The philosophical Hitchcock : Vertigo and the anxieties of unknowingness

155 Pages·2017·2.182 MB·English

by  Pippin, Robert B.

THE
PHILOSOPHICAL
HITCHCOCK

THE
PHILOSOPHICAL
HITCHCOCK
Vertigo and the Anxieties of Unknowingness
ROBERT B. PIPPIN
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS CHICAGO AND LONDON
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2017 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without
written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more
information, contact the University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637.
Published 2017
Printed in the United States of America
26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226-5 0364- 6 (cloth)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226-5 0378- 3 (e- book)
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226503783.001.0001
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Pippin, Robert B., 1948– author.
Title: The philosophical Hitchcock : Vertigo and the anxieties of unknowingness / Robert B. Pippin.
Description: Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017001242 | ISBN 9780226503646 (cloth : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780226503783 (e- book)
Subjects: LCSH: Vertigo (Motion picture : 1958) | Philosophy in motion pictures.
Classification: LCC PN1995.9.P42 P56 2017 | DDC 791.43/72— dc23 LC record available at https://
lccn .loc .gov /2017001242
♾ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992 (Permanence of Paper).
In memory of Victor Perkins
You sort of forget you’re you.—Emmy, Shadow of a Doubt
It’s quite remarkable to discover that one isn’t what one
thought one was.—Dr. Peterson, Spellbound
Who comes to seek the living among the dead?—Luke 24:5
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Prologue: Film and Philosophy 1
Introduction: The Issue 12
1. The Opening Credits 24
2. The Opening Chase 30
3. Introducing Midge 33
4. Gavin Elster and the Scheme 43
5. Ernie’s 48
6. Pop Leibel 53
7. In the Bay and in Scottie’s Apartment 56
8. Two Are Going Somewhere 67
9. Semper virens 69
10. Midge and Carlotta 72
11. The “Suicide” 76
12. The Coroner’s Inquest 83
13. Scottie’s Dream 89
14. Music Therapy 94
15. Finding Judy 96
16. The Transformation 107
17. The Revelation 115
18. “I Loved You So, Madeleine” 116
Concluding Remarks: Moral Suspension 123
Index 129
Plates follow page 70.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I began writing this book while teaching a summer seminar in Switzerland
with my friend and colleague Jim Conant, and I finished it sometime after
we had taught a course together at the University of Chicago on Hitch-
cock’s American films. I want to express my thanks to Professor Katia
Saporiti of the University of Zurich for the invitation to deliver the semi-
nar, and to the participants in the seminar for our lively discussions. I am
yet again, as with my other two books about film, very grateful to Jim for
our conversations about Hitchcock, film aesthetics, and much else over
the last twenty years.
I have also had the privilege of presenting material from this book
in lectures at Beloit College, Johns Hopkins, the University of Chicago,
Northwestern, Berkeley, and Stanford. The discussions after the lectures
were invariably lively, thoughtful, and very helpful, and I thank those audi-
ences. I have also been helped by generous comments from Dan Morgan,
Wendy Doniger, Mark Jenkins, Paul Kottman, and the late Victor Perkins,
and by a number of acute comments from Fred Rush.
I wrote the final draft over part of the summer at a farmhouse in the
Hudson River Valley. I am happy to express how very much I have gained
from frequent conversations there about the film and related matters with
Michael Fried and Ruth Leys, and how grateful I am for their valuable
comments and for their friendship.
This book is dedicated to the memory of Victor Perkins, who died in
July of 2016. I had been a dedicated admirer of Victor’s work on film since