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I give it a whurl as well.
There is a certain theme in Vertigo that can be perceived in much of his other films, but probably is revealed the most here. That would be Hitch's relationship to his female protagonists.
This does not mean personal relationship, what I'm talking about who is professional relationship. Hitchcock sculpted his women into a particular form. Always blonde, distant, elegant and graceful. This mirrors Scottie's relationship with Madeline. It takes the image of her before she dies and uses that as the template for Judy(who is the same person).
In another Jimmy Stewart and Hitchcock collaboration, Rear Window, that same sense of the sculpting of a the woman is also present. Essentially, Jeff is not in a hurry to marry Lisa because she does not fully conform to his ideal. Of course she's beautiful and elegant and seems to be almost unapproachable by any mortal man, but he is still unsatisfied. It's only when she begins to get involved in his watching that he starts to feel like she might be right. I think the climax to this theme would be the seen when Lisa volunteers to go over to the other apartment to investigate. There is a rather brief closeup of Jeff and we see a kind of strange glint in his eyes. If he wasn't convinced now, he was convinced then that she WAS the one. Whether any of the characters were concious of it or not, the scenario of Rear Window was a litmus test of Lisa's emulation of Jeff's ideal.
I thought it was revealing watching the supplements on the DVD for The Birds as Tippi Hedren talked about her off screen relationship with Hitchcock. She was newcommer whom he saw some of those qualites that he likes. When he finally got her on the project, he became like a coach to here. He dictated her look and how she should act. Sounds uncomfortably familiar to Scottie.
I think Vertigo is rightly Hitch's masterpiece because if any film proves he was more than craftsman, then this is it. There is a self-referential quality that predates films like Fellini's 8 1/2 which are cited as an early example of modernism reaching narrative cinema. He hasn't merely thrilling people with technical bravura. He was confessing his likes and dislikes, his dreams and nightmares, his phobias, his ideals, his uncomfortable relationship with voyuerism and the nature of the movie camera. All this is evidence that he was an autuer of the rarest kind, able to speak to his audience on two different levels, visceral and intellectual. The embodiment of that ability is Vertigo.
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