The Music of Vertigo

Discuss how the music enhances the dialogue and action in at least three scenes from Vertigo

The music from Herman’s score for Vertigo helps to enhance the dialogue and action on screen by using techniques such as spiralling motifs, the use of chromatic and dissonant melodies. Hermann’s is one of the greatest composers of the 20^th century, Vertigo is a psychological thriller and all of the music of the film is meant to reflect the mental state of the main character Scottie. The composing style of Hermann’s is known to include monophonic melodic lines, a lot of chromatic movement as well as simple and constant tempos and strong senses of tonality. The three scenes that I will be evaluating are ‘Rooftop Chase’, ‘Into the Bay’ and ‘Scene D’Amour’. 

 The ‘Rooftop Chase’ scene uses the Spiralling motif to enhance the on screen action of the main character, Scottie, feeling vertigo on the rooftops. This helps the viewers to feel what he is feeling because vertigo makes you feel dizzy and the spiralling motif enhances this feeling by using contary motion broken chords. Hermann has developed this effect however, as he has diminished the note values which leaves a faster melodic line of chromatic semiquavers adding to the panicky feel of the men chasing each other on the rooftops. This technique adds to the on screen action because it makes the audience feel anxious listening to the music with added tension as well as just the running.

‘Into the bay’ scene uses descending chromatics as she falls into the water, this is played by the horns and woodwind section while doing wide leaps ascending and descending. This enhances the onscreen action and creates a sense of panic for the viewer as she is falling as well as almost painting a better picture of her falling. As soon as Scottie saves her the D’amore motif begins to play however it is in a descending sequence before changing to the love motif when she is finally out of the water. This supports the onscreen action and the unspoken words of the characters who are both clearly in love with each other, the music choice makes this clear to the viewer. The change in motif also means that in general the music has calmed down a lot more, there is a lot less reason to panic as well due to the fact that Judy is now safe and out of the water meaning that the music is once again supporting the on screen action.     

Scene D’ Amour holds the musical climax of the film. It a five minute scene that includes a full orchestra version of the ‘obsession theme’. This is also the scene in which Judy agreed to change the way she looks to be like Madeleine. The tonality of this scene begins in F major which is unusual for this film because the narrative of the film is of a depressing nature. The scene ends with a fanfare in the brass and a modulation to c major before ending with an expected resolution and release of tension, this supports the onscreen action of the happiness that Scottie is feeling because Judy agreed to his wishes to looks like Madeleine. Once again the music is reflecting the inner emotions of Scottie and as a viewer it allows us to unintentionally feel how he is feeling inside, the resolution at the end of this scene supports this. Though out the scene there is still a use of chromatisim and dissonance due to the underlying feeling of Scottie’s fear this enhances the on screen action because it allows the viewer to understand that his fear never leaves him, giving an almost deeper meaning to the film itself. 

In conclusion Hermann composed the score to enhance the dialogue and on screen action of the film by using the spiralling motif to show Scottie’s feelings for vertigo as well as using a major key in the scene D’amore to enhance the feeling of happiness he is feeling towards Judy. As a viewer we are able to understand the emotions of the film a lot better because the music has been created in a way to enhance what is happening on the screen. 

Marla in Fight Club

‘Marla is the root of it all’ says Jack in Fight Club. Discuss this statement.

David Fincher’s Fight Club was released in 1999 a time in society when the male role in society was being questioned due to females being able to have more dominant roles. Marla is the main female character of the film. 

We are first introduced to her when she crashes Jack (the narrators) happy places, which happen to be all of the support groups he attends to help him deal with his emotions and insomnia. This immediately gives the audience the impression that she could be a villain in the film as she is wearing dark clothes and is smoking vigorously in a support group for men who suffer with testicular cancer. My first time viewing the film was after the release of the Harry Potter series so my only experience with any other characters that she has played made me believe that she was going to be the villain of the film. During the first meeting of Marla we also see a glimpse of Tyler Durden as he flashes up on the screen. This immediately plants a link between Tyler and Marla making her an important part of the narrative. 

Jack is told to go to his cave in his mind to meet his spirit animal, Marla appears in the middle of his cave and tells him to ‘slide’. This could be seen as Marla telling Jack to let go of his fear of emotions, almost to man up and accept life how it is. Marla appearing as Jack’s spirit animal shows that she is a key figure in his life and he does think highly of her. The quote says that Marla is the root of it all and Jack’s cave inside of his head proves that this could be true especially because the thought of ‘sliding’ and letting go of his consumerist filled lifestyle must have lingered enough for him to remember his true self and who he needs to be. 

This comes back in the final sequence when Jack ends up killing his Id, Tyler Durden, so that he can move on and be with Marla. The sequence is completed by Jack holding Marla’s hand whilst they watch the explosions take place in front of them. This signifies how Marla was the main reason he wanted to sort himself out, she was his motivation making her an extremely important part of the film because she was the main influence for Jack to sort himself out. 

However, there are obviously other factors which could be said to be ‘the root of the film’ such as the issue of consumerism that is addressed through out. During the Ikea scene where there is a pan shot of his apartment showing all of the ikea furniture he has bought over time. ‘I flipped through catalogues and wondered what kind of dining set describes me as a person’ Jack compares what he is like as a person to the materialistic possessions that he owns showing us as the audience that he has been heavily overtaken by consumerism. He even goes on to say ‘a house full of condiments with no food’ which is a metaphor for him saying that he has everything that he is meant to own to be happy but he still hasn't been fulfilled and is searching for more in his life. This, we find out is Marla, making her stand out as the key link through out the film. 

There is also the issue faced of masculinity. At the beginning of the film we see Jack struggling to deal with his emotions and having to take part in support groups for testicular cancer so that he can cry. He meets Bob at this support group who has lost his testicles to this cancer he says ‘we’re still men’ as Jack cries onto him. This gives the impression to the audience that their way of thinking is that they have to have every male part in tact. It also shows us that Jack only feels safe to cry in an environment where it has been deemed acceptable to cry. 

Tyler himself also says ‘we’re a generation of men raised by women’ giving the impression to the audience that most men part of generation x feel like they are now only useful for reproduction. This is because at this time, women were now able to carry out many jobs that were mainly carried out my males, obviously this made the men of this generation feel like they are being pushed out and losing their dominance because of this. During 1999 David Beckham was also a strong influence on the male public and he was openly showing how much he takes care of his appearance, something that was new and not widely accepted by males as acceptable. Bearing this in mind it does stand out as an important feature of the film however, it is not quite as important as Marla has been made out in this film.