{"id":60,"date":"2024-12-08T10:18:08","date_gmt":"2024-12-08T17:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bobyanal.com\/?p=60"},"modified":"2024-12-11T15:24:19","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T22:24:19","slug":"hitchcocks-vertigo-the-two-isoldes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bobyanal.com\/?p=60","title":{"rendered":"Hitchcock’s Vertigo: Kim Novak’s Two Iseults"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(See the summary of the Tristan story in this post<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vertigo<\/em> is the third of Hitchcock\u2019s films dealing with deception. Rebecca<\/em> and Suspicion<\/em> portrayed a person\u2019s deception by others. Vertigo deals with self-deception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The retired policeman, Scottie, is plagued with vertigo, but the film is mainly about Scottie\u2019s love for Madeleine Elstir, and Scottie\u2019s inconsolable loss after her death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gavin Elstir, a rich and powerful shipyard owner (the King Mark of the story) asks his friend Scottie (the Tristan) to look after his wife, Madeleine. Madeleine has become obsessed with an ancestor, Carlotta Valdez, who committed suicide. Scottie follows Madeleine as she moves about San Francisco. He rescues her after she jumps into the San Francisco Bay, and they pay a visit to Muir Woods. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernard Herrmann\u2019s score is Wagnerian, with moments of terrible yearning and unresolved love. There is even a Wagner turn when Scotty embraces Judy\/Madeleine in her hotel room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Hear the “Sc\u00e8ne d’amour” here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scottie and Madeleine visit the Mission San Juan Baptista. Madeleine runs up to the bell tower; Scottie is unable to follow; and Madeleine plunges to her death. Or so we think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is an inquest during which Scottie is found partly responsible for Madeleine\u2019s death. He plunges into a catatonic depression, and is hospitalized. This parallels Tristan\u2019s deadly wound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Madeleine\u2019s death, Scottie meets Judy Barton, a shopgirl at Magnin’s, by chance. Madeleine Elster and Judy Barton are the same person (both played by Kim Novak). In the medieval story there are two persons each named Isolde. In Vertigo<\/em>, Madeleine and Judy are the same person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scottie connives at an agreeable illusion to avoid the terrible darkness of his loss. Judy becomes Madeleine in Scottie\u2019s mind. \u201cBad faith \u2026 has in appearance the structure of falsehood. Only what changes everything is the fact that in bad faith it is from myself that I am hiding the truth.\u201d (Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Madeleine Elstir is Iseult of Ireland, Judy Barton Iseult of Brittany. Scottie is still in love with Madeleine Elstir, though he tries to make do with Judy Barton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scottie discovers the necklace Carlotta Valdez wore and which Judy kept. Realizing the truth \u2014 that the woman he knew as Madeleine Elstir was really Judy Barton and that the whole scheme was contrived to cover up the death of the real Madeleine Elstir \u2014 Scotty drives Judy to the San Juan Baptista Mission, and forces her up the stairs to the bell tower. Judy begs Scottie to forgive her, and as they embrace, a nun appears and startles Judy who falls over the edge. The nun is the black sail of the Tristan myth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who suffers in Vertigo<\/em>? Mostly Scotty, but also his friend Midge, who plays the role of faithful servant, a woman who only has beers with the man she loves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As if to refer to his story’s medieval roots, Hitchcock carries a hunting horn as he walks past Gavin Elstir’s ship yard.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(See the summary of the Tristan story in this post.) Vertigo is the third of Hitchcock\u2019s films dealing with deception. Rebecca and Suspicion portrayed a person\u2019s deception by others. Vertigo deals with self-deception. The retired policeman, Scottie, is plagued with vertigo, but the film is mainly about Scottie\u2019s love for Madeleine Elstir, and Scottie\u2019s inconsolable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/bobyanal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Vertigo.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bobyanal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bobyanal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bobyanal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bobyanal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bobyanal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/bobyanal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84,"href":"http:\/\/bobyanal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions\/84"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bobyanal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/62"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bobyanal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bobyanal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bobyanal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}