Red In Vertigo

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 film Vertigo is now considered by the American Film Institute to be the best film of all time. With that title comes some flack for “beating” out all of the other films that come out ever. Obviously this title is subjective and doesn’t make the film anymore better or meaningful than it previously was, but the backlash from film critics are kind of ironic being about Vertigo. People are writing article after article and blog post after blog post about how Vertigo doesn’t deserve to be on the top of the list and that they or they collective group knows what the “best” film ever is. Wanting Citizen Kane back on top of cinema. The irony is that this is what Vertigo is exactly about this. About the desire for the old ways …show more content…
Red is used to represent anything that has to do with Scottie. In Midge’s apartment anything that he sits on is red, his shirts are red, hell even his door is red. Green is to represent anything that has to do with either Madeliene or Judy. When Scottie first sees Madeleine in the restaurant everyone is wearing normal going out clothes like a black tuxedo or black dress, but her dress is bright green. The first time we see Judy she is also wearing green. The red in the film represents longing and obsession for Scottie while the green for Madeleine and Judy represents renewal and rebirth. When Scottie rescues Madeleine and takes her back to his apartment we see him in a new green sweater representing a birth or spring of love. While Scottie gives Madeleine red clothing to represent his now pinned obsession on her. These colors are prominent throughout other sequences of the film including the dream sequence. The main colors that flash are red and green. Green in the film is also used as a fill light when Scottie is in Judy’s apartment and he falls in love with ehr. Or the the image of her. This represents the more universal interpretation of the color being that it gives a ghostly effect on Judy. The rest of the color palette of the movie is usually composed of either blue or yellow in the case of Midge. This is because of her mother like nature to Scottie and the yellow is reminiscent of a nursery. There is less incestuousness in this film than a normal Hitchcock movie, probably because of the subject matter already being a little out there. Though, the relationship between Scottie and Midge could be seen as a mother son complex. Scottie is like a little boy running around San Francisco playing spy and falling in love with a girl. Where Midge has to look after him after he messes up and being his moral compass even if he doesn't listen. The name Scottie is childlike in nature when he could just simply go by the