I watched Vertigo<\/i> last night. Sometimes I make the mistake of writing Kim Novak off as just another typical blonde bombshell. That movie always reminds me not to underestimate her talent. She’s fantastic.<\/p>\n
After the terrifying beginning, we get to the scene between Stewart and Barbara Bel Geddes, who plays Midge (I love that character.) She’s designing a new brassiere (he asks: “What’s this doohickey?” She says, “It’s a brassiere! You know about those things, you’re a big boy now.”), he lies on the couch, talking with his old friend as she works. The scene is quite long, in comparison to most movie scenes. It has a couple of purposes: exposition certainly. In the scene, we learn about his vertigo, and how he has had to quit his job because of it. But it’s also a rather meandering scene, and I love it for that reason. We get to know Midge, and we get to know Scottie, and we get to see a glimpse of their relationship. The actors are playing multiple levels at the same time. Midge has feelings for Scottie, but they’re old friends, and so she acts the part of platonic girlfriend with good cheer. But you can sense something else going on. Scottie treats his upcoming retirement sort of matter-of-factly, but you can also sense the underlying terror of his vertigo. And also the baffled confusion: How has this happened to me? How have I come to this point? Great <\/i>opening scene.<\/p>\n
You don’t need shrieking violins to make something suspenseful. You don’t even need to have the characters be in imminent danger. That first scene in Vertigo<\/i> is a classic example. It’s just two old friends sitting around talking, but by the end of it, all of the tensions have been set up. You feel that … underneath the banter … something is wrong<\/i>. And yet, in a way, that wrong-ness is not apparent to the characters themselves yet. They’re insistent that they’re doing okay, and life is normal. Hence – suspense. You watch and you feel you have an insight into them that they do not have yet.<\/p>\n
And I just want to say something about the set dressing. The first time he sees Kim Novak – at the restaurant Ernie’s – and we see her in that incredible profile, with her white-blonde hair in a scarily compact bun – the background is this red velvet wallpaper. Cloying, claustrophobic, old-fashioned. The walls are like blankets, almost – that old-fashioned Victorian type of cluttered decoration.<\/p>\n
Beautiful. A beautiful choice for that particular scene. Kim Novak’s haunted cool-blonde exterior against the plushy crushing red-velvet wallpaper all around her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I watched Vertigo last night. Sometimes I make the mistake of writing Kim Novak off as just another typical blonde bombshell. That movie always reminds me not to underestimate her talent. She’s fantastic. After the terrifying beginning, we get to … Continue reading