'Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want'

The wish-fulfilment themes of 'Ferris Buellers' Day Off' and 'Vertigo' examined head-to-head

Buying the above two posters earlier on this week at a posters' fair subconsciously initiated a train of thought within me: why these two? Well, one, they were one of the few that really interested me (there were some awfully cool Breaking Bad posters but having never seen a single episode of the series it would've been blasphemous to purchase one, as for the 'Star Wars' fare on sale I could've done with a lot more Yoda), but also as your humble author is constantly on the outlook for, there are more similarities between the two films than one would expect. One an excellent Hitchcockian thriller which explores perhaps the darkest territories of all his filmography, ranging from psychology, personal identity, and obsession; the other a (deceptively) lighthearted John Hughes teen comedy, also one of his very best, which starts off as upbeat and sprightly as any 80's Brat Pack flick before delving into some serious waters. Both have always been particular favourites of mine, and I think one linking factor between the two, the exploration of certain characters' wants and desires, is maybe one of the attractions of both films for me. They explore, in different yet not entirely dissimilar ways, how we employ images and fantasies of 'wish-fulfilment' onto others in order to fulfil our own desires, or assuage our ongoing neuroses.

Matthew Broderick's Ferris Bueller is, naturally the domineering presence of 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off', and Hughes' direction and script is well aware of this. It's wonderful to see Broderick's talents for lighthearted wisecracking and fourth-wall breaking being put to great use as he lights up every moments he's onscreen. His narrative voice and screen presence is what practically holds the film together and which makes it as memorable as it is, as it is never in doubt who's telling the story. But if Ferris is our guide into the story, then Alan Ruck's Cameron Frye is arguably the centre of it all. While Ferris remains a constant throughout (and it's testament to Broderick's talents that he never becomes off-putting even with some of Ferris' more selfish antics), Cameron is the one who gets the meaty dramatic scenes of the film. Comparisons have oft been made with 'Fight Club' and the listless Narrator's fictional conception of Tyler Durden in order to assert his masculinity, to Cameron and Ferris his outlet for his dreams and wishes. I don't entirely buy into the whole concept but I do feel that Cameron's friendship with Ferris is to an extent, an example of wish-fulfilment on the former's behalf. Ferris, with his excess of confidence, popularity, beautiful girlfriend and just general winning-ness in life, represents to Cameron everything he THINKS he wants in life, only to finally understand at the film's conclusion that what he really wants in life is to be able to stand by himself, and have Ferris as not a friend to be idolised, but just a best friend. It's a lesson I think Jimmy Stewart's Scottie would've done well to learn in 'Vertigo'. Kim Novak's dual identities in the film represent to him the pinnacle of wish-fulfilment, and his arc goes in stark contrast to Cameron Frye's. It's an incredibly unhealthy and bleakly dark relationship, whereby his obsession does not bring him out of himself like Cameron, but instead gradually eats him up from within till we are left with a shattered remnant of Stewart's 'aw shucks' persona. Charmless, vile, selfish, wish-fulfilment becomes the downwards spiral of a man torn apart by worshipping a fictionalised idol. He cannot get what he wants, but unlike Cameron who accepts this and learns to stand apart from his fantasies, he continues his futile pursuit till it results in him destroying the reality behind the fiction, and forever entrapping himself within the errors of his ways.