Art history was most known for maybe the Romans and maybe some Michelangelo’s work but what if I told you there was art history in cinema? In the 1958 thriller Vertigo, a classic cinematic film by none other than Alfred Hitchcock, we see the perspective of a private detective named Scottie. He has been hired by a friend to follow his wife after he questions her whereabouts. He doesn’t believe she is cheating on him; however he’s concerned about where she spends her time, and in doing so hires Scottie to follow her. Once Scottie agrees we start off inside a classic bar and dining hall, and Scottie sees Madeline who is his subject. After following Madeline through a long and annoying car ride that takes up most of the film, we are stopped at an alley way and Madeline gets out of her car to enter a side door. Scottie following close behind is seen peeking through to Madeline inside a flower shop picking out pink, blue and white flowers. After that we end up at a cemetery and Madeline casually walks through looking for someone. Scottie keeps his distance in order to keep hidden however as soon as Madeline walks away from a certain gravestone, Scottie rushes over and writes down with a small pen and pad the name “Carlotta Valdes”. For a minute the viewer is most likely very curious and puzzled. The next stop is a wide shot of Scottie walking up a long entrance way outside a Colosseum-type building. Later we find out we have just entered Legion of Honor. As he enters and walks around, his body is hidden in shadow while in front of him we see Madeline sitting on a wooden bench gazing up at a painting of some sort. Scottie decides to walk up and examine what she is looking at. In the painting we see a white young lady posing beside a pillar, in the background we see a lake with wispy clouds as if the sun was setting. She is wearing a bright purple dress with a hint of white and gold rimming. She is holding the exact same bouquet of flowers Madeline bought earlier. Another important key factor is the amulet she is wearing in the photo. As Scottie examines the painting a bit more, he realizes that Madeline has the exact same hairstyle as the woman in the painting. Scottie is very confused and goes over to a man who is working at the Legion of Honor and asks who she is looking at. The man replies “Carlotta Valdes” and hands him a pamphlet all about Carlotta.
After that, Scottie leaves and goes to see his friend who hired him for the job. He informs Scottie that Madeline’s Great Grandmother is Carlotta and she believes that Carlotta posses her body. He then tells Scottie to be careful and watch out for Madeline because Carlotta committed suicide and he fears she might follow in the same footsteps. Scottie follows Madeline for awhile more and she just keeps circling through the same places until one day after the museum she drives to the underside of the golden gate bridge. Then spontaneously jumps in the water in the attempt to kill herself. Scottie jumps in to save her and takes her home to dry off and sleep. Once she awakes Scottie informs her of what happens and calls his friend to inform him of what just happened. Meanwhile Madeline escapes the house and runs off. Scottie somehow falls in love with Madeline and this affects his mission as they both go on dates and hang out more and more. The next major scene is when Scottie and Madeline are outside a Missionary church and Madeline goes crazy and runs up the bell tower.Scottie who suffers from vertigo can only make it half way until he is too scared to go any higher. We hear a woman scream and see a shadow falling through a window Scottie is resting at. He looks down and sees what looks to be Madeline dead on the first layer roof. After that Scottie is very depressed and returns to all of Madeline’s hang out spots to see if maybe she’ll somehow return. One night we see Scottie falling asleep, and Scottie dreams of Madeline over and over again as the screen flashes and shows the painting of Carlotta and the flowers and amulet she’s wearing. He then wakes up quickly in a cold sweat. The next day he’s walking down the street when he notices a woman in a green dress who looks very similar to Madeline. He finds where she lives and knocks on her door, she is very spooked and the two trade conversation as she tells him her names is Judy and that she wants him to leave, Scottie turns around and asks her to go to dinner with her that evening. She somehow agrees and the two hit it off pretty well. We see Judy alone in her room and hear her thought as she confesses that she was Madeline only in disguise. She continues to say how she didn’t mean to fall in love with Scottie and all of this is being written on a piece of paper until she rips it up and decides to just goon with the act. All throughout the rest of the film Scottie is trying everything to get Judy to look as close as possible to Madeline. He buys her the same flowers, clothes, and even pays for her to get her hair done the same exact way. After she finally agrees, and the transformation is over, and we see Judy. However, she doesn’t have her hair the exact way Madeline had hers and Scottie is outraged and asks her “to please try it”. After complying we see Judy stepping out of her bedroom looking exactly like Madeline. Scottie is so pleased he decides he is going to take Judy out to eat. As she gets ready to head out, she digs through her jewelry box and find an amulet a lot like the one Madeline was wearing and the woman in the painting had on. Scottie’s expression goes from happiness to very confused but he doesn’t say anything about it. He takes her “out to eat” but first he takes her to the church where Madeline died and drags Judy up the stairs, this time making it all the way to the top of the bell tower. Scottie figures out that he was part of a murderous plot all along and explains his hypothesis. He believes his boss put his wife up to this to get Scottie killed. As Judy is upset and crying, she sees a shadow-like figure behind Scottie and screams and falls backward out the window and dies on contact.
The painting played a huge role in the film, it was basically the center of the entire movie that molded the characters. When Scottie’s boss was coming up with a scheme to get him killed, he needed to figure out a way to make his wife look like she was possessed by a ghost or some supernatural being. He chose Carlotta because there wasn’t much information on her, so he couldn’t figure out that there was some sort of plan against him. The painting was proof that his boss was telling the truth. So, Madeline just needed to play the role of Carlotta and Scottie would’ve bought it. The female character used the painting for the murder plot, which is the plot to the entire movie. The painting also set up for the suspense of the film, and drama during the bed scene where Scottie wakes up.
