The Vertigo Effect: Zooms and Tracks
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	In Vertigo, the cinematography foregrounds the movement of the frame as a way to reflect the swirling movement of Scottie's psyche. One of the best examples of this takes place when Scottie finds Madeleine standing before a portrait of her great-grandmother, Carlotta Valdez, in an art museum. Inside the museum the camera executes several complex moves that mimic Scottie's perspective. The camera simultaneously zooms in and tracks on the swirl in Madeleine's hair and then reframes by tracking and
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	zooming in on the same hairstyle in the painting of Carlotta. These camera movements in the museum sequence resemble those used in the thrilling opening sequence. Scottie is hanging from the gutter and suddenly paralyzed with vertigo. This is captured in a celebrated combination of a tracking movement forward and a backward zoom. Visually this combination of seemingly contradictory movements produces two effects. First, a flattening of the image as the zoom effaces the depth of the track. And second, an odd spirally action as the distant ground is drawn up
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	through the advancing track. The various spiraling effects in Vertigo continually remind us of the connection between Scottie's trauma and his relentless desire for Madeleine. The spinning vortex becomes emblematic of Scottie's vertigo. In fact, his vertigo and the film's themes of seeing death and abstraction, are hinted at from the very beginning, in the famous opening credits designed by Saul Bass.