Stranger Than Fiction: A Hitchcockian Film Reading
Posted: 19 Jun 2019, 06:17
I've been wanting to do a reading based on a fictional event for some time now, but have been too busy lately. One of the things I've been busy with is making a new deck based on the films of Alfred Hitchcock. But now that I'm finished, I thought what better way to do a fictional reading than to do it based on a Hitchcock film with the new deck? 2 birds, etc.
As I haven't received the proof of the deck yet, I decided to pull from my standard RWS deck and interpret the pull via the corresponding Hitchcock cards. [NOTE: for the purposes of the readings that follow, I have removed the Aces and Court cards].
The film I chose was Vertigo. The situation sees Scottie, having just lost his obsessive love, Madeleine, finding a girl on the street who looks like Madeleine. Judy is in fact Madeleine, and after Scottie follows her home she decides to pack up her things and leave town. She writes him a letter explaining the elaborate deception, but then rips up the letter and decides to stay and try to make Scottie love her for her. This ends disastrously for Judy and Scottie.
I pulled 3 cards:
1). What is the over-riding nature of the situation?
2). What happens if Judy sends Scottie the letter and skips town?
3). What happens if Judy stays?
the first card I pulled was The Hanged Man 12 Rope
Interestingly, not only is the card's actor Jimmy Stewart, who plays Scottie, but he's the card's only figure - suggesting the total domination of Scottie over Judy (and rationality). Stewart's character in Rope influenced that film's murderers with his extreme ideas; Scottie will influence and ultimately control Judy with his idee fixe. Scottie's sanity hangs from a thread. He is upside-down, and he will turn Judy upside-down by turning her into the dead Madeleine. He will also effectively kill Madeleine, just as his character in Rope effectively killed David Kentley and the 2 murderers he hands over to the police. This scene in Vertigo is the mid-point, the film's hinge, where we are told what's happened and step outside of Scottie to seel through Judy's eyes for a moment. Many people told Hitchcock not to do it, to keep the events a secret until the end, but Hitchcock wanted to let the audience in on the situation. By doing so, Vertigo becomes less about a whodunnit kind of mystery and more about the mystery of human psychology. Just like The Hanged Man, Hitchcock placed the emphasis on humanity's predicament, the noose we entangle ourselves in, and the pitfall of subjectivity.
the second card I pulled was Temperance 14 Notorious
This card presents Alicia in Notorious caught between the man she loves and the man she is married to as part of her job. This clearly indicates Judy's position, caught between Scottie, whom she loves, and the murderous husband Gavin Elster whom she pretended to be married to as Madeleine. Alicia has involved herself in this intrigue to atone for her father - Judy, it could be said, is working through her own father issues by loving Scottie, a man old enough to be her father. Alicia is doing what she's doing for the man she loves, even though it pains them both. If Judy left town, she would be doing what's best for her and Scottie, even though it would be painful. The champagne bottle here is intact, but in time it will fall and break, just as Judy - if she goes on - will fall and break. The card's planes and Notorious' trip down south suggest leaving a bad situation. The restraint and control Temperance implies is reflected in Judy's choice to leave and reveal the truth to Scottie. Instead, she chooses otherwise -
The 3rd card I pulled was the 9 of Cups Notorious
Curiously, this card represents the 3rd man in the triangle represented in the Temperance card. The moment represented in the 9 of Cups card is when Alex realizes that the woman he loves is a fraud, and therefore he has been living a lie. This, of course, is Scottie's realization too, which leads to Judy's death. Alex decides to kill Alicia with poison, represented here with the 9 cups. In Vertigo, Scottie slowly turns Judy into a dead woman. In the end of Notorious, Devlin rescues Alicia and Alex is hoist by his own petard. In Vertigo, Scottie overcomes his fear and realizes the truth but cannot save the woman or himself. He must live with the horror of what he's done, just as Stewart's character must at the end of Rope.
.
As I haven't received the proof of the deck yet, I decided to pull from my standard RWS deck and interpret the pull via the corresponding Hitchcock cards. [NOTE: for the purposes of the readings that follow, I have removed the Aces and Court cards].
The film I chose was Vertigo. The situation sees Scottie, having just lost his obsessive love, Madeleine, finding a girl on the street who looks like Madeleine. Judy is in fact Madeleine, and after Scottie follows her home she decides to pack up her things and leave town. She writes him a letter explaining the elaborate deception, but then rips up the letter and decides to stay and try to make Scottie love her for her. This ends disastrously for Judy and Scottie.
I pulled 3 cards:
1). What is the over-riding nature of the situation?
2). What happens if Judy sends Scottie the letter and skips town?
3). What happens if Judy stays?
the first card I pulled was The Hanged Man 12 Rope
Interestingly, not only is the card's actor Jimmy Stewart, who plays Scottie, but he's the card's only figure - suggesting the total domination of Scottie over Judy (and rationality). Stewart's character in Rope influenced that film's murderers with his extreme ideas; Scottie will influence and ultimately control Judy with his idee fixe. Scottie's sanity hangs from a thread. He is upside-down, and he will turn Judy upside-down by turning her into the dead Madeleine. He will also effectively kill Madeleine, just as his character in Rope effectively killed David Kentley and the 2 murderers he hands over to the police. This scene in Vertigo is the mid-point, the film's hinge, where we are told what's happened and step outside of Scottie to seel through Judy's eyes for a moment. Many people told Hitchcock not to do it, to keep the events a secret until the end, but Hitchcock wanted to let the audience in on the situation. By doing so, Vertigo becomes less about a whodunnit kind of mystery and more about the mystery of human psychology. Just like The Hanged Man, Hitchcock placed the emphasis on humanity's predicament, the noose we entangle ourselves in, and the pitfall of subjectivity.
the second card I pulled was Temperance 14 Notorious
This card presents Alicia in Notorious caught between the man she loves and the man she is married to as part of her job. This clearly indicates Judy's position, caught between Scottie, whom she loves, and the murderous husband Gavin Elster whom she pretended to be married to as Madeleine. Alicia has involved herself in this intrigue to atone for her father - Judy, it could be said, is working through her own father issues by loving Scottie, a man old enough to be her father. Alicia is doing what she's doing for the man she loves, even though it pains them both. If Judy left town, she would be doing what's best for her and Scottie, even though it would be painful. The champagne bottle here is intact, but in time it will fall and break, just as Judy - if she goes on - will fall and break. The card's planes and Notorious' trip down south suggest leaving a bad situation. The restraint and control Temperance implies is reflected in Judy's choice to leave and reveal the truth to Scottie. Instead, she chooses otherwise -
The 3rd card I pulled was the 9 of Cups Notorious
Curiously, this card represents the 3rd man in the triangle represented in the Temperance card. The moment represented in the 9 of Cups card is when Alex realizes that the woman he loves is a fraud, and therefore he has been living a lie. This, of course, is Scottie's realization too, which leads to Judy's death. Alex decides to kill Alicia with poison, represented here with the 9 cups. In Vertigo, Scottie slowly turns Judy into a dead woman. In the end of Notorious, Devlin rescues Alicia and Alex is hoist by his own petard. In Vertigo, Scottie overcomes his fear and realizes the truth but cannot save the woman or himself. He must live with the horror of what he's done, just as Stewart's character must at the end of Rope.
.