All posts tagged "Vertigo"

James Stewart in stills from Vertigo’s nightmare sequence (1958, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) (sequence viewable here)

James Stewart in stills from Vertigo’s nightmare sequence (1958, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) (sequence viewable here)

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Bernard Herrmann - The Nightmare via Vertigo: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1958, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

First part of Herrmann’s Vertigo score here.

Play count: 313

Kim Novak on the set of Vertigo (1958, via zuma) Novak was the top box office star three years running in the ‘50s. Still, she is not usually mentioned in the same breath with the other major actresses of the period — Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, Ava Gardner. She was not earthy like Gardner or icy like Kelly or Rubensesque like Monroe or raunchy like Jane Russell or perky like Doris Day. She was something that has gone out of fashion and even become suspect in an era of feminist strictures: she was the object of a voyeuristic male gaze. The characters Novak plays know and resent the fact that those who pursue them are drawn only to their surfaces and have no idea of, or interest in, what lies beneath. Betty in “Middle of the Night,” Madge in “Picnic,” Lona in “Pushover,” Linda in “Pal Joey,” Molly in “The Man with the Golden Arm,” Polly the Pistol in “Kiss Me Stupid,” Judy in “Vertigo” — all are the prisoners of their beauty and its effect. One critic speaks of Novak’s “passive carnality.” Her characters draw men in, but not willfully. That is not who they are or what they want, although no one cares to know. It is possible that the men who directed her — Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger, Joshua Logan, Richard Quine, Delbert Mann — saw her in the same way and made her into a projection of their fantasies. …At any rate, “that kind of image” — of the inwardly fragile beauty dependent on the men who wish only to possess her — was no longer what the movie-going public was looking for after the early ‘60s, and that model of female behavior has not come into favor again…But however retrograde it may be, that role was performed to perfection by Kim Novak, who, after all these years, can still break your heart. -Stanley Fish, Giving Kim Novak Her Due (NY Times)

Kim Novak on the set of Vertigo (1958, via zuma)

Novak was the top box office star three years running in the ‘50s. Still, she is not usually mentioned in the same breath with the other major actresses of the period — Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, Ava Gardner. She was not earthy like Gardner or icy like Kelly or Rubensesque like Monroe or raunchy like Jane Russell or perky like Doris Day. She was something that has gone out of fashion and even become suspect in an era of feminist strictures: she was the object of a voyeuristic male gaze.

The characters Novak plays know and resent the fact that those who pursue them are drawn only to their surfaces and have no idea of, or interest in, what lies beneath. Betty in “Middle of the Night,” Madge in “Picnic,” Lona in “Pushover,” Linda in “Pal Joey,” Molly in “The Man with the Golden Arm,” Polly the Pistol in “Kiss Me Stupid,” Judy in “Vertigo” — all are the prisoners of their beauty and its effect. One critic speaks of Novak’s “passive carnality.” Her characters draw men in, but not willfully. That is not who they are or what they want, although no one cares to know. It is possible that the men who directed her — Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger, Joshua Logan, Richard Quine, Delbert Mann — saw her in the same way and made her into a projection of their fantasies.

…At any rate, “that kind of image” — of the inwardly fragile beauty dependent on the men who wish only to possess her — was no longer what the movie-going public was looking for after the early ‘60s, and that model of female behavior has not come into favor again…But however retrograde it may be, that role was performed to perfection by Kim Novak, who, after all these years, can still break your heart.

-Stanley Fish, Giving Kim Novak Her Due (NY Times)

Kim Novak in still from Vertigo (1958, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

Kim Novak in still from Vertigo (1958, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

James Stewart in Vertigo (1958) (via TCM) “It got decent audience attendance when it came out in 1958 and it was regarded as one of Hitch’s more professional and expert outings. Kim and I both got off with decent notices, and then everyone concerned with it was prepared to forget about it and move on. And now, over the years, its legend has grown among critics and the public, and that is a very wonderful thing, and for it, I am grateful.” -James Stewart

James Stewart in Vertigo (1958) (via TCM)

“It got decent audience attendance when it came out in 1958 and it was regarded as one of Hitch’s more professional and expert outings. Kim and I both got off with decent notices, and then everyone concerned with it was prepared to forget about it and move on. And now, over the years, its legend has grown among critics and the public, and that is a very wonderful thing, and for it, I am grateful.”

-James Stewart

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

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.

[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

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.”