My Vertigo

I kept not getting around to this post, for various reasons; now it's months since I was in San Francisco but I still wanted to briefly document my self-governed Vertigo tour. Being too cheap/destitute to pay the prices the official tours wanted ($300? Seriously???) I managed to find several of the stops both on purpose (Fort Point was practically a day-long excursion but I made sure we did it; Mission Dolores was about two blocks from the friends we were staying with while in town) and chance (suddenly the road sign said San Juan Batista, and the boyfriend practically crashed the car veering off the highway for me - cuz he's awesome and loves me). Anyway, picture time!

First up is the Mission Dolores; if you're as big a Vertigo geek as I you'll remember this as the scene where Scottie (Jimmy Stewart) follows "Madeleine" (Kim Novak) to a cemetery, where she stares forlornly (so much forlorn staring in this movie!) at a grave which he sees is Carlotta Valdez's, the lady supposedly possessing our heroine. First are the shots of the Mission from the film, then my shots of the real place:

Next is the gorgeous Fort Point at the base of the Golden gate Bridge, where "Madeleine" memorably takes her tumble into the Bay. These days you can't get anywhere near the water like they do in the film, but it didn't stop me from pretending to drop flower petals into the water all the same:


That's a terrible picture of me, by the way; I'm incredibly generous posting that awfulness here, and don't forget it!

Next is the Palace of the Fine Arts, which Scottie and Judy stroll past as they're getting to know each other:

Then, of course, we move on to San Juan Batista, that fateful place where "Madeleine" and Judy both meet their horrible ends. First up, the wooden horse that Scottie uses to try and prove to "Madeleine" that she's not bonkers:

I'm smiling like a goon in the above shot because the only other person in the entire barn was a Japanese tourist and right as I got in front of the horse for this picture this guy was suddenly standing over the boyfriend's shoulder and started snapping shots of me standing there as well, totally out of the blue, and I felt completely retarded. You can practically see the grimacing words "Take the fucking picture, boyfriend" escaping my forced grin. Hee.

And next, we have the church building which, being the geek I am, I knew was tower-less beforehand but was surprised that it looks, besides the absent tower, pretty much the same as it did fifty years ago:


I of course acted out the entire following scene ("It wasn't supposed to be like this!!!") which the boyfriend was incredibly decent to not leave me because of, including "Madeleine"'s mad dash to the front door... which was locked, and ruined my moment!


I didn't make it to the apartment building that "Madeleine" lived in, or the art gallery where Carlotta's picture hung, or to Scottie's apartment, although I spotted the latter from Coit Tower knowing it was right down the street from the stretch of Lombard Street known as the windiest street in the world. Oh well; gotta save some landmarks for the next trip!
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