All posts from June 29, 2009

Kim Novak and James Stewart in Vertigo (1958) There is a moment in the movie where Kim Novak’s character “Judy”, allows James Stewart’s character to make her over into her doppelganger “Madeline”. She walks toward him, and as he’s caught up in a frenzy of passion and gratified desire, she feels a great sadness because she has come to love Stewart, and realizes he can’t even see her; he only sees the woman in his imagination.Kim Novak: “Of course, in a way, that was how Hollywood treated its women in those days. I could really identify with Judy, being pushed and pulled this way and that, being told what dresses to wear, how to walk, how to behave. I think there was a little edge in my performance that I was trying to suggest that I would not allow myself to be pushed beyond a certain point - that I was there, I was me, I insisted on myself.”

Kim Novak and James Stewart in Vertigo (1958)

There is a moment in the movie where Kim Novak’s character “Judy”, allows James Stewart’s character to make her over into her doppelganger “Madeline”. She walks toward him, and as he’s caught up in a frenzy of passion and gratified desire, she feels a great sadness because she has come to love Stewart, and realizes he can’t even see her; he only sees the woman in his imagination.

Kim Novak: “Of course, in a way, that was how Hollywood treated its women in those days. I could really identify with Judy, being pushed and pulled this way and that, being told what dresses to wear, how to walk, how to behave. I think there was a little edge in my performance that I was trying to suggest that I would not allow myself to be pushed beyond a certain point - that I was there, I was me, I insisted on myself.”

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Bernard Herrmann - Vertigo:Suite/I. Prelude (accompanies Vertigo’s title sequence)

(From Bernard Herrmann:The Film Scores, Conductor: Esa-Pekka Salonen, Orchestra: Los Angeles Philharmonic)

Herrmann, of course, is most closely associated with Hitchcock’s films, although he also worked with many other directors, including Orson Welles & Martin Scorcese. Of Vertigo, he said: “The story was so original, so haunting, that I knew pretty much what was called for, and I dredged it from my subconscious. As I scored it throughout, I found myself entirely in sympathy with what was going on the screen, and it is good to know that what I did musically with it is admired by so many.”

Play count: 308

Stills from Vertigo’s (1958) title credits, designed by Saul Bass. Full sequence can be seen here.

Stills from Vertigo’s (1958) title credits, designed by Saul Bass. Full sequence can be seen here.

Kim Novak & Alfred Hitchcock on the set of Vertigo (via The Complete Films of Alfred Hitchcock) On Kim Novak’s performance: “You think you’re getting a lot. You’re not. It was very difficult to obtain what I wanted from [Kim Novak] because her head was full of her own ideas. But as long as I’m pleased with the result…In any case, the role was intended for another actress, Vera Miles. We were ready to begin filming…when, instead of seizing the opportunity of a lifetime, Vera Miles became pregnant. I ask you! I was offering Vera Miles a big part, the chance to become a beautiful, sophisticated blonde, a real actress. We’d have spent a heap of dollars on it, and she has the bad taste to get pregnant. I hate pregnant women, because then they have children.” -Alfred Hitchcock (this is typical of how Hitchcock spoke about actors, with the possible exceptions of Grace Kelly & Cary Grant) “I don’t know if he ever liked me. I never sat down with him for dinner or tea or anything, except one cast dinner, and I was late to that. It wasn’t my fault, but I think he thought I had delayed to make a star entrance, and he held that against me. During the shooting, he never really told me what he was thinking. I know that Hitchcock gave me a lot of freedom in creating the character, but he was very exact in telling me exactly what to do. How to move, where to stand. I think you can see a little of me resisting that in some of the shots, kind of insisting on my own identity.” -Kim Novak

Kim Novak & Alfred Hitchcock on the set of Vertigo (via The Complete Films of Alfred Hitchcock)

On Kim Novak’s performance: “You think you’re getting a lot. You’re not. It was very difficult to obtain what I wanted from [Kim Novak] because her head was full of her own ideas. But as long as I’m pleased with the result…In any case, the role was intended for another actress, Vera Miles. We were ready to begin filming…when, instead of seizing the opportunity of a lifetime, Vera Miles became pregnant. I ask you! I was offering Vera Miles a big part, the chance to become a beautiful, sophisticated blonde, a real actress. We’d have spent a heap of dollars on it, and she has the bad taste to get pregnant. I hate pregnant women, because then they have children.”

-Alfred Hitchcock (this is typical of how Hitchcock spoke about actors, with the possible exceptions of Grace Kelly & Cary Grant)

“I don’t know if he ever liked me. I never sat down with him for dinner or tea or anything, except one cast dinner, and I was late to that. It wasn’t my fault, but I think he thought I had delayed to make a star entrance, and he held that against me. During the shooting, he never really told me what he was thinking. I know that Hitchcock gave me a lot of freedom in creating the character, but he was very exact in telling me exactly what to do. How to move, where to stand. I think you can see a little of me resisting that in some of the shots, kind of insisting on my own identity.”

-Kim Novak

Katharine Hepburn as Amazon warrior princess Antiope in stage production of The Warrior’s Husband (1932) (via corbis) All of [Hepburn’s] athletic training, her vivid coloring, her statuesque carriage, and her volatile personality combined to make Antiope the perfect role for her…From the moment on opening night when Kate entered in her short-skirted Greek costume, a prop stag wrapped around her shoulders, and “bounded down a treacherous forty-step stairway three steps at a time, threw the stag down, and wrestled with her leading man,” her claim to stardom was staked…”Miss Katharine Hepburn comes into her own as Antiope,” wrote Richard Garland of The New York World-Telegram...”I’ve been waiting for Miss Hepburn to fall heir to a role worthy of her talent and her beauty. Antiope is that role and Miss Hepburn makes the most of it, bringing out its tenderness, its humor, its bite. It has been many a night since so glowing a performance has brightened the Broadway scene.” -excerpted from Katharine Hepburn by Anne Edwards

Katharine Hepburn as Amazon warrior princess Antiope in stage production of The Warrior’s Husband (1932) (via corbis)

All of [Hepburn’s] athletic training, her vivid coloring, her statuesque carriage, and her volatile personality combined to make Antiope the perfect role for her…From the moment on opening night when Kate entered in her short-skirted Greek costume, a prop stag wrapped around her shoulders, and “bounded down a treacherous forty-step stairway three steps at a time, threw the stag down, and wrestled with her leading man,” her claim to stardom was staked…”Miss Katharine Hepburn comes into her own as Antiope,” wrote Richard Garland of The New York World-Telegram...”I’ve been waiting for Miss Hepburn to fall heir to a role worthy of her talent and her beauty. Antiope is that role and Miss Hepburn makes the most of it, bringing out its tenderness, its humor, its bite. It has been many a night since so glowing a performance has brightened the Broadway scene.”

-excerpted from Katharine Hepburn by Anne Edwards