Vertigo Film Analysis

In Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 film, Vertigo, certain shots have a certain compositional symmetry and balance to them that helps draw our attention, as viewers, to individual characters, namely that of Madeleine Elster/Judy Barton, portrayed by Kim Novak (because she has these two roles, I will be referring to her actual name when making reference to her). Various balanced shots in the film use Novak as a literally dividing figure, creating a down-the-line symmetry. By looking at these shots one by one, I plan to explore the compositional weight as derived from these motifs used in these shots with her character, which give her a generally unmatched physical importance in these parts. One of the first instances of this symmetry and balance occurs early in the film when she is about leaving Ernie’s with her husband (17:55 - 18:06; we will be focusing on the first …show more content…
Here, Novak is trying on a pair of shoes, in a full shot with a roughly waist level camera. She occupies the middle of the frame in roughly the middle ground while being flanked to her right by a shoe salesman and to her left by Scottie. Over the next few seconds, she moves towards the camera which tilts downwards, putting her feet in a close-up right in the foreground. Moving back afterwards, the camera tilts upwards, bookending the shot with a similar frame. In the sequences with the full shot, the frames seem to be fairly balanced, with both sides basically equally filled by figures and objects. However, in the close up of the feet, as created by Novak’s movement and the tilt, there is an interesting balance in that her feet really become the only things to occupy the frame, other than her shadow; regardless, she still effectively creates a line of symmetry in the general frames of each