The film ‘Rear Window’ was made and directed in 1954 by Alfred Hitchcock. He was British-born but had his main success in America. His most famous film is Psycho. He tended to make and direct films of a mystery, thriller, genre.
The film ‘Rear Window’ is about a man Jeffries, who is a photographer. He has broken his leg and is forced to stay in his apartment for 8 weeks. To relieve his boredom he starts looking out the window at his neighbors. One night he thinks he hears a murder in one of the other apartments, which he can see from his window. With the help of his girlfriend, Lisa, and his nurse, Stella, he tries to uncover the murder. The central character in ‘Rear Window’ is L.B. Jeffries (James Stewart). He is a photographer and uses his camera equipment to spy on his neighbors, especially Thorwald, the suspected murderer. Thorwald is a traveling salesman, who lives across the courtyard opposite Jeffries’s apartment.
The other main character is Lisa (Grace Kelly). She is Jeffries girlfriend, and she works for a glossy magazine. The film is shot mainly with only a couple of cameras, which tend to be stationary and do lots of point of view, panning, close-ups, tilting, zoom, and medium shots. (Fawell, 56) They also do some shoulder, and special effect shots. The film is meant to be from Jeffries’ point of view.
Hitchcock has made the film in such a way that the audience only sees and hears things from Jeffries’ point of view. When Jeffries hears the murder of Mrs. Thorwald, Hitchcock has made it so that we only hear the scream and the glass breaking, just as Jeffries did. The screen is dark so we don’t see the murder; we just hear it, as Jeffries does. (Fawell, 73) He gets suspicious because Mr. Thorwald starts doing odd things like going out in the rain in the middle of the night with a big case.
In this ‘Rear Window,’ Hitchcock appears in one of the windows, winding up a clock. He only appears for about 10 seconds. This is a very unusual thing to do, appear in your film. This is one of the reasons why Hitchcock films are so famous. All the scenes in ‘Rear Window’ are shot exultantly and Hitchcock has made and directed them very well. One of the best scenes in the film is the scene where it starts raining and a couple is sleeping outside and they have to quickly take their mattress inside before it gets wet. (Richard, 140) While directing this scene Hitchcock was very clever. When he was filming this, to make it look more real both the actors had earpieces in, so Hitchcock could speak to them. He would speak to one actor and tell them to move and pull in one direction, then it would tell the other actor to move and pull in the other direction. Hitchcock has done this to make it look more realistic, which it does. It is a bit funny because the actors are pulling in different directions, the husband managers to fall through the open window with the mattress. (Richard, 128)
Hitchcock has made it very cleverly. It’s an unusual film because it is set all in one room and the courtyard. Some people would find it boring because there is no change in scenery. The only time the camera goes outside the flat is right at the end where Jeffries falls out of the window.
The best part of the film for me is towards the end, from when Lisa goes into the Thorwalds’ apartment and then Thorwald working out whom it is spying on him. It is very tense and exciting. I think the film maintains our interest and keeps us hooked. Hitchcock has done it very well. You would think that it would be a bit boring considering it is all set in the one place, but it is not, it is very interesting and it maintained my interest very well. This was one of the first new films of its type. I enjoyed the film and thought Hitchcock did it very well.
Works Cited
Fawell, John. Hitchcock’s Rear Window: The Well-Made Film, Southern Illinois University Press, 2001.
Richard Allen, Sam Ishii-Gonzáles. Hitchcock: Past and Future, Routledge, 2004.