Rear Window (1954)

Some terms:

Scopophilia
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 which you are suppposed 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?

What is the opening 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?