Vertigo (1958) Alfred Hitchcock

Despite it not being successful when it was first released in the U.S. nowadays, most critics firmly believe this is Hitchock's best film, Chris Marker honored it in Sans Soleil, and nobody can deny, the Vertigo Zoom has done wonders for thrillers.  It is, without a doubt, one of the best films ever made.

 

One of my favorite scenes is when Scottie and Madeleine are at the forest observing the rings on the trunk of the tree.  The way she points at the moment she was born and at the moment she died, then says "it was only an instant to you", as if she were speaking to the tree... but is she really speaking to the tree? or is she referring to the tree just because it is the closest and most tangible example she has of eternity?  which is quite a complex concept...

In Vertigo time changes texture.  It becomes  liquid, one can't apprehend it anymore, one becomes aware of that... all of the sudden we're dead, just like Madeleine, because time kept on flowing, and it arrived at our death, but kept on flowing, leaving us only with the trace of the path we must follow to arrive at our death just in time.

What about the spiral?  in the trunk, in the titles, in the way the policeman falls, in the hair, in the tower and the steps?  I think it is pointing to a greater spiral, the one hidden in the story, the spiral of time. The movie seems to be repeating itself, just like a spiral.  First, Scottie meets Madeleine, they become friends, later fall in love, and it all ends when she throws herself from the tower.  Then Scottie meets Judy, which is the real name of Madeleine, they become friends and fall in love, it all ends when Judy throws herself from the tower, this time for real.  But we all know the two love stories were never the same.  Even though, it's clearer with Madeleine/Judy's character, Scottie too, wasn't the same person that fell in love with Madeleine, that he was after her death.  This is why, no matter how hard they tried, despite the fact that they were both physically the same people, Scottie and Judy had changed, and so had their love, so things could never go back to the way they were because they were already in a different point of the spiral of time, also known as life.