Rear Window (1954)

Some terms:

Scopophilia
Specularize
Formalist
realists

Formalism and realism are generally seen as being opposites, although clearly they are poles along a continuum. While films like Battleship Potemkin and Strike are films made by film makers who were interested in making films which clearly using techniques in editing to call attention to things in the film. The “montage” concept in which two shots are juxtaposed in such a way as to give a third or new meaning to the shot are classic examples of this kind of thinking. Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window is virtually at the other end of the spectrum. While full of filmic techniques, every effort is made to keep them as invisible as possible. This is a film about watching. In this sense, the “voyeurism” of the film makes us aware that the main character is behaving in a way that the audience of the film is behaving – watching things going on in other people’s lives. In effect the very subject nature of the film should make us aware that we are watching a film, but at the same time, the film techniques employed by Hitchcock are very hidden. This film is a film which is clearly a realist film. There is almost nothing in the film that calls attention to itself,

REAR WINDOW

The script for this film comes from a short story by Cornell Woolrich.. Try to find a copy to read. What differences are there between the short story and the film. How might you account for these? What does this say about the difference between film and literature? Think about the poblems of adaptation.

What is the mise en scene in theopening shot of Jeffries apartment (and indeed of the film in general). The film runs nearly 5 minutes without any dialog at all. What information do you get visually from the film?

Language has many complexities to it. Listen carefully to the three main characters: L.B. (Jedd) Jeffries (Stewart), Lisa Carol Fremont (Grace Kelly) and Stella (Thelma Ritter). What can you tell about their backgerounds, social class and so on just from the way they speak?

What kinds of problems does this raise in watching foreign films. How does Stella address Jeff? How does he address her? What des this tell you?

The film deals with "scopophila" (a love of looking) and "specularization" (the act of making a set piece out of something; to fullfil a viewer's scopophila). The film relates questions of watching in real life and in films. The opening of the film shows three window shades being rolled up like curtains on a stage. The use of the curtains in found several times during the film. Lisa closes hte curtains (show is over) and shows nightgown saying "Coming attractioins". The curtains close at the end. Notice they are bamboo so one can still see through them a bit,. Jeffries uses both binoculars and a long telephoto lens to spy on people. The use of the long lens on the camera certainly links looking and filming (and hence watching films)

The windows in the various buildings appear almost like movie screens of TV monitors - notice we can not hear much of what is happening in terms of dialog. It is all very visual.

What problems are there in the "point of view" of the film? The film is basically told from Jeffries point of view in terms of what we see and where the focs of the image lies. We see almost exclsively from Jeff's apartment with Jeff in it.. None the less, the red screen indicating the blinding flash of the flashbulbs near the end is not his point of view, but Thorwald's (Raymond Burr)

There are questions raised about "rear window ethics" and the spying on people in their own homes. This contrasts with the satatements made by the woman on the fire escape (Sara Berner) about neighbor's knowing what is happening with their heighbors