Re-watching Vertigo
It is now seven hours since I finished watching Vertigo (1958) with my wife and Mim. I noticed something about the colour red. I’ve not read about it so I don’t know if anyone has examined it beyond the obvious use of that colour in important scene in the palette, because I’ve noticed a use of it in patches, often around where Scottie’s head is in the frame, or around where the body of the person he is talking to is within the frame. I’ve now taken seven hours to watch the film again, scene by scene, looking at where red appears in every camera angle, in every scene. I got to 5am and I was about to give up and go to bed out of exhaustion, but I realised that I may not ever pick up exactly from where I was right then, doing exactly what I was doing, so I stuck it out and did the last twenty minutes of the film, scene by scene. It’s extraordinary.
