Vertigo: 3-act structure

 

This post is part of the Background to the series
Learning from Alfred Hitchcock
— for writers, movie makers, and viewers

I think that Vertigo exemplifies all three of the kinds of structures I’ll eventually be discussing in this series of posts:

• 3-act structure,
• 2-act structure, and
• chapter structure.

To begin with, it has the 3-act structure I’ve talked about in Star Wars, Lets check over the criteria and definitions I gave. 

There certainly is a protagonist: Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart).

According to Criterion 1, in the previous post, the first act should end when Scottie “makes a commitment that leads to the main action of the movie: Acts 2 and 3.”

He does this so many times that our only problem would be selecting the one that seems best. I have my own nomination, selected more because I have a gut feeling about it than because it fits any after-the-fact rationalizations.

After Madeleine (Kim Novak) jumps into San Francisco Bay and Scottie fishes her out and brings her to his apartment, they have what, for me, is one of the most unusual conversations ever filmed. I mean, here she wakes up nude in a strange man’s bed only to learn that she’s fallen into the bay and he’s rescued her. The two of them pretend they don’t know each other, yet they immediately begin speaking in a civilized, intimate tone — almost like colleagues, fellow conspirators in some plot they’re both eager to see succeed. He’s obviously in love with her, and perhaps she could be with him, but with no apparent effort he repeatedly, gracefully sidesteps the fact that their love might present a conflict of interest in his relationship with her husband, Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore), who’s in constant phone contact.

Some 7 1/2 minutes into that conversation, Madeleine says that it’s her first time jumping into the Bay. It’s the first time for Scottie, too. He offers her more coffee, reaches for her cup, and touches her hand instead. They have an instant of recognition — interrupted by the ringing of the phone.

Although Scottie has previously agreed to help Madeleine, and although he’s previously acted like he’s in love with her, I think this moment is the decisive one in which he first consciously knows that he loves her and that solving her problem and protecting her is the most important thing in his life. He commits — totally.

Lao Tzu, Chapter 19

Tao Te Ching —
The Classic about Ways And Instances

Lao Tzu

(Translated, with comments, by William P. Coleman)

Chapter 19

If holiness disappears and wisdom is thrown away,
people benefit a hundred ways.
If benevolence disappears and righteousness is thrown away,
people return to filial gentleness. 
If cleverness disappears and profit is thrown away,
there are no thieves stealing. 

But acting on these three sayings is not enough to make one civilized —
for this reason, let there be a place where they can live:

Present yourself plainly;
embrace your nature;
lack selfishness;
Have few desires. 

<– Chapter 18

Table of Contents

Chapter 20 –>

Punishing politicians

Note: this was posted in 1997 to an early internet experiment.
For more, please see my page The Hyperforum on Sustainability.

The ideas in the paper you link to are certainly interesting and deserve thought.

A note, though. You say, “Similarly, if voters know these consequences of actions, we expect them to punish politicians who ignore the future consequences of their actions.” We always say and think this, but it’s simply not, couldn’t be, true very often.

The problem is that that there are too many issues about which the voters are trying to punish the politicians. For example,

Li Bai — Jade stairs complaint

Jade stairs complaint

Li Bai

701-762 CE
(translated by William P. Coleman)

The jade stairs give birth to clear dew;
in the late night it permeates gauze stockings.

Yet she lowers the crystal curtain;
jewel pendants tinkle, and she looks to the autumn moon.  

Li Bai — Hearing a Flute on a Spring Night in Luoyang

Hearing a Flute on a Spring Night in Luoyang

Li Bai

701-762 CE
(translated by William P. Coleman)

In some house there’s a jade flute — sound flies into the dark.
Spring winds disperse it as they arrive, filling Luoyang City 

The night holds a tune — I can hear “Break a Willow Twig.”
Who wouldn’t be moved, remembering the garden at home? 

Li Bai — Hearing the monk Jun from Shu play the qín

Hearing the monk Jun from Shu play the qín

Li Bai

701-762 CE
(translated by William P. Coleman)

The monk from Shu holds “Green Brocade,”
in the west, beneath E-mei Mountain. 

For me — his hand scatters once —
it’s like hearing pines in ten thousand valleys.

My heart is a traveler, washing in a flowing river,
echoing sound emitted by an ice-cold bell. 

Not awake to the mountain jade-green at sunset.
In the autumn dark, how many layers? 

(Unhealthy) capitalists and slugs

Note: this was posted in 1997 to an early internet experiment.
For more, please see my page The Hyperforum on Sustainability.

Beautifully put!

I think of these insatiable capitalists in the same way I do about the slugs that infest my garden. I will put out a bean seedling, with just its two starter leaves. The slugs will come and eat the two leaves, killing the plant.

What I would like to say to them, if they were rational, is “Look, if you just let the plant grow it would soon have lots of regular leaves, much bigger. Further, I’m not actually interested in the leaves, but in the beans: the leaves are only a means to an end for me. If you would just come back in a month or two, I could give you perhaps 5 large leaves per day, with little detriment to my bean production.”

Unfortunately, they’re not rational.

3-act Structure — Star Wars (original)

This post is part of the Background to the series
Learning from Alfred Hitchcock
— for writers, movie makers, and viewers

Don’t blame me. The screenwriting books ruined everything. It’s almost impossible now to sell your script to Hollywood without paying lip-service to “3-act structure.”

The thing that gripes me is that it’s such simple-minded stuff. They keep chanting, “Every good screenplay has a beginning, a middle and an end.”

Yeah: like every good donut has a top, a center, and a bottom. Right. Sure. Of course.

Not automatically a useful concept for analytical purposes . . . or, if I make donuts and want to get good at it.

To be practical, the definitions would have to fit an operational reality: “Some donuts have a donut, a filling, and a glaze.” This would tell me that, for that particular type of donut, I’d need to mix my batter, my filling, and my glaze separately. Though I’d need more information, I’d have a start.

But, if you question these people, they just repeat it again, slowly, patronizingly — “Every good screenplay has a beginning, a middle and an end.” — as if I’m the one too dense to understand.

All right. All right. I see that I’m letting my sarcasm run away with me.

I’ll try to be more constructive.

Why is 3-act structure an important concept that needs to be understood?

Three reasons:

Lao Tzu, Chapter 18

Tao Te Ching —
The Classic about Ways And Instances

Lao Tzu

(Translated, with comments, by William P. Coleman)

Chapter 18

After the great way had been forgotten,
there was benevolence and rectitude.
Intelligence and knowledge appeared,
and there was great falseness.
The six relationships fell out of harmony,
and there was love and filial piety. 
Families lost the nation to confusion,
and there were loyal ministers. 

<– Chapter 17

Table of Contents

Chapter 19 –>

Li Bai — Longing, in springtime

Longing, in springtime

Li Bai

701-762 CE
(translated by William P. Coleman)

The northern grasses are just bright green threads;
but on eastern mulberries, green branches hang down.

Days when the lord is first eager to come back —
those are a wife’s heartbreak times. 

The wind of desire and I no longer know each other;
what right has he to enter my silk gauze curtains? 

Li Bai — In the mountains, a question and an answer

In the mountains, a question and an answer

Li Bai

701-762 CE
(translated by William P. Coleman)

You ask me what my idea is, staying in the green mountains?
I smile but have no reply, my heart at peace in itself. 

A peach blossom on the flowing water goes into the distance;
there is another heaven and earth, not among people. 

Li Bai — Amusing myself

Amusing myself

Li Bai

701-762 CE
(translated by William P. Coleman)

Preoccupied with the wine, I didn’t notice it get dark;
fallen flowers have covered my clothes.

Drunk, I stand up, and I walk to the moon stream;
the birds have gone home — and people are scarce too.

Remembering Lawrence King

On the national annual Day of Silence, students observe a vow of silence to bring attention to bullying and harassment of LGBT students. This year’s Day of Silence — 25 April, 2008 — will be dedicated to the memory of Lawrence King.

Click the picture to read the announcement from the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN): California Middle School Student Murdered in School Because of Sexual Orientation.

• Add your vigil here: http://www.rememberinglawrence.org/
• MYSPACE: www.myspace.com/rememberinglawrence
• FACEBOOK: Remembering Lawrence King

Well said

Note: this was posted in 1997 to an early internet experiment.
For more, please see my page The Hyperforum on Sustainability.

Great comments!

“It is time for someone to step forward and point out that the two views that Bruce describes are not mutually exclusive.” The two extreme positions are obviously impossible. Anyone who thinks that markets are free might do well, on the next occasion when Hertz car rental asks $13 per day for collision damage waiver, to ask himself whether Hertz’s competitors offer a better deal. (The car rental firms are well aware of the fact that if they all do it they all get richer, in the aggregate and individually, than they would if they undercut eachother. The ability of a lean and hungry new player to capture market share by offering the customer a less outrageous arrangement is limited by other factors. No explicit collusion is required. This situation has persisted stably for a few decades.) On the other hand, the economic history of the Soviet Union illustrates the value of centralized, top-down regulation.

The point is that markets have many mechanisms, at least temporary ones, of a number of different kinds.