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The missing Visual

Despite the ...interesting...visual aspects of Vertigo even more interesting to me are the scenes into which we are denied visual entry. Madeline narrates her dream for us--we see clips of the dream, but never the "dream sequence" in entirety. When we see the Spanish mission, then, it has an uncany familiarity.
We are also denied seeing Scotty wake up in SF after the fall--instead the court official tells us about it. And in the final scene, Scotty narrates what "really" happened while we get the exciting visuals of the empty church bell tower.
What are the benefits of this? Why don't we have this kind of empty narration anymore?

Submitted by Amylea on Tue, 2007-04-03 10:57.
Amylea's blog

Great point
Ryan's picture
Submitted by Ryan on Thu, 2007-04-05 09:50.

This is an interesting point. Obviously, we don't see the dream sequence because it's fictitious, but there is something more here. In order to keep Madeline a mystery, I think we are denied access to her mental state to keep it in question. We are forced to identify with Scottie as he identifies with her. And perhaps the transition from the death to the courtroom is further disjointing. Because Scottie doesn't know what happened, neither do we. We are placed in a similar blackout frame of mind, forcing the identification even more.


Identification and Access
nrivers's picture
Submitted by nrivers on Thu, 2007-04-05 09:57.

Ryan, I like that you link identification with both access and the the lack of access. Identification is as a much what we don't see as what we do. All those times we start to like someone only to discover something that breaks the identification. Burke talks about overlap and how it contributes to consubstantiality. However, it is the revelation of the spots where we don't overlap that threatens identification. In order to foster and maintain identification there is a necessary deflection of the incongruities that might otherwise threaten the fragile connection.