What should you cover in your revision & what should you know about Vertigo before the exam to be fully prepared...Look at the Prezi below and follow the path to help guide you...
Monday, 29 April 2013
Sunday, 28 April 2013
Lesson 7 - Revising the Unit - Summary of class reading, further reading & reading lists
Texts and critical responses to Vertigo studied in Class
Below is a chart of the critical texts you have read or content you have covered in class in your study of Hitchcock's Vertigo. As part of your revision, remind yourself of the author, the name of the text and a summary of 'issues' they discuss. It's unlikely you will remember all of the authors here so identify those whose ideas or writing you see as key in helping you to understand and enjoy the film.
The Truffaut Interview - essential reading for ALL things Hitchcock
Hitchcock by Truffaut by candifilmstudies
Below is a chart of the critical texts you have read or content you have covered in class in your study of Hitchcock's Vertigo. As part of your revision, remind yourself of the author, the name of the text and a summary of 'issues' they discuss. It's unlikely you will remember all of the authors here so identify those whose ideas or writing you see as key in helping you to understand and enjoy the film.
The Truffaut Interview - essential reading for ALL things Hitchcock
Hitchcock by Truffaut by candifilmstudies
List of sources recommended by WJEC
Lesson 7 - Revising the Vertigo Unit - Useful Links
Last year's revision blog that contains booklists, example exam essay answers, youtube clips etc...
CANDI 2012 Vertigo revision blog
Film Studies for Free - Post on Hitchcock's Vertigo - University of Sussex
CANDI 2012 Vertigo revision blog
Film Studies for Free - Post on Hitchcock's Vertigo - University of Sussex
Lesson 7 - Revising the Vertigo Unit - Key sequences, Key Issues & Debates, Key Perspectives
To prepare for the exam you should revise the key sequences, key issues set out by the critical reception to the film and the key critical perspectives that further aid our understanding of Vertigo.
Below are some analysis grids to help you analyse the key sequences in relation to the key issues and the critical approaches we looked at in class.
Lesson 7 - Revising the Vertigo Unit - Past Exam Questions, Example Exam Essay Answer and Paragraph Plans / templates
Past Exam Questions
WJEC Fm 8 Jun 2011 Exam Paper by candifilmstudies
Past Exam Questions - Paragraph Plan Templates
WJEC Fm 8 Jun 2011 Exam Paper by candifilmstudies
Past Exam Answer Essay
Example Answer to question 21 Jun 2010 paper (above)
Past Exam Questions - Paragraph Plan Templates
Use these templates in your revision to help you plan your answer to the question. Each paragraph should focus on a different theme or element in relation to the question that will help you to structure and develop your argument in response.
The example plans to the specimen exam paper (the first one) were devised by an A2 Film Studies set in 2011. This is just ONE way in which you could respond to the question.
You need to be realistic with your planning - for example - the example response for question 17 would be hard to complete in the 45 minutes you have to answer the question for this section - you might be more successful focusing on one or two of the critical approaches studied in this unit.
Lesson 6 - Critical Perspectives - Applying a Marxist Framework - Reading
Wexman - The Critic as Consumer; Film Quaterly, vol 39, No 3 - Spring 1986
Tuesday, 23 April 2013
Tuesday, 16 April 2013
Lesson 5 - Critical Perspectives - Applying a Feminist Critique / Masculinity in Crisis
READING: Pluskovich - A Second Gaze at Hitchcock's Women
In this article, the author identifies that whilst in earlier Hitchcock films, women are often represented in mostly stereotypically negative ways, in his later films, notably Vertigo and The Birds, the representation of women is much more complex than it initially appears.
Vertigo 2010_11-Lesson 4 Feminist Theory- A Second Gaze at Hitchcock's Women READING by candifilmstudies
Below is a summary of Modleski's views in her book - The Women who Know Too Much (see critics reading list in revision post for sources etc...) Modleski critique's some of Mulvey's ideas regarding the Male Gaze and Scopophilia and offers her own perspective of Hithcock's treatment of women in his film:
Laura Mulvey - The Male Gaze
Below is Laura Mulvey's article on Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. In this article she discusses her idea of the Male Gaze in the way women are represented in Film and also discusses the terms Scopophilia and Fetishization in relation to how the female characters are constructed and represented by male directors. You will find a summary of these ideas in the reading above (it follows the summary of Modleski's ideas in The Women who Knew Too Much).
Vertigo and the Rescue Fantasy: Some ideas...
1) Zizek - Fantasy Realised
2) Berman, The Collapse of the Rescue Fantasy
The 3rd European Psychoanalytic Film Festival_Vertigo as Rescue Fantasy-overview of Critical Framework by candifilmstudies
3) Hitchcock discussing male fantasy & the transformation sequence with Truffaut - warning - it's a little vulgar!
Tuesday, 26 February 2013
Lesson 3 - Key Issues - Some Additional Reading
Below are a list of links and articles that focus on the 4 key issues surrounding debate on Vertigo.
A critique of the critical response to Vertigo
This is a really interesting, if challenging, essay on the way in which critics have become 'obsessed' with Vertigo. The author suggests that critics of the film assume the role of Scottie and just like Scottie searching for his ideal woman, the critic is also searching for the meaning behind the Madeline / Judy split (who the 'real' woman is) and ultimately the meaning in Vertigo. The article has interesting links to feminist critiques of Vertigo and Psychoanalytical readings that focus on Lacan (so read this after those lessons! - see posts for lessons 5)
Plot & Narrative structure
http://www.filmsufi.com/2009/12/vertigo-alfred-hitchcock-1958.html
http://narrativejourney.wordpress.com/2012/05/18/vertigo-hitchcock-1958/
Characters
Scottie
female characters
http://jackferdman.com/essays_vertigo.html includes reference to most micro elements
http://www.school-portal.co.uk/GroupDownloadFile.asp?GroupID=171163&ResourceId=3009121 discusses Hitchcock's use of the 3 ‘set pieces’ of camera movement
http://narrativejourney.wordpress.com/2012/05/18/vertigo-hitchcock-1958/
http://filmstudiesforfree.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/study-of-single-film-alfred-hitchcocks.html
A critique of the critical response to Vertigo
This is a really interesting, if challenging, essay on the way in which critics have become 'obsessed' with Vertigo. The author suggests that critics of the film assume the role of Scottie and just like Scottie searching for his ideal woman, the critic is also searching for the meaning behind the Madeline / Judy split (who the 'real' woman is) and ultimately the meaning in Vertigo. The article has interesting links to feminist critiques of Vertigo and Psychoanalytical readings that focus on Lacan (so read this after those lessons! - see posts for lessons 5)
Plot & Narrative structure
http://www.filmsufi.com/2009/12/vertigo-alfred-hitchcock-1958.html
http://narrativejourney.wordpress.com/2012/05/18/vertigo-hitchcock-1958/
Characters
Scottie
female characters
costume and identity
feminist critique of midge
camera movement in
vertigo
http://labyrinth.net.au/~muffin/camera_movement.html
richard allen essay
http://jackferdman.com/essays_vertigo.html includes reference to most micro elements
http://www.school-portal.co.uk/GroupDownloadFile.asp?GroupID=171163&ResourceId=3009121 discusses Hitchcock's use of the 3 ‘set pieces’ of camera movement
General overviews of the key issues in the film
http://narrativejourney.wordpress.com/2012/05/18/vertigo-hitchcock-1958/
http://filmstudiesforfree.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/study-of-single-film-alfred-hitchcocks.html
links to lots of reading and interesting Cinephile video of critics discussing Vertigo
Audience and Critical Reception
Lesson 3 - Key Issues - Critical Reception - Sight & Sound Directors Polls
Director's Poll 2012 - Vertigo is voted joint 7th place with Godfather Part 1
Lesson 3 - Key Issues - Critical Reception - Sight & Sound Critics Poll
BFI / SIGHT & SOUND 2012 CRITICS & DIRECTORS POLL - BEST FILM
Critics Poll 2012 - Vertigo is placed at Number 1
Sunday, 24 February 2013
Lesson 3 - Key Issues - An Overview
Below you will find a prezi that offers an overview of some of the key issues & debates surrounding Vertigo.
In class, we will cover the issue of audience and critical reception in more detail, so the focus of this prezi is to offer an overview of the following key issues in the film:
1) plot & narrative
2) pure cinema / film form
3) characters
4) a film about spectatorship
Task:
Using your mind map, follow the Prezi path and make summary notes for each of the key areas. You will then be expected to feedback your findings to your group / class and use your notes to answer a Key Issues in Vertigo quiz.
You will find the sources used & referenced in this prezi, along with other relevant reading that discusses some of these key issues in more detail, in another post for Lesson 3.
Some Key Reading:
Martin Rubin, in his chapter called Hitchcock's Golden Era, in the book Thrillers, considers the importance of Hitchcock's' body of work and addresses a number of the key issues identified in Vertigo, and culminates in his view that his film is about spectatorship due to Hitchcock's use of camera, narrative structure and use of characters.
In class, we will cover the issue of audience and critical reception in more detail, so the focus of this prezi is to offer an overview of the following key issues in the film:
1) plot & narrative
2) pure cinema / film form
3) characters
4) a film about spectatorship
Task:
Using your mind map, follow the Prezi path and make summary notes for each of the key areas. You will then be expected to feedback your findings to your group / class and use your notes to answer a Key Issues in Vertigo quiz.
You will find the sources used & referenced in this prezi, along with other relevant reading that discusses some of these key issues in more detail, in another post for Lesson 3.
Some Key Reading:
Martin Rubin, in his chapter called Hitchcock's Golden Era, in the book Thrillers, considers the importance of Hitchcock's' body of work and addresses a number of the key issues identified in Vertigo, and culminates in his view that his film is about spectatorship due to Hitchcock's use of camera, narrative structure and use of characters.
Friday, 15 February 2013
Lesson 3 - Key Sequences
We are going to analyse 3 key sequences from Vertigo.
We have chosen these sequences as they are seen to epitomize some of Hichcock's techniques or 'set pieces' with camera movement in the film.
They are also useful scenes for analyzing other elements of pure cinema, such as editing, sound and mise-en-scene, along with narrative structure, representation of characters and issues around the idea of spectatorship.
Key Sequence 1: Elster's Wife (16.13:21.16)
Key Sequence 2: This is Real & The Tower (1.08.52:1.15.03)
Key Sequence 3: The Transformation - (1.47.29-1.52.38)
Tuesday, 12 February 2013
Tuesday, 29 January 2013
Lesson 1 - Intro to Hitchcock – Master of Suspense, Auteur Theory, Body of work & Intro to Vertigo as a Hitchcock film - CLIPS ANALYSIS
Blackmail - 1929
The 39 Steps - 1935
Saboteur - 1942
Rear Window - 1954
Rear Window - Opening from Adam Fletcher on Vimeo.
North by North West - 1959
Psycho - 1960
The Birds - 1963
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The 39 Steps - 1935
Saboteur - 1942
Rear Window - 1954
Rear Window - Opening from Adam Fletcher on Vimeo.
North by North West - 1959
Psycho - 1960
The Birds - 1963
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