Vertigo

How this film uses it

Paramount second-unit cameraman Irmin Roberts devised the technique for this film at Hitchcock's request, to show Scottie's vertigo. When Scottie looks down a stairwell, the walls seem to pull away while the floor rushes up. The camera shows you what his mind tells him is there. What he feels and what he sees are joined in a single shot.

Where to see it

Scottie looking down the bell tower stairwell. The camera makes a move that looks impossible, and you feel the vertigo from the inside.

How this film uses it

Scottie falls in love with Madeleine, and he never falls in love with Judy. He rebuilds Madeleine in Judy's body by choosing the hair color, the clothing and the posture, until Judy becomes the woman he lost. The romance is about how impossible it is to love a real person when you're in love with a fantasy.

Where to see it

Scottie dressing Judy as Madeleine. The music scores the transformation like a love scene, and you only see how horrifying it is when you look back.

How this film uses it

Green follows Scottie through the film. It's in the neon outside Judy's hotel, which bathes her in emerald light during the reconstruction scene. Green is the color of Scottie's obsession, and it appears wherever his fixation does.

Where to see it

Judy coming out of the bathroom transformed, bathed in the hotel's green neon. Madeleine has been brought back, and she looks like a ghost walking in the light.

How this film uses it

Hitchcock makes an unusual choice with the structure here. Judy's letter reveals that she was Madeleine all along, so you get the answer well before the ending. That said, the rest of the film still works. You watch Scottie rebuild the trap he's already caught in, and you know about it while he doesn't.

Where to see it

Judy writing and then tearing up the letter. You're given the truth, and Scottie spends the rest of the film getting closer to it.

How this film uses it

Bernard Herrmann's score borrows Wagner's chromatic style, where the harmony keeps sliding and never settles. The main theme climbs and turns without a cadence, the musical landing that tells you a phrase is over. Like Scottie's obsession and like Hitchcock's story, the music goes around and around and always returns to the same unresolved chord.

Where to see it

The nightmare sequence. The score spirals down into dissonance, tracking Scottie's mental collapse.