Vertigo Week 4

            The bouquet of flowers or flowers in general appeared quite often in Vertigo. This motif is especially resembled by the nosegay (the small bouquet Madeline/Judy carries initially). The nosegay seems to help Scottie to believe the connection of Carlotta Valdes to Madeline because of the story Gavin Elster told him, the tale the bookstore owner told him, and in particular, the painting of Carlotta. At time 42:17, Madeline is tearing apart the nosegay and then throwing them into the bay and then she throws herself into the bay. This action is symbolic of her repeated desire for self-destruction. We see the nosegay being torn apart again after Madeline's death at 1:24:00 except this time it seems to be in Scottie's mind because it is animated and brightly colored to suggest a psychedelic trip Scottie is having in his mind. They disperse in a spiral pattern, which is a reference to the concept of vertigo (dizziness) due to its conversion into chaos. This animated dispersion of the nosegay also suggests a reference to Madeline's death as well.
         The spiral imagery is also a recurring motif in Vertigo. This imagery helps viewers to invoke the vertigo sensation of dizziness. We see this in the opening credits when the shot is focused on on eye at 0:00:45 with the colors of swirling lights. We also see it at 3:55 when Scottie looks down and feels as if the distance is increasing and  at 4:24 after the police officer fell off. At 4:24, the officer tumbles in a spiral motion and is even positioned to suggest a spiral motion. There is also subtle spiral imagery in Madeline's bun shaped hair versus Judy/Midge's not bunned hair, and also an obvious spiral imagery in the missionary tower going up the stairs and looking down the stairs. I think that the purpose of including so many spiral imagery is referring to Scottie's loop of loving Madeline at first and then losing her, and then loving Judy by dressing her up only to lose Judy/Madeline again in death at the same tower.
       I also noticed a corridor to death motif in this movie. At time 1:02:22, Madeline describes to Scottie that she has dreams of walking down a corridor, and at the end of the corridor there is only darkness and she knows only death awaits. She also mentions a room at the end of the corridor and she's alone and there's an open grave and she is looking down into it. At time 1:28:24-1:28:33, Midge is walking down a corridor towards a window and at the end of the time stamp, the lights just dim until the shot becomes a black screen. This symbolized the death of Midge's hope to ever be loved by Scottie. She had just finished talking to the doctor and told him that he was still in love with Madeline, accepting that he would never love her back, so as she walked down the corridor, she seemed very sad and depressed. At 1:53:20, Judy came back to her apartment and we see the corridor imagery again, however, the motif is reversed in that she is walking into the corridor and towards the camera, and not away from the camera. This suggests a reanimation of Madeline because Scottie had transformed Judy back into the visage of Madeline in every little detail. We see the corridor to death motif return at 1:59:25 when Scottie and Judy are driving down the road with the tall trees on both sides that suggests a tunnel overhead. Scottie brings her up the tower into the room where Madeline supposedly died and Judy ends up dying.