Vertigo

Alfred Hitchcock is a master of suspense when it comes to film. In his 1958 film “Vertigo”, Hitchcock utilizes many tools of suspense to enhance the viewing experience. For example, color and the score play huge roles in the films suspense aspect. The score is perfectly placed in scenes of ample importance regarding the suspenseful aspect of the movie to match that suspenseful feeling. This really helps correctly delineate the emotion in the film to the viewer.  Hitchcock also uses intense colors and lots of it to symbolize emotion in the film. For instance, red for love and intensity and green for the opposite emotional effects. The viewer begins to relate certain colors to certain characters and places in the film, which helps enhance the emotional response the viewer has to the color in moments of suspense throughout the film. There is a scene when Scotty is having a sort of mental breakdown/realization, and Hitchcock chose to tint the entire screen blue during this scene. The blue represents his sadness and confusion in this moment. Aside from color, etc. Hitchcock uses camera camera angle to portray suspense as well. It is shown early in in the film that Scotty has contracted a fear of heights that is accompanied by the side effect vertigo. To show the suspenseful moments where Scotty must face his phobia, Hitchcock uses extreme angles to portray extreme height in the film. All together, Hitchcock’s film “Vertigo” was revered for being of great suspense, and he made sure that every viewer felt the suspense in the film by implementing specific cinema techniques to do so. Ultimately crafting one of the greater films to ever have been created.