Vertigo

Evidence

The film's commitment to exact spatial repetition with substituted bodies generates cascading constraints Hitchcock didn't independently choose—the second half must retrace identical coordinates, forcing specific locations, framings, and blocking patterns. This geometric recursion exploits the cut's property of temporal discontinuity to make spatial identity across time structurally visible.

Territory

Despite its structural sophistication, Vertigo operates through scene-based editing preserving location, character, and time within sequences. The spatial recursion works precisely because continuity editing constructs stable spatial models that can then be systematically retraced—the mechanism depends on continuity's spatial coherence.

Constitutive depth

The foundational commitment to obsessive reconstruction generates endogenous constraints—once Hitchcock commits to showing 'the same geometry twice with different bodies,' the film must systematically retrace its own spatial coordinates. These constraints emerge from the mechanism's operation, not from independent directorial choices.

Legibility

The spiral recursion operates as foregrounded structural content—viewers experience 'structural doubling before narrative revelation' and 'recognize spatial patterns returning before understanding why.' The mechanism of geometric repetition is perceptible as the film's organizing principle, not hidden behind narrative logic.