The Review of Rear Windows by Hitchcock

Film “Rear window” by the legend of cinematography Alfred Hitchcock is a masterpiece. Alfred Hitchcock is known by his experimental style in filmmaking and using many different cinema techniques and the film “Rear window” is not an exception and full of amazing techniques. Also through this film, Alfred Hitchcock views ironically the human nature of voyeurism. Voyeurism is a pleasure of spying on people, watching their private life. I will describe three wonderful elements of “Rear window” that make this film one of the best movies of all time: telling a story without dialogue, shooting the film in one location, and impact of voyeurism.

Firstly, telling a story by showing details without saying anything has a big effect on the audience. According to the book “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind” by Al Ries and Jeck Trout (2001), people perceive visual pictures better than words. The first scene of “Rear window” is a great example of telling the story without words. In the beginning, we see a man in a wheelchair then his broken leg with his name written on a cast. Next, we see close up of his broken camera and photos of the explosion, car race. Because of these shots we can understand that the man's name is Jeff, he is a photographer, and he broke his leg while making a photo report. Other examples of visual storytelling are shots of Jeff’s neighbors' lives. We see a man with the piano in his room and make a guess that he is a musician. A woman dancing ballet while making breakfast. She is a ballerina. Throughout all film, we can tell a story of each character only by watching at some details or actions they do. We get assumptions using our imagination and that makes us more interested in what is going on the screen. Visual storytelling makes the audience engaged in a story and guess what is the movie about. Alfred Hitchcock once said: “If it's a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on”. So that telling a story without any words is a brilliant technique which makes the audience involved.

One of the biggest achievements of Hitchcock in this movie is how he puts the audience in the perspective of Jeffries. All movie camera does not move from Jeff’s apartment, that’s why the audience feel like they see everything from Jeff’s eyes. Moreover, it makes us feel and think like the main character. We do not know more than Jeff knows, that gets us in tension and creates intrigue. For example, the scene of conversation between Jeff and detective Doyle when Doyle claims that Mr.Thorwald did not kill his wife. He gives logical arguments and Jeff starts to doubt in his accusation. Like Jeff, we are thinking maybe it is Jeff’s imagination and Mrs. Thorwald did not die. That shows the power of shooting technique. Hitchcock uses Doyle’s perspective to show Thorwald sitting in his apartment near the window and calmly smoking. We watch at Doyle from a high angle as Jeff sees him, that makes Doyle bigger and more important than Jeff. At the end of the scene camera follow Doyle and we understand that he won this debate. In this case, we feel disoriented what will be in the end? Is Jeff right or he mistakes?

Shooting in one place is very difficult to establish but it creates an ability to use amazing techniques like “Kulishov” effect. In “Rear window” we see a mid-shot of Jeff with the neutral face then a shot with newlyweds then a shot with Jeff smiling. “Kulishov” effect connects these different shots together and gives us a clear understanding of the main character’s emotions of how he feels about different situations.

Shooting all film in one location not only make us feel like we are the main character but also creates an interesting and unique plot decision. 'Rear window' is the main story from which the audience can see other stories. Hitchcock draws a parallel between the viewer and the curious main character. Thus he shows human nature of enjoying to spy on other people called voyeurism. From Jeff’s eyes, we see different stories of his neighbors: the musician who tries to create a melody that will bring him success, miss lonely heart who always waits for someone to be with, and the ballerina dancing all day. From these short stories, we can understand some ideas that Alfred Hitchcock wanted to show us. On the one hand, voyeurism is a bad characteristic of human nature that violates the privacy of another individual and can cause the wrong opinion as it happens with the ballet dancer Ms. Torso. There was a party in her apartment of Ms. Torso. We see her flirting with men then we see Jeff’s grimace showing his bad opinion about her. However, by the end of the movie we see her boyfriend come back. He is rather short he wears glasses in a setup to be seen as someone who most would view below her standards physically, but that does not matter they make each other happy. On the other hand, Alfred Hitchcock shows us another good side of voyeurism. In the film 'Rear window” Jeff’s bad habit of spying on his neighbors helped solve the murder. Also in this movie, Hitchcock reveals the voyeur essence of the cinematography. The movie itself is artificially peeping at someone else's life. Hitchcock asks a question is it good or bad peering into other people’s lives?

The movie “Rear window” made a great contribution to cinematography. “Rear window” by Alfred Hitchcock is one of the best films in cinema history. Film popularity among the audience was made of three unique elements. Firstly, telling a story without dialogue that makes the viewer involved and think out the story himself. Secondly, shooting in one place that despite the limited space allowed to create a unique emotional connection between the viewer and the main character. Thirdly, in “Rear window” Hitchcock shows a good side of voyeurism which helped to solve a crime. In spite of the fact that more than half a century has passed since the film was made, even nowadays it touches people's hearts and is considered a classic of the detective genre. The “Rear window” is a pure classic by Alfred Hitchcock, which incorporates all the key elements that make up the stylish and unique atmosphere of the exciting intrigue and light tension. The film is a must-see in order to plunge into the atmosphere of the 50s, to admire the charming and courageous Grace Kelly. It is worth getting acquainted with this work of Alfred Hitchcock in order to take a closer look at yourself and experience the rich detective character of the final episodes when the main secret of the whole story will be revealed.

References.

• Rias A., Trout J. Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind. 2001. New York, McGraw Hill Professional.
• The Kuleshov effect explained. (2018). StudioBinder. Retrieved 18 February 2019 from https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/kuleshov-effect-examples/