Today’s art is a scene (1:05) from Alfred Hitchcock’s psychological thriller, Vertigo (1958). It’s famous for its innovative Dolly Zoom effect, in which the zoom function of the lens operates simultaneously with movement of the camera such that foreground remains constant while the background enlarges or recedes. You might recall Roy Scheider on the beach in Jaws at the moment he realizes something not right is happening in the water. Here, acrophobic Scottie (Jimmy Stewart) chases his obsession, Madeleine (Kim Novak), up the stairs of a mission bell tower.
vertigo 1 At mission, san juan bautista, a camera down the stairwell invokes Hitchcock, jimmy stewart’s imaginary bell tower, the desperate climb, kim novak his object of release, the other side of vertigo, how he stops and turns again, again, against sanity, love, for the dizzying abyss of the well that plunges headlong— each helpless pause, bid to freeze the frame, being what thwarts, denies, murders— whatever the plot twist, someone will fail, someone fall, scottie, madeleine, you— or someone so similar, in every way, the one I can't help but return to . . . ps. Well! It's Happy Birthday to man of aran, who is one year old today! Feeling a little vertigo, he says, the room spinning. That's normal, I think. At his age.
happy birthday!
Happy Birthday. You are a gift.