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Week 13 - VERTIGO

Page history last edited by Mazzin 13 years, 11 months ago

FILM SCREENING, MON. 4/19 AT 7, 109 WHEELER.

 

READ THE SCREENPLAY IN ADVANCE OF SEEING THE FILM:

http://www.weeklyscript.com/Vertigo.txt

 

 

Hi, all --

 

Below is a link to a clip from Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958).  This is the scene in which Scottie (James Stewart) has a nightmare.  Under immense psychological pressure at this point in the narrative, Scottie may certainly be thought of as experiencing what Freud would call (in his interpretation of dreams) a manifestation of the "day’s residues."

 

To prepare for our activity Wednesday:

Please pay attention to the constituent elements of Scottie’s dream.  After recognizing how the dream is knit together as a narrative, analyze the manifest dream to offer a Freudian analysis of the latent dream content.

 

Vertigo - Scottie’s Dream Sequence:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgBQyhrQJJo

 

Things to keep in mind in light of Freud:

-Dream interpretations are often made by linguistic connections.

-The chief technique of dream interpretation is free-association.

-The processes at work in constructing dreams are the same as those in constructing neurotic impulses.

 

Manifest Dream - apparent (it’s shown); the dream that you recall (set of images/story that you can reproduce when you wake); the surface/apparent dream

Latent Dream - the hidden dream; the message that underlies the surface imagery (what you arrive at through interpretation)

 

This dream sequence from Vertigo shows that Hitchcock was directly inspired by Freud by using techniques of free-association, and throwing images together as the visual depiction of mental processes, so that we can then interpret those as what he was thinking about.

 

Elements of primary processes:

1) Condensation - combination and omission

2) Displacement - substitution, change of emphasis

Alteration of the emotion directed at one object by placing it onto another object (e.g. Your mother appears in your dream, but feelings you have towards your mother is displaced over a mailman)

3) Symbolism - what we usually associate with in dreams (one thing stands for another)

Certain symbols might have a different meaning for every person.  Freud did find that people have similar experiences - eat, sleep, sex (common or daily experiences, so it’s not uncommon if these common experiences give rise to shared symbols)

 

To jog your brains a little bit, here are some common symbols and their significations for Freud:

Genitals: trees, knives, snakes, tunnels, caves

Women: house, room

Erection: flying (defies gravity - things that rise up)

Sex: dancing, fighting, wrestling

Masturbation: playing an instrument (piano, guitar, flute), sliding

Siblings: small animals

Birth: water

Death: departures, trips

Castration: losing a tooth

 

At the beginning of class, we’re going to divide you into two groups.  After 20 minutes of discussion and planning, the class is going to recommence and present their analyses to Davy, who will then judge which group gave analyses most pertinent our reading of Freud.

 

If there is time, we will also screen the scene in which Scottie sees “Madeleine” (Kim Novak) for the first time.  As a class, we will do a scene analysis on how Hitchcock’s filming comments on the psychological course of the narrative as we know it by its very end.

 

In case for some reason we cannot evade technical problems tomorrow, here is the clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Beac86mN8XM&feature=related

 

EXTENDED ENDING

- some of us were asking about what happened to Midge when the film ends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imbLXT2K--M

This is an extended edition which provides come closure to that. Hitchcock made it only to comply with the foreign censorship regulations. (Oh it also mentions UC Berkeley students)

 

Thanks, and see you all tomorrow!

Comments (2)

Michael Pruess said

at 8:07 am on Apr 21, 2010

Not sure if that extended ending actually provides any additional closure.

Jack Gedney said

at 8:55 am on Apr 21, 2010

I don't like it. Only censors would care about the bad guy getting arrested in this film. It's mostly a device for getting that radio broadcast in; Scottie and Midge's behavior seems very false.

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