1. Section C – Exam advice
Do the Critical Review/Writing question.
This is easier than the Critical Approaches question
feminist film theory (psychoanalysis)
narrative theory
genre theory
auteur theory (the idea that the director is the sole
creative force upon a film and thus the film reflects
some of the directors principle beliefs.)
Vertigo – the key debates about this film are:
- A film about film: identification / obsession /
misrecognition?
- A film about film: the gendered look, the female object
- The significance of this as a “Hitchcock” film
- Recurring motifs and the possible symbolic patterning
of the film
- Interpreting the Madeleine / Judy split
- The spectator relationship to Scottie as the film
develops
- The use of locations
- The success or otherwise of the film as a thriller

2. - Difficulties in taking the film seriously from a narrative
realist perspective
and problems of audience response that result from this
- The film’s undisputed status
- The film’s critical reception