Analysis of a Hitchcock film

Vertigo (1958, Hitchcock)

We start off by seeing the opening title credits of Universal, Paramount and Vista Vision. It then goes on the show an extreme close up of a woman’s cheek and mouth, as is pans across her lips an actors name pops up in the middle of the screen, as her lips are twitching we can see there will be a theme of anxiety portrayed throughout the film. It then pans up her face reveals that she is looking around with only her eyes which can convey to the audience that she is scared of whats in front of her. The close up of her face can show the. Audience that she is going to be one of the main characters. The camera zooms into her right eye and the lighting goes red as her eye gets bigger which can intensify the feeling of her being scared as red signifies danger, this also creates suspense as the audience don’t know what she is looking at. The pupil of her eye is replaced by a turning swirl which gradually gets bigger and fills the screen until it goes black. This could represent the inner workings of her mind. For the rest of the opening sequence, there are many different shapes and colours of swirls while name credits are shown, this can represent there are different layers to someone personality and identity. When the viewer looks at the spiral it can make them feel dizzy. and another word for this is vertigo which is also the name of the film. There is non-diegetic intense violin strings are being played. Violin strings can be used to make the viewer feel unnerved and uncomfortable. The chimes that are in the background increases the tension which can reveal that the genre will be a mystery-thriller.