In Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958), the intentional shift of green coloring from Madeleine to Scottie serves as a motif to visually imply that Scottie will eventually be destroyed by falling in love with someone that doesn’t exist. In this paper, I will describe and analyze how this color motif develops across three key shots: Scottie (James Stewart) first seeing Madeleine (Kim Novak) in her green dress at Ernie’s restaurant (17:58-18:10), Scottie following her green car (19:13-19:17), and finally, Scottie himself appearing in green sweater (44:00-44:32). Through these shots, the transfer of green from Madeleine to Scottie visualizes how something fictional – Madeleine herself – eventually consumes the man who believes in her.

The first shot (17:58-18:10) begins with a long shot of Madeleine in Ernie’s restaurant. There is a wall and a door inside the restaurant that visually divides the background and the foreground in the frame. Madeleine is positioned behind the wall and a door, in the center of the frame, and her husband is behind her. She is wearing a dress that is a mix of black and vibrant green. There are some groups of people eating at round tables in a restaurant. The confined space of the restaurant interior creates an intimate setting. Madeleine and her husband then slowly walk towards camera – which remains at a straight-on angle at her head level – as Madeleine casually makes eye contact with the server. Madeleine is now at the foreground when she glances back at them briefly as her husband exchanges a quick hello with the server, then looks ahead again. Then she walks to the right of the camera while staring straight ahead, and the camera slowly pans right (motivated mobile framing) to show her right profile in a close up distance. The key light here is from the right, illuminating the front of her face, with a slight shadow on the side of her face. A soft fill light from the front fills the shadow on her face and a backlight comes from above her head. At this point, her face, the upper part of her dress - the green portion - and the deep red wallpaper of the restaurant fill the frame. Light illuminating the wallpaper is intensified and the wallpaper becomes a vivid red color. The contrast between Madeleine’s green dress and the restaurant’s deep red walls establishes green as the color of unreality. The red decor brings us into the tangible world of the restaurant, whereas Madeleine’s green dress marks her as something apart from this reality. The complementary color pair of red and green create not only visual contrast, but also symbolistic contrast: red representing the real world that Scottie lives in and green signifying the fictional existence. Through the use of green with red, the film emphasizes how Madeleine is separate from the world of truth, though neither Scottie nor the audience yet understands why. Thus, this first appearance of green establishes the color’s function in the film - marking what appears real but isn’t.

The second shot (19:13-19:17) shows Scottie starts tailing Madeleine through San Francisco. The camera frames from Scottie’s perspective as he waits in his car to follow Madeleine. The shot begins with a mint-green car coming from the offscreen left and passing by Scottie’s car. There is a motivated mobile framing as the camera pans to the right to follow the movement of the green car. Because we see the green car from inside Scottie’s car, the edge of the frame shows the interior of the car. We know that the green car is Madeleine’s car because the movie shows her coming out of the building and getting into this green car. The green color of Madeleine’s car stands out against the urban landscape of San Francisco. This car chase shot extends the meaning of green to Madeleine’s other belongings. The color of the car, which matches the dress Madeleine was wearing in the previous shot, suggests that everything about Madeleine - her vehicle, her outfit, her presence – is artificially constructed. The green car, contrasted with the reality of the San Francisco streets, emphasizes her separation from the real world. This separation is particularly significant because Madeleine herself is a construction - she is Judy playing a role, performing the part of Scottie’s friend’s wife. The green of both her dress and car thus marks everything about her as artificial, a carefully constructed illusion. Furthermore, Scottie following the green car indicates that he is literally chasing after something that exists only as performance.

The final shot (44:00-44:32), which is a long take of 32 seconds, shows Madeleine and Scottie at Scottie’s apartment after he rescues Madeleine under the Golden Gate Bridge. The shot begins with Scottie putting firewood in the fireplace. Scottie is now wearing a green sweater. After putting the firewood in, Scottie stares offscreen left (the room where Madeleine is sleeping) while slowly sitting down on the couch, and continues to stare in the same place while drinking coffee. The key light appears to be coming from the front-right, and a fill light from the front-left, and a back light is from the back of Scottie. The camera is at his waist level, at a straight on angle and at a long shot distance. The camera slowly pans left to follow Scottie’s gaze. The camera shows the interior of Scottie’s house and begins to zoom in until it turns 90 degrees, where the blue dress Madeleine was wearing when she fell into the water is hanging. The camera turns 90 degrees to the left again and we see a bedroom behind the wall and a door, with Madeleine lying on the bed, sleeping. On top of the comforter is the red robe that she will be wearing when she wakes up. That Scottie now wears a green – originally indicated Madeleine - sweater and has prepared a red robe for Madeline means the color green has transferred from Madeleine to Scottie. Furthermore, Scottie’s green sweater represents how he has begun to cross over into Madeleine’s world of unreality, while her red robe temporarily located her in the real world. The fact that Scottie starts wearing green after rescuing Madeline also means that he now fell in love with Madeline, who is played by Judy, who is green and therefore “non-existent”. Also, the careful composition of this shot, with its slow pan and Scottie’s lingering gaze at Madeleine emphasizes Scottie’s growing obsession. This color transfer thus cues the moment when Scottie begins to lose himself to a nonexistent woman that will ultimately destroy him.

The progression of green from Madeleine to Scotty creates a visual narrative similar to the tragic storyline of the movie. Green first appears in Madeleine’s dress as a color that represents unreality, extends to her possessions through the green car, and finally moves to Scottie himself through the sweater. The use of green thus becomes a subtle way to visualize the film’s central story: a man being destroyed by falling in love with something that doesn’t exist.