Rear Window

The World of Rear Window

Rear Window:

Directed By: Alfred Hitchcock

Other movies filmed by Alfred Hitchcock: Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963), Vertigo (1958), Rebecca (1940)

Setting of the Opening

The opening of this film shows numbers of apartment blocks all seem to be residents for people in New York City (setting). Starting from a small window of the main protagonist and then pans and tilts through the residence. The area seems to have both high class and working class in the same area. The high class being the man shaving his beard. This is shown by his house in general, it's a house full of books and a Grand Piano and a bottle of champagne, showing he has a lot of disposable income. The working class being he couple sleeping outside in the balcony possibly because they can't afford air conditioning or a proper bedroom . The woman dressing up in her house would be the middle class as she has her own house but the house seems to be run quite run down and untidy. The main man would be in the middle to high class status as his house looks very neat and tidy, full of books and expensive alcoholic drink bottles, but he doesn't have any extra furniture to decorate his home.

After all the panning of the apartment buildings and the atmosphere of the apartment blocks, the camera then pans back to the an in the window of the starting house. We know that the main man is called Jefferies from the broken bones and is very knowledgeable because he has books all around his house during the opening scene. During the scene we also see his wine and champagne bottles giving the impression that he's relatively rich. The broken leg, the smashed up camera, and the pictures of the car getting destroyed implies that he gotten into the accident as a risk-taking photographer. Him being the camera man of the car race implies he must have a relatively high status or works for someone high in power as it requires some status to get into the tracks of a race. The inverted photo he has shows that he is different from the people and surroundings around him.

Dead Dog Scene

The world of rear window is very ignorant, this is proven by the scene of the dead dog and the world revolving around it. During the scene of the dead dog, the world looked at what's happening then stopped. They all went quiet all of a sudden then resumed what they were doing at first. This shows the ignorance of the world revolving around them and the careless status of everyone around the main characters. It's as if they're all stuck in they're own blizzard and isolating them from the world outside they're house/ event. There are only some people who cares for the dead dog and took action was the owner and the "green woman". Some people felt sorry but did not do anything about it and the rest doesn't bother helping. Even though everyone lived next to each other in one big area of apartment blocks, but there is definitely no neighborly relationships between any of them, it can even be convincing that none of these neighbors know each other or seem to care what is going on around them 

 During the dead dog scene, all of the apartment buildings had their lights on except for one room which could possibly be the killer and the antagonist of the story. 

Jeff as a Character and how he sees relationships

As said earlier, Jeff (James Stewart) is the main protagonist of the story, he is the one who discovers the mystery of the killings of the lady who lives opposite to him at the apartment buildings area by spying on them daily with his telescope during the times as a cripple due to an accident whilst taking photos at a race track. He was also the one who contacted the police to turn the killer in with evidence and has great connections with the detective who works at a nearby police station. 

Jeff is an easy going person who is somewhat carefree in life and also does not life to rush things especially when it comes to love. Lisa (Grace Kelly) for example is madly in love with him and would do everything for Jeff. But on the other hand, Jeff does not really care about her as much as Lisa cares about him. This can be seen from the two videos above which shows Jeff being a carefree person and a chilled character who does not want to rush things (first video) and also his reaction to Lisa when she gave Jeff a fine dinner service with a hired waiter standing in front of his doorstep. As a whole, this movie highlights how women holds the upper hand being the strong character who does all the work around the house, having a job and doing hard work for a man she loves. Whereas man, could be seen as weak and crippled, not being able to do anything by himself and could only sit and watch. 

Creating Tension

From the scene from the video above we see Lisa (Kelly) approaching the apartment building opposite to Jeff's apartment to search for important evidence of the killer who has been in and out of his apartment. 

From this scene, we know several things of how Hitchcock creates tension to build up the scene. 

Firstly, from Jeff's point of view (camera shot) we see the killer returning to his apartment, Jeff and the nanny knows, however, Lisa does not know so the tension is built through the use of characters and their emotions. After Jeff realizing that the killer is back, he feels guilty for not being able to walk and go help Lisa (building up tension through use of emotion of character). 

Now, tension is further built on through the use of limited ideas and abilities that Jeff has, immediately letting him make quick choices which was "calling the police" and praying for Lisa and hoping that nothing happens to her. 

The next way of building tension is the lack of noise and silent activity that goes on in the flat opposite to Jeff. Jeff and the audience does not know what the killer is going to do with Lisa or what they are saying. After that, the tension reaches its climax when the killer realizes that he is being watched. This was seen through the use of the close up shot and POV shot via camerawork. Jeff zooming into the face of the killer and noticing that the killer saw him, which leaves with the audience not knowing what the killer is going to do next. Is he going to kill Lisa in front of his eyes? Or is he going to come to Jeff's apartment. This final event causes the audience to jump because the camerawork gives an effect as if the killer is looking straight at the audience.