I just wanted to comment on a few things I noticed while watching Vertigo. Of course, the mirrors and reflections in windows that are literally everywhere like the corridor of fragmented mirrors that Madeline tells Scotty about. Two that really stood out to me were the first time Scotty saw her as she walked out there was her reflection, and then when he finds her as Judy and she looks up from the mirror and then asks, “Do I really look like her?”

Further, I’m not sure of the significance, but I found two recurring images that were present in almost every setting. One was a circle with something like spokes or spindles in pointing towards the middle, like a wheel of a ship, which may represent the obsession cycle or the dizziness, and the other was an upside down U (whatever that may be called?), like a Roman arch shape and most of the lights are shaped like a V with the two ends extended out in a swoop like a stick-figure seagull (if that makes sense). The wheel can be scene for example as a golden decoration in Scotty’s apartment, or on the hotel ceiling or some design on the buildings Scotty and Judy pass by when they go walking.

The arch shape is first seen (that I really noticed) on the doors of the restaurant Ernie’s. It is upside down and separated which may have a lot of meaning because it is on the doors of the place where Scotty first sees Madeline, as well as where he takes Judy when he tries to bring his love back through who he thinks is another woman. Almost every great building that they drive by, like the museum and later the Church have the Roman arch, and when they go walking it is on the building they pass by. It can even be seen in such things as the shape of a fireplace.

The lighting example can be found when Scotty goes upstairs in the hotel, various house lamps as well as the chandeliers in the court room.