwise of the film as a thriller
- Difficulties in taking the film seriously from a narrative
realist perspective
and problems of audience response that result from this
- The film’s undisputed status
- The film’s critical reception