Close-up-to-Close-up: A Way of Capturing Attention

The framing in Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) serves as an aspect of the film’s narration and shapes the viewer’s experience. Specifically, shifts from close-ups of Madelyn/Judy’s (Kim Novak) props to close-ups of a portion of the painting of Carlotta in the art museum function to help the viewer notice the identical nature of the objects and focus their attention on why Madelyn/Judy has identical objects to Carlotta. The shift from close-up to close-up gives the viewer insight into what Scottie (James Stewart) is feeling and thinking in these moments. The framing achieves this function by showing the minute details of each of the objects and by limiting the number of other objects in the frame. The three shots in this analysis help to elucidate the function of this motif.

The first instance of this motif occurs toward the beginning of the film when Scottie has begun observing Madelyn/Judy (26:26 - 26:32). At the beginning of the shot, Madelyn/Judy’s flower bouquet is resting on a wooden bench. The shot is framed at a slight high angle, looking down on the bouquet which is placed in the dead center of the frame, framed in a close-up. The bouquet is large and takes up a majority of the frame. It is wrapped in a white doily and consists primarily of coral/pink roses, some smaller blue flowers, orange ribbon, and mauve tissue paper. The lighting is somewhat low-key with shadows and highlights showing the texture of the flowers. The bouquet and bench are the only objects present in the foreground. The only other object in the shot is the backside of Madelyn/Judy’s leg, covered by her skirt, in the top right corner. The brown floor of the art gallery serves as a backdrop for the rest of the shot. After a second of focusing on the bouquet, the camera tilts upward past the baseboard of the floor, wall, and bottom of the frame of the painting. While this is happening, the camera is also zooming in, first showing the whole bottom of the painting, from Carlotta’s elbows to her feet. Then, the camera quickly zooms in further until the bouquet in the painting is in the dead center of the frame. At the beginning of this zoom centered on the bouquet, a good portion of the rest of the painting is visible, but by the end of the shot, the bouquet in the painting, which is identical to the one lying next to Madelyn/Judy, is taking up a large portion of the frame and is framed in a close-up. The final frame closely resembles the first one in framing and in subject matter. 

In this shot, the shift from a close-up of Madelyn/Judy’s bouquet on the bench to a close-up of the bouquet in the painting of Carlotta emphasizes the bouquets’ similarities, creates the experience of being consumed by the realization of their identical nature, and forces the viewer to feel the weight of the moment and consider what this means. By starting the shot with a close-up of Madelyn/Judy’s bouquet and then zooming in on Carlotta’s bouquet in the painting, the similarity between the bouquets is accentuated and also possibly mimics Scottie’s subjective experience. The tight camera distances show every detail of the bouquets, making it clear that they are identical down to the smallest nuance. The close-ups may also serve the function of showing that Scottie is so taken aback by his realization of the identical bouquets, that there is nothing else he can focus on; it is as if all he sees is solely Madelyn’s bouquet and then solely Carlotta’s bouquet. Additionally, because of the tight camera distances, there are limited (if any) distracting objects in the shot, focusing our attention on what is in the shot. This leaves the viewer with little to look at or think about other than what it means for Madelyn to have a bouquet identical to Carlotta’s.

A singular shot separates the first instance of this close-up-to-close-up camera movement and framing motif from the second (26:37 - 26:51). In the beginning of this new shot, we see Madelyn/Judy from behind at a slight high angle. She is framed in a medium close-up/close-up and she is positioned slightly to the right of the frame so that the left side of her profile is in the very center of the frame. She is wearing a gray suit jacket with a white shirt underneath. Her hair is pinned to the back of her head in a leftward spiral/coil shape which appears hollow in the center. The lighting is similar to the first shot, low-key with shadows and highlights now emphasizing the texture of her hair and clothing. She is the only figure/object in the foreground, and she is in sharper focus than the rest of the frame. The mostly blank ivory gallery wall dominates the background although the bottom right corner of the painting is visible in the top left corner of the frame. On the far right of the frame, a seafoam green door frame separates the dominant wall from another room of the museum. Over a span of four seconds, the shot zooms in from the medium close-up of Madelyn to an extreme close-up of the coil in her hair. Once the coil is centered in the frame and dominating the shot, the camera simultaneously moves diagonally upward and zooms in from a medium close-up of Carlotta in the painting to an extreme close-up of the coil in her hair, which is identical to Madelyn/Judy’s. By the end of the shot, the only visible parts of the painting are the coil in Carlotta’s hair, a small part of her jawline and neck, and a bit of the blue background.

In this shot, the shift from an extreme close-up of Madelyn/Judy’s hair to an extreme close-up of Carlotta’s hair emphasizes the identical nature of their hairstyles and simulates the experience of being consumed by such an observation. This also forces the viewer to think about what the identical hairstyles mean. By starting the shot off with a medium close-up and then zooming into an extreme close-up, the viewer is able to see more of the intricacy of Madelyn/Judy’s hairstyle. The same effect is achieved when shifting from a medium close-up to an extreme close-up of Carlotta’s hair. In tandem, the detail shown by the tight camera distances shows the striking similarity between the hairstyles of the two women. The tight camera distances may also serve the function of simulating Scottie’s experience of being consumed by his observation. In this instance, it is as if all he can see is Madelyn’s hair coil and then Carlotta’s hair coil. The tight camera distances ensure that the viewer has a similar experience to Scottie. Additionally, just like in the first shot, the close-up nature of this shot limits the number of distracting items in the shot leaving the viewer to sit with the realization and ponder what it means for Madelyn/Judy’s hairstyle and bouquet to be identical to Carlotta’s.

The last instance of this motif occurs towards the end of the film after Scottie has “witnessed” Madelyn’s death and is about to go on a date with Judy (1:58:37 - 1:58:52). This shot is technically two shots, but I am analyzing it as one because the motif spans the length of both shots. The shot begins with a slight-high-angle close-up of Judy’s decolletage. A fairly large necklace hangs just below her collarbones and is placed in the middle of the frame. The necklace is mostly gold and consists of one main pendant with a large rectangular ruby in the center bordered by circular diamonds on all sides and five larger square diamonds placed around the rest of the pendant; the main pendant has three smaller pendants hanging from it, each of which are made up of a teardrop-shaped ruby outlined by small circular diamonds. The lighting contours the necklace nicely. The sweetheart neckline of her black dress frames the necklace on the left, right, and bottom portions of the frame. The frame is heavily dominated by the skin of Judy’s decolletage, necklace, and dress, but a small portion of the room is visible in the top left corner. The camera rapidly zooms in from a close-up of Judy’s decolletage to an extreme close-up and then cuts to an extreme close-up of the same necklace on Carlotta. Once the shot cuts to Carlotta, the camera spends 13 seconds zooming out from her decolletage to an extreme long shot of Madelyn/Judy sitting on the bench looking at the painting of Carlotta. 

In this shot, the shift from an extreme close-up of Judy’s necklace to an extreme close-up of Carlotta’s necklace once again emphasizes the similarities between the necklaces and makes the viewer feel consumed by the realization; however, this shot also adds some variation to the motif: by shifting from the close-up of Judy’s necklace to the close-up of Carlotta’s necklace to the extreme long shot of Madelyn looking at the painting of Carlotta, the viewer realizes that Scottie has made a connection between Judy and Madelyn. Just like in the two previous shots, the tight camera distances show all the details of the necklaces, emphasizing their identical nature. Also like in the two previous shots, the close-up camera distances may serve the function of concentrating the viewer’s attention solely on the objects of interest, but unlike the two previous shots, in which the viewer is left thinking about what it means for Madelyn and Carlotta to have identical items, the viewer is left thinking about what Scottie must be thinking, having realized Judy’s necklace is identical to Carlotta’s and recalling Madelyn sitting in the museum. Because the shot zooms out all the way to show Madelyn sitting on the bench in the museum, it is clear to the viewer that Scottie has made a connection between Judy and Madelyn, and not just Judy and Carlotta. Including Madelyn (or more accurately, who Scottie thought was Madelyn) in the final moment of the shot is therefore critical in facilitating the viewer’s understanding of Scottie’s understanding of the situation especially because the viewer already knows of the nature of the connection between Judy and Madelyn.

By showing minute details and limiting other objects in the frame, the shift from close-up to close-up between objects belonging to Madelyn/Judy and Carlotta helps the viewer notice the identical nature of the objects and heavily focus their attention on them, such that there is little else they can look at. The viewer is therefore forced to be consumed by the realizations, feel the weight of the realizations, and ponder the significance of the identical objects. The shift from close-up to close-up may also reflect Scottie’s experience of the realizations. Lastly, by shifting from a close-up of Judy to a close-up of Carlotta to an extreme long shot of Madelyn, the viewer is made aware of Scottie’s newfound understanding of the connection between the “two” women. Therefore, this framing motif in Vertigo serves an important narrative function and shapes the viewers’ experience and understanding of the film.