Vertigo and Simulacrum

Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo is the quintessential work of art on simulacrum. Simulacrum is not that vulgar process of revelation where that which was thought to be the original turns out to be a copy. Neither is it the reverse case, where that which was thought to be the copy is revealed to be the original. Simulacrum is a paradox of pure becoming. It is a process of reproduction that produces a copy which already is its original modeled on an original that already was a copy. Thus the relationship between Scottie and Madeline/Judy is simulacrum in all its glory. To quote a classic by Baudrillard: "The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth--it is the truth which conceals that there is none. The simulacrum is true."