The Philosophical Hitchcock by Robert B. Pippin

Author:Robert B. Pippin [Pippin, Robert B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-226-50378-3
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2017-09-21T04:00:00+00:00

13. Scottie’s Dream

After the inquest, there is one scene of Scottie, shot from below, visiting Madeleine’s new grave, with open blue sky above him. It is a very brief scene, only sixteen seconds or so, and the camera cuts immediately to him in bed, tossing and turning. Since the grave scene is in effect the beginning of his post-Madeleine existence, it seems to connect more with what follows it, the dream, than what precedes it, and thereby, on retrospect, given what we will now see, it could be thought of as a kind of prologue to the dream, as if Scottie has come to the grave to ask something: what really happened? And the dream is that interrogation. As we watch, the camera moves in on his head tossing back and forth, and various colors, blue, a reddish blue or pink, and a purple, flash on the screen. Then, in another remarkable sign that the dream is more like an active interrogation than something that befalls him, Scottie opens his eyes. His dream begins, and he continues “dreaming” with his eyes open. It has eight sequences: an animated cartoon image of Madeleine’s bouquet of flowers, coming apart into bits; a memory shot of Elster and Scottie standing by the window at the inquest, although now Carlotta Valdez herself, dressed as she was in her portrait, is standing between them, close to Elster; a shot of the portrait and a close-up of the necklace that will play such a revelatory role later;109 a shot of Scottie walking in a cemetery, red lights flashing; a shot of him reaching the open grave of Carlotta Valdez, with the camera descending down into its darkness; a shot of his head detached from his body, as if hurtling through space, wind blowing his hair, against a graphic background of what appears to be some weblike design; a shot of his body, or a kind of cutout of his body, in silhouette, falling toward the red-tile lower roof where Madeleine fell; and finally, in the last shot, the roof disappears and we just see the silhouette falling in open space.

I am far from understanding everything Hitchcock is trying to accomplish by filming this dream, but there seems to be an underlying thematic, or at least I would like to suggest one. The beginning flashing lights, before the dream proper starts, clearly signal Scottie’s emotional turmoil, perhaps a range of emotions, guilt, sadness, despair, confusion, as he tries to sleep. The first image, the cartoon of the bouquet, is a return to the very first link between Madeleine and Carlotta. (She has the small bouquet made as an exact replica of the one Carlotta holds in the portrait, and Scottie sees her buy it after entering the flower shop in a strange, secretive way.) Perhaps, as Robin Wood has suggested, the obvious artificiality of the cartoon is quite deliberate on Hitchcock’s part, and is meant to suggest to us the artificiality or even staged nature of this purported link with Carlotta.

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