Bad Movie Night will take place on April the 18th, 2009.
Festivities begin thereabouts 7pm, with the possibility of a field trip to see Crank 2: High Voltage under strong consideration.
I can promise you the following films: Troll 2 (the "Best Worst Movie"), Batman & Robin (worse than you remember!), and Mac and Me (sponsored by McDonald's and Coca Cola!).
In addition, there will be at least one "surprise" movie, a selection of trailers hand picked by the Cap'n, a "holiday special" of some sort, and goodies* for all attending.
Stay for all of the movies... if you dare!!!!
Don't make Terence Stamp Angry! Attend!!!!---
Otherwise, there's not much to report. I've been watching Vertigo on and off for the past few days and in perusing some articles about the film, I've yet to find any discussion of a theory that occurred to me almost immediately.
After Scottie (James Stewart) has his expressionistic nightmare, he is sent (almost immediately) to a psychiatric facility. Considering the conversation Midge (Barbara Bel Geddes) has with the Doctor, it's pretty clear Scottie went catatonic and isn't likely to come out of his state any time soon.
Immediately following that sequence, Hitchcock cuts to a panoramic view of San Francisco, forming an ellipsis of sorts, and dissolves to Scottie out and about like nothing ever happened. There's no causal link between the previous scene and the second half of the film, so I would think it fair to say Scottie never left the facility. Rather, what we're seeing is an extension of his "dream" state; one he lives out the relationship with Judy / Madeline (Kim Novak) until it too collapses.
What's so interesting about this theory is that in the discourse of cinema, Vertigo now anticipates a film like David Lynch's Lost Highway. Vertigo can (and seems to be) read as "this happens because the story presents it as so", but in this alternate reading, the film is suddenly the template Lynch follows in more ambiguous ways. Lynch is more explicit: his literal transformation happens to the male protagonist (Bill Pullman becomes Balthazar Getty) whereas the female protagonist (Patricia Arquette) merely pulls a "Judy" and changes superficial aesthetic appearances.
In the end, the substitutive fantasies of Scottie Ferguson and Fred Madison still collapse in on themselves, not due to fate but instead to a flawed understanding of agency from damaged identites. I'm not saying this is the only way to read Vertigo (or Lost Highway), however I find it a most intriguing connection that was heretofore unexplored.
* I use the term "goodies" very loosely.
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