Vertigo

Scottie's obsession with reconstructing Madeline out of Judy is all-together a very disturbing scenario, and I was very impressed with the film by how much it made me feel disturbed, and really, disgusted. From a very matter of fact point of view, the idea is really disturbing. The man is so obsessed with Madeline, he kind of fetishizes her and idolizes her, and really just can't let go. And so he forces this poor girl (who turns out to actually be Madeline, which I'll address shortly) to basically massacre her own self to become this fantasy he has. As we watch it happen in the film, they do a great job of emphasizing how it's exactly what he wants. The woman with the suit constantly is saying the man knows what he wants, and the hair stylist comments that she knows what it is he wants. It's all about his wants, not about what she wants, or maybe what's right. It's also messed up simply because of how "perfect" he wants it to be. She can't do anything right until she does it completely right, and he almost berates her when even one thing is off. Because he doesn't really care about her. He just cares about this ideal, and until she matches up to it, he won't quite be happy. At the same time all this going on, it's actually oddly fitting, and thus, kind of less wrong (but still disturbing). She is the one who put this "curse" on him, as it were, and so now she is cursed to have to fill this fetish of his that was really her, but wasn't the true her. So even though he really does love her, he'll never love the real her, and that's the dramatic irony that she's faced with.