2. CRITICAL APPROACHES TO VERTIGO
• FILM FORM
• Aesthetics and the way the film is created
• Auteur Theory - Hitchcock’s artistic influence on the
film as a demonstration of the director’s visionary
genius
• SUBJECTIFICATION / OBJECTIFICATION OF
WOMEN
• feminist theory
• psychoanalytical theory
3. What is Marxism?
• The political and economic philosophy of Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels
• the concept of class struggle plays a central role
• inevitable development of Society from bourgeois
oppression under capitalism to a socialist and ultimately
classless society.
http://www.answers.com/topic/marxism
4. Cultural Marxism
• Marxist analysis/ critique of the role of the media, art,
theatre, film and other cultural institutions in a society
• Emphasis on ethnicity and gender in addition to class.
• Consideration of cultural products as commodities
within a Capitalist system
• A form of political analysis
5. What is a Marxist Critique?
• Views cultural products as reflections of the social institutions out of
which they are born.
• Film itself is a social institution and has a specific ideological function,
based on the background and ideology of the studio / producer / director.
• A film arises out of the economic and ideological circumstances
surrounding its creation. It is a commercial industry.
• Marxist critiques analyse texts in relation to their relevance regarding
issues of:
– class struggle
– the position of characters to the dominant class.
• Films often mirror the creator's own place in society
6. Why apply a Marxist critique?
1. commercial context
Wexman, Virginia. “The Critic as Consumer: Film Study in the University,
‘Vertigo’, and the Film Canon.”
Film Quarterly Spring 1986, 32-41
• critical response to Vertigo has ignored the commercial aspects of the film.
• Vertigo was made solely for commercial success & had Studio support with
Paramount ( & then Universal)
• Hitchcock exploited the “star system” - James Stewart /Kim Novak.
– He chose cast before the script had been written.
– Hitchcock knew that Kim Novak could be employed as a romantic idol and
utilized profile shots to capitalize on her looks.
• Wexman argues Hitchcock increased the film’s commercial appeal through
use of extravagant settings. Viewers of Vertigo are treated as tourists as they
are taken on a journey to all of San Francisco’s famous sites.
7. Why apply a Marxist critique?
2. Class, Ethnicity, Gender
• Themes of psychological and personal obsession
• Closely tied up with references to representations
of class, gender and ethnicity
• Obsessional downfall of Scottie (class), Madeline
& Judy (gender) and Carlotta (ethnicity) can all be
linked to these representations
• Offers an alternative reading of the film and an
understanding of the socio-historical context of
the film’s production
8. What examples from the text invite a
Marxist critique?
AREA OF STUDY EXAMPLE (S) FROM FILM
COMMERICAL COMMODITY
CLASS
GENDER
ETHNICITY
