Vertigo's title sequence begins with extreme close-ups of Kim Novak's facial features, moving from her nervously twitching mouth up to her nose and then her eyes. Evidently, she is jittery and uneasy because of the camera's forced, anxious scrutiny of her face. Zooming in on her eye, the lens becomes tinged with red and then the recurring animated vertigo motif spirals out of her pupil. The titles then play against the backdrop of several spiraling geometric shapes which appear from afar and grow to fill the screen. As one shape disappears, another takes its place. The shapes appear to be falling and create a dizzying effect.