The story of Scottie and Judy in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo seems like the typical Hollywood romantic thriller: a man falls in love with an imposter and must come to terms with her deception when her true identity is revealed. Having spent the majority of the film getting to know a blond hair female in a light grey dress, Scottie seems to have fallen in love with Madeleine whose features he sees daily rather than, Judy, the actress. By playing Madeleine, Judy turns her own body into a unique medium, one that Giorgio Agamben would consider vulnerable since it often loses control of forming voluntary gestures, the facial expressions, body and hand movements one makes, and reverts back to unconsciously performing one’s natural gestures. At the
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Performing gestures ranging from hand motions to body movements to form a unique art that is different than one self “allows the emergence of the being-in-a-medium of human beings” (Agamben 57). It is through the human body that makes choreographed dance and impersonation possible, but unfortunately it takes great efforts to maintain the performance of this art. In the scene where Scottie first meets Madeleine at the restaurant, Hitchcock presents the elegance Judy mimics as the actress: her body gestures are smooth, her arms barely move as she walks. Her long dress mimics the shape of a ghost and she seems to glide just like one; nothing about her is choppy or disorganized (Hitchcock 17:50-18:26). But when Scottie first meets Judy walking with her friends in the streets, her gestures contrast greatly from Madeleine’s with her arms swinging quickly as she walks, her hands making inelegant, jagged gestures, and her confident strides (Hitchcock 1:31:50-1:32:38). These elements of her reoccur often when Scottie interacts with the imitated Madeleine throughout the earlier parts of the film such as in the final scene before Madeleine jumps off the bell tower and when Judy violently hugs Scottie on the rocks by the water. Her movements are choppy as she tightly grasps Scottie’s body gracelessly. With her face focused on the center of the screen, the director emphasizes her scrunched-up, pained facial expression, one that is very unlike Madeleine’s pure, elegant demeanor (Hitchcock 1:04:00-1:05:14). In Agamben’s “Notes on Gesture,” he argues that humans are prone to losing control of their gestures and unconsciously perform the movements dictated by a stronger power, such as one’s natural gestures (Agamben 51). The body as a medium cannot continue to perform gestures that are unnatural to one; it will
Performing gestures ranging from hand motions to body movements to form a unique art that is different than one self “allows the emergence of the being-in-a-medium of human beings” (Agamben 57). It is through the human body that makes choreographed dance and impersonation possible, but unfortunately it takes great efforts to maintain the performance of this art. In the scene where Scottie first meets Madeleine at the restaurant, Hitchcock presents the elegance Judy mimics as the actress: her body gestures are smooth, her arms barely move as she walks. Her long dress mimics the shape of a ghost and she seems to glide just like one; nothing about her is choppy or disorganized (Hitchcock 17:50-18:26). But when Scottie first meets Judy walking with her friends in the streets, her gestures contrast greatly from Madeleine’s with her arms swinging quickly as she walks, her hands making inelegant, jagged gestures, and her confident strides (Hitchcock 1:31:50-1:32:38). These elements of her reoccur often when Scottie interacts with the imitated Madeleine throughout the earlier parts of the film such as in the final scene before Madeleine jumps off the bell tower and when Judy violently hugs Scottie on the rocks by the water. Her movements are choppy as she tightly grasps Scottie’s body gracelessly. With her face focused on the center of the screen, the director emphasizes her scrunched-up, pained facial expression, one that is very unlike Madeleine’s pure, elegant demeanor (Hitchcock 1:04:00-1:05:14). In Agamben’s “Notes on Gesture,” he argues that humans are prone to losing control of their gestures and unconsciously perform the movements dictated by a stronger power, such as one’s natural gestures (Agamben 51). The body as a medium cannot continue to perform gestures that are unnatural to one; it will