Week 4 Blog Post: Vertigo

                In the film “Vertigo”, I really liked the colors Hitchcock used to establish the emotion of Scottie and give a ghostly appearance to Judy. When Scottie first accepts the work of following Madeleine to find out where she wonders off to sometimes  from the husband, he told him that he can see her at the restaurant called Ernie’s. As he stares at her at the restaurant, his eyes follow her out the door when she leaves the dining table (Time Stamp- 17:20-17:59). The red walls, ceiling and chair of the restaurants serve the purpose to establish Scottie’s feeling towards her.  The camera also gives a close-up shot of Madeleine (Judy in disguise) with a shallow focus blending the red background together (Time Stamp- 17:41). This cinematography Hitchcock used portrays the passionate love Scottie has for “Madeleine” when he sees her beauty. Which is pretty awkward since Madeleine is someone else’s WIFE. The color green of “Madeleine” also serves an important purpose in the film. During the dining, “Madeleine” is wearing a black dress with dark green outlines which makes a strong with the red background that ours eyes are focused on her despite there being many people in the restaurant (Time Stamp- 16:51).

                Another time the color green is used is when Judy appears in front of Scottie with the exact clothes “Madeleine” had on (Time Stamp- 1:55:14). The green light casted on Judy makes her appear ghost-like as she comes into the room.  As she continues to step closer to Scottie, her figure becomes clearer and the green light is only shining at the back. This makes it look like “Madeleine” has resurrected from the dead in Scottie’s eyes. This feat could only be made possible because color was included in the film, if the film was black and white still as earlier films we will not see the effect color has.