Abstract: In this paper, we want to consider how Hitchcock revisits a literary and cinematographic topos, « Le portrait enchanté », the title of a short story by Bandello (1554) and a tale by Mallarmé (1893). From Blackmail (1929) to Vertigo (1958), these « model » portraits are sneaking up : they capture the look and the trap is closing on the tricked consciences that they expose to death. Can the portraits’s murderous power be reduced to the attention they are given by the narration?
