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| Fig.1 Poster Art |
Rear Window is a Alfred Hitchcock movie released in 1954
based on Cornell Woolrich’s 1942 short
story “It had to be Murder”. It’s an American suspense film starring James
Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey and Thelma Ritter. Critics and scholars
claim ‘Rear Window’ is Hitchcock’s
best, receiving four Academy Award nominations.
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| Fig.2 Telescopic Camera |
Jeff (James Stewart) is confined to his apartment with a
broken leg; his rear window looks out onto a small courtyard and several other
compartments. During an extremely hot summer he spends his time by watching his
neighbours. He notices suspicious movements from a certain neighbour who
travels back and forth from his apartment with suitcases, soon after the disappearance
of wife. Jeff and his partner Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly) become increasingly weary
about the situation and begin to make further inquiries.
The build up of suspense during this film can only be down
to “Hitchcock's supple and witty handling
of a story that only slowly develops true tension lends the proceedings a
complete sense of confidence” (MCCARTHY, 2000) The way that Hitchcock
builds up the pace to the final un-ravelling of the plot makes for a very
enjoyable watch, as nearly every other Hitchcock film achieves and “In a very general way, it effortlessly
demonstrates all that we now understand to be the splendour of the Hitchcockian
cinema of the absurdly logical.” (CANBY, 1983)
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| Fig.3 His front row seat to a real-time drama |
“Rear Window is
a demonstration that the spectator identifies with the camera, and that the
entire cinema machine is predicated on what psychologists call the scopic
drive.” (Hoberman, 2000) The viewer is made to feel as if he is staring
through the keyhole into other people’s lives as they play out, this is exactly
what Hitchcock wanted to achieve through this movie.
The film leads the viewer to wonder what is really going on
in the lives of our own neighbours, and what secrets lie in closet of them, as
Jeff’s home-care nurse says during the film "Whatever
happened to that old saying, 'Love thy neighbour'?".
Bibliography
List of Illustrations
Fig.1 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d6/Rearwindowposter.jpg/220px-Rearwindowposter.jpg
Fig.2 http://hitchcock.tv/mov/rear_window/images/window2.gif
Fig.3 http://andrewsidea.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/rearwindow2.png
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