The Power of the Flashback and Its Use in Cinema

There seems to be a difficulty in film because filmmakers have only so much to expound upon in a relatively short amount of time, so there is almost no way we as an audience are able to properly understand the motivation behind certain characters’ actions, or properly understand the importance of the story. Much as we do in real life, when encountering others, when experiencing a certain thing, we must understand the context in which everything occurs in order to properly pass a judgment on it. And what else is the experience of watching film than passing a certain judgment on what one sees? One technique some filmmakers use to combat this difficulty is the use of analepsis, or flashback. Through the flashback we are able to go further back in the story, before the beginning point of the plot, to better understand the context of the plot, and thus make a judgment more accurately. It may be used to reveal crucial information in the story, such as it is used in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, or it may be used as a means to change our perspective about a certain character, giving us an empathetic insight, such as what happens to the main character Rick in the classical Hollywood film, Casablanca. Both Vertigo and Casablanca use the flashback in order to reveal crucial information to the audience; however, while Vertigo uses a flashback to help the audience to solve the mystery of the plot, Casablanca uses it to solve the mystery of its main character, changing the audiences’ initial impression.

Vertigo is a film that predicates its success on mystery and suspense, and the point in the narrative in which the flashback occurs shifts the overall focus of the plot and our position as an audience from a restricted depth to a more omniscient depth. The flashback occurs at the point in the story in which Scotty has spent months in an asylum coping with Madeline’s death, only to meet a suspiciously similar looking woman named Judy. At this point in the narrative, we are unsure of Judy’s existence—we do not know whether she is merely a figment of Scotty’s imagination, or whether she faked her own death, or if she is an entirely different person. In a sense, we are restricted in knowledge with regards to what is going on--- in a position much like Scotty, trying to determine what exactly is happening. Judy, however, in a rage of love and passion, decides to write a letter to Scotty, professing her great love for him. Hitchcock shows us a flashback as Judy is writing the letter, so as to show what really happened concerning the “death” of Madeline, and who Judy really is. Because of the flashback, we now know that Judy was merely an impersonator posing as Madeline--- and that Gavin Elster had already killed Madeline and threw her off the tower, which Scotty mistakenly assumed was the impersonator. Judy presumably writes this letter to Scotty because she loves him and cannot bear to lie to him--- but because she feels guilty for all the pain she had caused him, she destroys the letter, so that Scotty continues to remain in the dark. The mystery of the plot, at least for us, is solved at this point. The only mystery remaining is how Scotty will figure things out on his own. That is what keeps us engaged in the remainder of the film.

Unlike in many other instances of flashback in film, the flashback scene in Vertigo refers us to back to an event that was already explicitly shown, and it answers questions that arose when the event initially happened. For example, why did “Madeline” run up to the top of the tower, and how did it come about that she happened to fall? The first time, we are subjected to the experience from Scotty’s point of view, and in this way, we are restricted, in that the next thing we know is the body of “Madeline” falling from the tower. We have to assume that the body is indeed of the woman with whom Scotty was interacting, based on the limited information we are provided with in the plot. The flashback, referring back to this incident, now shows us what happened from the woman’s point of view—it shows what we initially did not see when she ran up the stairs of the tower. It shows how when she reached the top, Gavin Elster was awaiting with the dead body of his wife, and had to stifle Judy’s screams as he threw the body off the tower, knowing that Scotty wouldn’t dare come to the top for his fear of heights. We are thus provided with, as pointed out earlier, all the information needed to solve the mystery covering the first half of the film, and the focus of the narrative shifts to a second mystery, in which we as an omniscient audience wait in anticipation for Scotty to figure out what we’ve just been told, albeit in a more complex manner.

Though in many instances of flashback we have to be wary of its narrative authority, in Vertigo we must assume that the flashback portrays a truthful representation of what happened. It is indeed true that this flashback occurs as Judy is writing a letter, in a fit of passion, and that this potentially could alter the accuracy of the flashback; however, we must assume it to be true because otherwise the second part of the film would not have made sense. On the one hand, any small change in detail of what happened is expected and would not really change the remainder of the film. On the other hand, if Judy were grossly misrepresenting the truth--- for example, if it was really she who killed Madeline and threw the body off the tower, the character of Gavin Elster and his sinister plan to murder his wife would be rendered irrelevant. It is quite plausible to say that something like this could have happened, but if that were the case, it is almost certain that Hitchcock would have cast Judy’s character in a more negative light. At the very least, if this alternate scenario were the case, Hitchcock would have used the flashback in a different manner, perhaps shifting the audience’s initial impressions of Judy’s character of a mysterious and ambiguous character to that of a sinister one much along the lines of Gavin Elster.

Whereas the flashback scene in Vertigo ultimately serves as a means of unraveling the mystery of the plot, as it essentially rams the answer right into our face, the flashback scene in Michael Curtiz’ Casablanca is used in a more subtle way, to give us a back story on the equally ambiguous Rick Blaine. It takes a while before Rick’s character is introduced on-screen; our knowledge of his personality is restricted to second- hand information, contained in conversations between people at his upscale club. Initially, we are to assume that Rick is a powerful man, a sort of super-hero of men in Casablanca, to whom most everyone defers to. His introduction does not do much to change this initial impression--- we also find out that he is a rather cynical and bitter man who seems to have seen the worst of the world. At the same time, however, he remains rather mysterious, in the sense that nobody knows why he is so bitter and cynical, and nobody really bothers to ask him why. Because he is portrayed as powerful and influential, it is only natural for one to question just how he came to be that way. As such, the mystery of Rick comes to the forefront of the film. This mystery is further complicated when Ilsa Lund walks into his club with her husband, and asks Sam the piano player to play “As Time Goes By.” At this point, the questions of Ilsa’s significance and the significance of the song come into play, and what relation if any they have to Rick. Eventually, Rick is drawn over to the piano, hearing the familiar tune that he had instructed Sam never to play again, and encounters Ilsa, and we learn that indeed there is a great significance in the relationship between her and Rick.

This relationship is further explored when we find Rick drinking by himself, after the club’s closing, reminiscing to a time in Paris, in which he was a more optimistic, more romantic, and less cynical man, with Ilsa as his love interest. At this point we know the exact relationship between Rick and Ilsa, and, as the flashback progresses, we learn why he has turned into such a bitter and cynical man. As he sits there drinking, Rick reminisces on all the good times he had with Ilsa in a montage sequence--- dancing together, driving through Paris, taking a boat ride--- and we find out that he and Ilsa were strongly in love at one point. However, when it comes time for Rick and Ilsa to flee the German invasion, Ilsa leaves him standing at the train station, armed with a note from her explaining how she could never see him again.

All of this information provided in the flashback is crucial to understanding exactly who Rick is and why he acts the way he does throughout the rest of the film. Because of his experience with Ilsa, Rick has lost his trust in love, perhaps indicative of his bitterness. He is bitter because he was betrayed by the woman he loved--- a fact that we would not have assumed when we were first introduced to him. We also learn how he came to arrive in Casablanca, taking the train that Ilsa was supposed to be on. We learn that “As Time Goes By” was a song that he and Ilsa shared together, and for Sam to play it only brought back those memories of heartbreak. Why is all of this information relevant? At our initial introduction, we cannot empathize, much less sympathize, with Rick’s character because we don’t know enough about him. As with any character, our tendency is to stay neutral until more of the story is revealed. Now that the flashback has brought us to a point where we know enough about Rick to at least understand his motivations, we are better able to pass a judgment on him. As noted in the beginning, Rick’s flashback provided context for the story, a necessary ingredient in our judgment.

Though providing us with a detailed context for the story, at the same time, we cannot place too much narrative authority in Rick’s flashback. For one thing, he was drunk at this time, not thinking clearly, as he reminisced on his long lost love. We know nothing of what Ilsa’s experience was like, and how that information may have affected our understanding of what was happening in the plot. An inebriated Rick is the only authority we are presented with, and as such, it is difficult to ascertain the real truth of the narrative. Perhaps if we were subjected to Ilsa’s experience instead of Rick’s, we would have an entirely different outlook on the events that took place. But at least in Rick’s mind, these are the events that took place, and these events are the justification for his later actions.

Some may argue that the flashback in Casablanca does indeed operate in a way similar to that of Vertigo, in that it reveals details about the love plot, which allows the audience to figure out exactly what is going on. This is true to a certain extent, but because of the subjective experience of the flashback in Casablanca, we cannot place too much narrative authority in it with regards to the plot, because the plot is comprised of more than just Rick. To know more, it would have been necessary to include a flashback from Ilsa’s point of view. However, because of the singular quality of the flashback, it must not be looked upon as a revelation of the plot but rather a revelation of the character. Because Rick’s flashback is so singular and so deeply psychological, any inferences with regards to information can only be made on Rick’s character. The only way to truly empathize with a character such as Rick is through personal introspection; Rick’s memory, though seemingly unreliable, provides us an insight to his past, something that can only be gained through such a way as a singular flashback.

It would seem to be the same case for Vertigo--- after all, Judy has a singular flashback much like Rick’s, in a similar rage of emotions potentially clouding the truth; however, her flashback is substantially different for one major reason: We had seen the events of the flashback earlier in the film, as they had actually happened. Because Judy’s flashback refers to an event that was explicitly shown on screen before, we are able to compare different points of view and synthesize them into a reasonably accurate picture of what truly happened. When we first see the woman running up the tower, we are witnessing it from Scotty’s point of view. Initially, we do not see what Judy does after she goes up the stairs--- all we see is Judy reaching the top of the stairs and a body falling from the top, which would be precisely what Scotty is witnessing. Thus, we can compare these two points of view--- events as they are initially presented, from Scotty’s point of view, and then the flashback, from Judy’s point of view--- and synthesize them into an accurate rendering of events. Because these two points of view do not really contradict each other, there are few issues of sorting out what was true and what was not true. As such, what becomes important in this case is not introspection into the characters of Judy and Scotty, but rather a synthesis of points of view to create a clear happening of events. Because we now know exactly what transpired, we have solved the mystery of what happened at the mission tower.

It is clear that the technique of flashback does more than simply provide extra plot details or details about characterization. If it were merely for the purpose of these things, filmmakers would provide these details in the narrative exposition or within character dialogue. In a sense, however, a flashback is a deeply psychological ploy that allows us to step directly into the minds of the characters. In addition to the psychological, in the case of Vertigo and Casablanca, the flashback places the audience in touch with the emotional. For it is not simply a matter of seeing what a certain character remembers about certain events, but rather gaining access to a character’s memory in a time of great psychological and emotional vulnerability, when memory seems to be at its strongest and most subjective. Witnessing this subjective quality in the narrative, the flashback can be used to reveal the mysterious quality of the character’s experiences within the narrative, as shown in Vertigo, or change our impressions and views about certain characters, as is the case of Casablanca. No matter how the technique is used, it arms us with the knowledge that helps us to make our judgments more accurate.