Frames and Framing in Vertigo
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	Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo is perhaps one of the most complex and disturbing movies ever made. While the story at first appears to be a well-worn tale of lost love and tragic obsession, it becomes a rich and layered film about seeing on every level, supported by its intricate drama of images and cinematography. Ex-detective Scottie Ferguson has just recovered from a trauma and taken a job as a private eye. His former friend, Gavin Elster, asks Scottie to
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	follow his wife, Madeleine. VistaVision, the aspect ratio used in Vertigo, is one of the film's immediately recognizable and significant formal features. The open space of the widescreen frame enhances Scottie's anxious searches through the wide vistas of San Francisco. In the film's early sequences, the cinematography reinforces Scottie's pursuit of Madeleine through point-of-view shots and
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	framing masks. Hitchcock cleverly creates masking effects by using natural objects within the frame, unlike the artificially obvious masks used in some older films. Here the frame of the car windshield masks and intensifies Scottie's perspective as he follows Madeleine. And in another scene Scottie follows Madeleine to a flower shop. The masking effects here isolate and dramatize Scottie's intense gazing, emphasizing his point of view. The brilliance
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	of the framing creates one of the most powerful and revealing images of the film. We see both Scottie peering at Madeleine and Madeleine's reflection in the mirror. In this double image, Scottie's looking literally contains Madeleine as an image. Madeleine frequently evades Scottie's point of view, disappearing like a ghost beyond the frame's borders, which is part of what entices Scottie and draws him to her. The shock of Madeleine's fall to her death from
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	the top of the church tower at the end of the first half of the film is especially disturbing because it occurs offscreen and is revealed only as Scottie watches her blurred body flash by the tower window. The window acts as a frame, limiting Scottie's perception of what has actually happened.