Laura Collins

Vertigo is a 1958 American psychological thriller with predominant film noir features, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The film is the study of one man’s twisted psyche and his obsessive search for an end to his acrophobia.

The opening sequence was designed by Saul Bass, a notable film title designer who revolutionized the concept of title sequences.

After his death in 1996, the New York Times hailed him as “the minimalist auteur who put a jagged arm in motion in 1955 and created an entire film genre…and elevated it into an art."

Saul Bass

The opening sequence begins with an extreme close-up of an anonymous woman’s mouth. The camera moves slowly to her eyes, which clearly express fear. This long take alone quickly establishes aspects of the film’s genre and narrative; a sense of foreboding is created for the audience and the themes of fear and confusion become apparent.

The colour, a vital aspect of mise-en-scene, of the sequence is predominantly washed-out and colourless; it is almost black and white. However, as the camera moves closer to the woman’s right eye the screen is flooded with red. This use of colour connotes danger, violence, blood etc. and reinforces the dark and ominous atmosphere.

The opening sequence is a combination of two distinctive parts: the first is a woman’s face and the second is a collection of spirals. The first part dissolves into the next. The entire sequence is made up of about 10 shots and fade and dissolve transitions.

The effect of the transition from the woman’s eye to a spiral is that the audience can make the connection between the spiral and the inner workings of the woman’s mind. The suggestion of an unstable mind is then created and a stronger enigma is evoked within the audience.

A dissolve transition

Spirals are used repetitively, which connote the prevalent themes of the film: confusion, fear and obsession.

They also signify a lack of control and echo the protagonist’s (Scottie, played by James Stewart) extreme fear of heights; the vertiginous and sickeningly continuous circles parallel Scottie’s spinning, twisting views of sheer heights that occur several times throughout the film.

The slow pace of the opening sequence is created by the editing; the takes/shots are relatively long and the transitions used are slow.

The pace is important for evoking tension within the audience and conveying the dark mood of the entire film.

The slow descent of the film as a whole is hinted at in the opening sequence, as is the film’s dystopian ending. This is also reinforced through use of music.

The score of Vertigo was written by Bernard Herrmann, an Academy Award-winning American composer.

The themes of the film are reflected in the music.

The incidental music begins with a simple melody which is reminiscent of a child’s lullaby. However, the tune has eerie undertones that build up to reverberating, broken chords. The use of a childish melody subliminally suggests the idea of haunted past or disturbed childhood, themes that reinforce the ominous and sinister feel of the sequence.

Bernard Herrmann

In a 2004 special issue by Sight & Sound magazine, Martin Scorsese describes the qualities of Herrmann's famous score:

“Hitchcock's film is about obsession, which means that it's about circling back to the same moment, again and again ... And the music is also built around spirals and circles, fulfillment and despair. Herrmann really understood what Hitchcock was going for — he wanted to penetrate to the heart of obsession.”

A 1950s issue of Sight and Sound magazine

Overall the opening sequence of Vertigo is a innovative creation of Saul Bass, a man considered as a forger of modern title design. The sequence succeeds in evoking enigma within the audience, conveying the tense mood of the film, setting the film’s genre and suggesting aspects of the protagonist’s character.

Bass’ work was ground-breaking in the world of film and films like Vertigo were stages in the development of effective title sequences, a development which has recently reached new levels of creativity as a result of the work of graphic designers like Kyle Cooper (Se7en,1995, Dawn of the Dead, 2004)

http://designmuseum.org/design/saul-bass

http://notcoming.com/saulbass/caps_vertigo.php

http://www.slideshare.net/longroadmedia/an-analysis-of-the-opening-sequence-of-vertigo-presentation

http://www.filmsite.org/vert.html http://www.bernardherrmann.org/ http://classicfilmshow.com/2008/05/01/

original-review-vertigo-in-sight-and-sound-spring-1959/