Vertigo: Madeleine and Midge

Central to Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo is obsession and control, particularly of women, allowing us to apply Laura Mulvey's 'Male gaze' theory in relation to the characters of Madeleine and Midge. The theory stipulates that women in film are portrayed as both erotic objects for the spectator and the characters in the story.

The first time we see Madeleine is the first time main character Scottie sees her as well, at Ernie's restaurant, but she does not see us or Scottie. Madeleine literally has her back to the camera and Scottie, as the camera tracks away from Scottie and slowly towards her table. This woman has no knowledge that she is being gazed at by Scottie, and we receive his point-of-view in this shot, a male POV potentially sexualising Madeleine in her V-shaped, backless dress and denying us the subject's perspective on these events. That we are denied a female POV is to say that Madeleine is the subject and Scottie is the object, as well as the observer and the manipulator.

As she enters frame and we see her face for the first time, it is her portrait from the side and again from Scottie's POV. The music reaches a romantic fever pitch as she steps into view, and she seems to glow against the restaurant's red backdrop. It is an emphasis on her silhouette, again, that emphasises her two-dimensional representation in this scene. That we are given a shape rather than a speaking character is telling, as she blends into the scenery and becomes an extra aesthetic rather than a three-dimensional character. Madeleine is idealised here, through music, lighting, cinematography, by Scottie, Hitchcock and the spectator. She fulfils her role in this scene as an erotic object for the audience and the characters within the story. Madeleine is an all-sensory, surreal experience when she is on-screen, whereas the character Midge is safe, ordinary and denied such an idealisation.