Hal Ashby and Being There (1979)

[Jeff Bernstein]

Theory : There is no way to understand Art, as Reason understands the word "understand". There is no finality, no "dictionary definition" to an Artwork. There is only provisional understanding at any specific time. Art will always be greater than our understanding of it. Hence, we should never stop thinking about it. For as long as we Think, Art keeps us running : and everyone knows exercise is healthy.

[Jeff Bernstein]

“REALITY”  (btw, graffiti on wall in Terry Gilliam's Brazil (1985) at 44:22

(44:30) One isn't acting when one is asleep. . . . ?

 

Similarly, here :

When Judy doesn’t think anyone is watching, she makes a “slang gesture” (as Keats put it in a letter) with her lips that conveys a general pique with things, an unfulfilment with the world (her eyes are wandering the exterior meanwhile).

 

This disapproving gesture with her lips recalls, for example :

Ann Miller in Mulholland Drive (2001).

[Jeff Bernstein]

Churches.

Many churches populate Vertigo. For example :

Here :

as JS considers things outside Judy’s hotel, he stands before a building. This building is apparently not a church, but it looks like one in this shot, with its arched windows.

 

 Which recalls a shot with a church in telephoto :

[Jeff Bernstein]

(1:33:50–)  AT THE THRESHOLD

Judy Barton is convincing as an aggrieved woman. A year passes, then with no preparation the good man she screwed over appears before her at her door, larger than she is, and there’s no one is around to help her. All she has for defense, apparently, is her aggressive attitude, which she promptly deploys. (If JS desired to burst into the room and come what may, that would have been that.) This woman, though acting, shows zero hesitation as an aggrieved Judy Barton, though she appeared ambivalent more than a few times as “Madeleine”. We’re not to suppose she had acting lessons in the intervening year. Purposely misquoting Paul Newman in The Color of Money (1986) : “She is being herself, but on purpose.” Judy is a disappointed woman just as Midge was in the bleak hallway, so it’s easy for her to draw on her reservoir of rage when JS appears at her door. Still, her poise of character must not go unremarked. From the first moment she’s already playing a role, and shows neither surprise, nor panic, nor hesitation : she seems real. Judy Barton is “a good actress”, as an aggrieved De Niro said of Sharon Stone in Casino (1995).

 

Judy shows zero visible surprise at seeing JS when she opens the door. Her eyes narrow slightly, well nigh imperceptibly, but that looks like it. The camerawork, however, supplies a bit of visible surprise. When her shot reverses to JS, the camera placement wobbes at 1:33:52 :

Is this wobbling a premonitory echo of the film burn in Persona? Or the wobbling lost-focus fugues in Lost Highway? Or . . . ?

 

What if we slow Judy down to film stills?

 

Does she look concerned here (the moment of recognition)?

How about after a few seconds have sunk in?

Aggression? Why?

(a) “Get out of my life! I am ashamed!”

(b) “Get out of my life! I don’t want to get caught!”

(c) “Get out of my life! I’ve had bad luck with men!”

(d) “Get away. I expect nothing. Life has given nothing much to me.”

(e) Once more, as at the beginning, JS becomes the Moral Center of the film, and her aggression, aimed at him, is actually anger at herself, for (1) screwing a good man over; and (2) squandering the opportunity of a good man's genuine love.

(f) whatever else.

 

Vertigo : a love story about the inconvenience of love.

 

In JS’s first scene with Midge, he asks her to turn off the music : “Midge, the music. Don't you think it’s sort of...” (07:24) : so she does. Later, when he is at his lowest, at the hospital, she deploys the music again. Hmm. In Phantom Thread, Alma is informed : “Mr. Woodcock detests too much butter.” (47:40). So what does Alma do at the end?

“the unkindest cut of all”, 1:53:53.

Edited January 29, 2023 by Jeff Bernstein

[Jeff Bernstein]

"That's following a train of thought." (08:11)

The pursed lips of Judy (opening window) at 1:32:50. Rosanna Arquette closing window in After Hours (1985) . . .

Edited January 29, 2023 by Jeff Bernstein

[Jeff Bernstein]

(1:34:22)

Uh-oh. Not JS’s speculations again.

“I’m not going to hurt you. Honest I’m not.” (1:34:22)

At the word “hurt”, Judy’s lower lip moves (her right side) : a slang gesture. The lips reveal the woman behind the woman. As here :

(47:59) Improvising now, "Madeleine" is a bit hesitant : and her duplicity is revealed in part by her generously-moving lips as she says, “Downtown. Shopping.” In this scene her lips are deployed in a sophisticated manner until this moment, when the girlish Judy Barton shines through (perhaps she forgot the cover story for a moment?).

[Jeff Bernstein]

A brooch : visual clue?

[Jeff Bernstein]

(1:36:04)  “Salina, Kansas.”

can't help but think of

The Big Lebowski (1998)

[Jeff Bernstein]

[Jeff Bernstein]

Note the barren lightbulbs in the above. Now look here :

[Jeff Bernstein]

 Midge's Apartment

Judy's apartment

[Jeff Bernstein]

In Judy's mirror.

recalls . . . ?

[Jeff Bernstein]

"Honest." That word again. (1:37:18)

[Jeff Bernstein]

(1:37:45)

Protagonist's face framed in black (this is the first time (of two) in Vertigo), as narrative moves headlong toward ending of darkness

coming soon :

And the only time in EWS, during a fifteen-minute sequence dedicated to the theme of death :

[Jeff Bernstein]

(1:35:25)  The Corner Returns

[Jeff Bernstein]

Three women?

[Jeff Bernstein]

TWO WONDROUS SHOT-REVERSE-SHOT MOMENTS IN VERTIGO

(1:38:02)

In the continuum of the scene, this shot-reverse-shot (Judy : “Uh-huh”) expertly conveys a poignancy to Judy Barton (her shot is one-second long).

(24:48)

In the continuum of the film's ever-changing geometry, this shot-reverse-shot is highly charged with a "held breath" sensation. Has to be seen to be believed.

Edited January 29, 2023 by Jeff Bernstein

[Jeff Bernstein]

“You are my density”

(1:38:28) Theatrical Storaro-like lighting returns, but this time the progression is not from dark to bright (as at the Argosy Bookshop, 36.45), but from bright to dark. (On this point, these two scenes are thematic mirror images.)

Other themes are embodied in this shot. Remember this? 

[Jeff Bernstein]

(1:39:22)  headboard

(1) Do the flowers on the headboard recall Carlotta’s bouquet? Every night Judy's head is positioned by this memory of madness. (Flowers of Evil. Also recalls Double Indemnity : "How could I have known that murder can sometimes smell like honeysuckle?")

(2) The suitcase is brown (uh-oh).

(3) A lampshade looking very drab : recalls the two drab light bulbs by the mirror.

(4) Green headboard : every night Judy's head is positioned by a color associated with “Madeleine”. Judy is living with the memory of Madeleine. Judy is having to live with the memory of what Judy did. (Crime and Punishment.) She is stuck in the past. Like Carlotta, Madeleine, JS, the audience. . . .

(5) And just now Judy Barton seeks escape : with a brown suitcase : an omen she cannot read.

Edited January 29, 2023 by Jeff Bernstein

[Jeff Bernstein]

Wow.

(1:41:41)  “I don’t know whether I have the nerve to try.”

(The word “courage” is heard in the word “nerve” here.) Judy ponders her expression of weakness, of cowardliness, (and so on and so forth), then stands up, and suddenly becomes very strong visually : as if she is morphing into the powerful wife, becoming Madeleine (in the manner of a contemporary superhero's transformation) : like a method actress, Judy is taking on what she requires from that old role of Madeleine, that idea of a woman, in order to make what she thinks is a successful decision. What a situation!

 

Vertigo : the movie that makes you think of Mind.

 

One technique Hitchcock used to "strengthen" Judy in this shot was to instruct the actress to raise herself up twice : first she stands at 1:41:37, then stands even taller at 1:41:40 : which conveys both strength and decision of mind. A graceful storytelling decision.

 

Though Judy just spoke with powerful aggression in her dialogue with JS, it is Hitchcock's camera that portrays silent Judy at her strongest in this scene.

 

 

Edited January 29, 2023 by Jeff Bernstein

[Jeff Bernstein]

Opposites.

(1:01:22) Facing the worst. (Wearing white : the color of JS's night terrors of falling in open space)

(1:42:20) Hoping for the best. (While holding on to the color purple : a Madeleine color.)

[Jeff Bernstein]

“Let’s slow it down. Let’s slow it waaaaay down.”

The situation in the film still directly above requires further scrutiny here. We cannot just continue. It's too colossal a storytelling situation. Before any commentary, let's remind ourselves of the situation : Judy is somewhat weak as a person, but has (possibly) just made the most serious decision of her life (so far). What helped her come to this decision? Is the answer in her arms?

 

Judy Barton is an “ordinary” girl from pious middle America who got herself entangled in a murder. Her native self, if her sleep babble is an indication, is a frightened child : at any rate, she is far from authentically strong, as she herself admits : “I don’t know if I have the nerve to try”. But—just here Judy draws power from a role she is already acquainted with : “Madeleine Elster”. She realizes she can do this.

 

So what is going on here? Judy is again choosing to play Madeleine. But this time it’s not so simple. Aspects of Madeleine will be integrated with aspects of Judy. Back in the first iteration, Judy sometimes peeked through the veil of “Madeleine”. This time, “Madeleine” will peek through Judy. Weird?

 

Is this what’s happening? Does this make sense? Am I losing my mind? Experiencing Vertigo.

[Jeff Bernstein]

We have absolutely entered David Lynch land. Twenty-odd minutes to go.

[Jeff Bernstein]

"What's this doohickey?" (07:30) . . . "If I could just find the key" (1:04:29) . . .

(1:43:43) “Here, I’ll do it.”/ “Thanks again.” Ah! Just here . . .

the sweet hometown vibe of Blue Velvet (1986).

"Yeah?"

 

 

 

 

Edited January 29, 2023 by Jeff Bernstein

[Jeff Bernstein]

(1:42:22–1:43:06)  Ernie’s restaurant

In a relationship, the one cannot compete with the Dream Lover of the other. This is a story fundamental (e.g., James Joyce, “The Dead”; EWS); it is a fundamental in life. “It is what it is.” (Goodfellas) So it’s a heavy moment when Judy sees JS transfixed by an analogue of Madeleine—because it’s so True. Vertigo is heavy with heavy fundamentals.