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VERTIGO 1958
SCOTTIE’S NIGHTMARE
SCENE ANALYSIS
AISHAH WAHEEDY 22494035 LAURENT SHERVINGTON
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Introduction

Vertigo, directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1958 is a psychologically exhilarating film that is left to
keep the audience with jaw-dropping reactions. This one is definitely not for those audiences who
suffer from photo-sensitive epilepsy because of its distributed use of flashing lights and strobe effects,
hence the reason the reason it’s called Vertigo. With the main role played by James Stewart known as
John Ferguson or better known as “Scottie” by his close acquaintances, this film takes on a side-by-
side detective journey with Scottie, who is allocated the role of keeping check on his friend’s wife
Madeleine Elster, whose role is played by Kim Novak. Scottie, however, finds himself falling in love
with the so-called Madeleine, this love turns to lust that turns to obsession and possession. It leads to
death and tragedy, to guilt and once again betrayal, of course that too by Madeleine Elster towards
Scottie. Where the Madeleine that Scottie knew and consistently followed around was considered
dead, he comes across Judy Barton, also played by Kim Novak, who shockingly resembles the
Madeleine that Scottie fell in love with (which is the Madeleine he fell in love with to begin with,
except the real wife of Scotties friend had died and not Judy Barton, at least not till the end of the
film). Therefore, when Scottie comes across Judy Barton, his lust for her grows but deep down he
recognised that she was the pretend Madeleine that he fell in love with and was deceived by her.
Hence the chosen scene from this film that stood out and was initiated as the perfect representation of
significant motifs of Scotties life is the dream/nightmare scene. Motifs such as his vertigo (acrophobia
of heights), deceptive romance, foreshadowing of him overcoming heights at the last scene of the film
as well as feelings of guilt are all combined in this nightmare scene via the implementation and
curation of the various techniques of mis-en-scene, colour, sound and lighting.

The first three instances of Scotties nightmare scene beginning at 1:23:40 utilises camera angles and
shots, lighting effects and colour to demonstrate how Scottie is sleeping,
what he is dreaming about and how the audience has a close involvement
with Scotties mind, almost through a separate lens. The use of high camera
angles at the beginning of the scene, portrays Scotties vulnerability and
weakness after Madeleines suicide death. It makes Scottie look less
powerful as the audience is looking down on him and essentially zooming
onto his face so the audience can view his facial expressions. As the scene
shifts into a change in flashing colour hues from blue flashing screen, to
normal, then to purple hues this continues until Scottie makes direct eye
contact with the viewer and camera. The purpose of this is to lead the
viewer into the beginning of Scotties nightmare which is yet to turn into
madness and craziness. This aspect of the scene prepares the viewer in
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entering Scotties mind of insanity and is showing that it is normal for anyone to feel disturbed and
shaken by witnessing a suicide, therefore they are most likely going to
experience feelings of uneasiness and sleepless nights filled with terror.

The nightmare scene also brings about another significant motif which
was the bouquet of roses that were treasured by Madeleine. This bouquet
shot was implemented into the nightmare scene as a way to make Scottie
remember and feel haunted by Madeleine and the feelings they
exchanged with one another which was just like the bouquet, very strong
and intact, close together before being dispersed into petals all over the
screen. The bouquet centred at the middle of the screen represents the
centralised focus of Scottie on Madeleine and this being the focal point of
the specific shot means it is something valued by Scottie. The dispersion
of petals onto the screen with bright colours of pink, purple and orange
signify the feminity of Madeleine as well as how quickly feelings
shattered between Scottie and Madeleine. The camera shot and petal
dispersion effects was very surreal in this scene as it made the viewer feel
as though they were also experiencing the nightmare and flying amongst
the petals but also sensing Scotties ultimate heartbreak, which was the main point of utilising
such effects. The petals flying could also potentially represent when Madeleines soul was
leaving her body when she commited suicide.

The sound effects and music in the background at this point in time of the scene, is very dramatic, high
and suspenseful. This is to build up on the fore coming shots within the
scene that are reminding us of Carlotta Valdez which was a significant
motif in Madeleines life and was also seemingly the cause of Madeleines
suicide. Scotties glare towards Carlotta and the man in this scene is as
though he is angry at her for what she did to Madeleine supposedly. There
are still several hues of orange colours flashing at this point which
symbolises deceit and distrust towards Scottie by Madeleine. The choice of
colours was very distinct and chosen perfectly by the director to initiate
specific meanings. This shot also represents the deceptive romance faced by
Scottie merely because Judy staged a suicide but instead of dying, it was
Scotties friend’s real wife. Therefore, the betrayal has been exaggerated
several times throughout this nightmare scene, however it takes a viewer to really be able to pick up
the hints about what is yet to happen and occur in Scotties life after his nightmare ends. The next shot
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within the mis-en-scene takes us to when Scottie finds himself walking

towards an open grave that supposedly belongs to Carlotta Valdez, we
then find that Scottie has fallen into this open grave which symbolises
his acrophobia as the open grave looks very deep and wide. The
techniques used in this shot makes viewer sense Scottie falling into the
open grave but is also a key in picking up that if not Scottie but
someone close to him is going experience a death where they will
throw themselves off something high, perhaps a building? Therefore,
we then find that Scotties face shot with flashing hues of colours such
as green (very relative to Madeleine as she wears emerald green in the
beginning of the film), lots of purple as well as dark orange red or in
this case very similar to a blood moon which may represent endings
and culminations, either for Scottie or Judy. Scotties acrophobia is
shown to be overcome as he found to be falling and flying during his
nightmare, the suspenseful part is that the viewer is also able to
somewhat sense this part of the shot too because of the way the
camera has been used to depict the falling scene.

This is a foreshadow to Scottie eventually overcoming his fear of

heights, which is relative to the last scene of the film where he
eventually goes up the stairs of the church tower following Judy as they
recreate the suicide scene. The use of a plain white background against
Scotties body falling shows that black and white represent loss of
colour and vibrancy in Scotties life altogether, especially after he will
be losing Judy at the end. Therefore, we find at the end of the scene that
Scottie is scared, frightened and ultimately shocked by what he has
dreamed about. What Scottie does not know is that he will start finding
himself doing things that will remind him of Madeleine which will also
lead to Judy’s loss, his overcoming fear of heights, a deceptive romance
like no other and living on with the guilt that he led to the death of two young women one which he
knew very well and the other not so much.

Hence, through the use of various techniques such as colours, lighting, sound, camera angles and
symbolism, the representation of Scotties nightmare, somewhat hinted to the audience what was yet to
come in the next half of the film. This was placed at the perfect timing of the film, where after
witnessing a death one is yet to feel haunted and experiencing nightmares at night, which ultimately
will lead to what the future holds for them.