Vertigo has achieved canonical status as a masterful film that exemplifies the achievements of Hollywood studio production through its complex narrative, characters, and innovative use of film form and technique. It is seen as a seminal work that advanced cinematography and mise-en-scene to create "pure cinema." The film provokes diverse critical responses regarding its representation of gender, themes of spectatorship and cultural commodification, and merits analysis through auteur theory, psychoanalytic, feminist, and Marxist perspectives to fully appreciate its stylistic innovations and contributions to theoretical understandings of cinema.

2. FM4 – SECTION C
CLOSE STUDY
HITCHCOCK’S VERTIGO

3. Exam requirements
• Section C: Single Film – Critical Study (A01 and A02,
30 marks)
– One question to be answered from a choice of two
questions general to all films and
– a specific question set for each film prescribed.

4. Vertigo’s canonical status
• What is a canon?
• rules or principles established as valid and fundamental in a field or art
or philosophy
• Examples that are deemed by critics to meet those rules and principles
then take on canonical status
• What is a film canon?
• A limited group of films that serve as the measuring stick for the highest
quality in the genre of film.
• Chosen by critics and therefore elitist but, different groups of critics will
have different opinions
• Why has Vertigo achieved canonical status?
• Seen to exemplify the 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. Key Issues
– Historical context
– Narrative structure
– Characters
– Key sequences
– Film form – especially cinematography (pure cinema) & mise-en-
scene
– Key debates we will consider in the unit:
• Spectatorship
• Critical Reception
• Film canon
• Representation of men and women
• Scottie as everyman
• Feminist & Psychoanalytical theory
• Marxist theory – the film and it’s stars as a cultural commodity but
deeper messages about class, gender and ethnicity
• Auteur Theory

6. What you need to do...
• Knowledge of some of the different critical responses provoked by
the chosen film
• an appreciation of the film’s status from a consensus view that it is:
– stylistically innovative
– a significant auteur work, or
– a major contribution to the way we think theoretically about film.
• Understanding of the issues underlying diverse critical reception:
– theme
– Style
– structure.
• An appreciation of how one or more critical approaches has enhanced
understanding and appreciation of the chosen film.