"We've Become a Race of Peeping Toms. What People Ought to Do Is Get Outside Their Own House and Look in for a Change." - Stella
A refined combination of acting, cinematography, editing, blocking and set design, Rear Window, released in 1954, is a mystery-thriller with a terrific premise that brims with suspense and intrigue. Supposedly based (very loosely so) on the short story of the same name by Cornell Woolrich, as well as the details of two grisly real-world murder cases, Rear Window provides a compelling narrative with an extensive amount of visual storytelling, exuding tension throughout its runtime alongside a handful of well-written, amusing characters who are easy to understand and get behind.
Plot Summary: When professional photographer, L.B. 'Jeff' Jefferies, breaks his leg while obtaining a shot at an auto race, he finds himself confined to his New York apartment during a discomfiting heatwave, spending his time peering out of his rear window observing his neighbours. But, when Jefferies begins to suspect that a man across the courtyard may have murdered his wife, he enlists the help of his fashion model girlfriend, Lisa Fremont, to investigate...
Helmed by one of cinema's greatest and most recognisable filmmakers, the late Sir Alfred Hitchcock (Vertigo, Psycho, The Birds), Rear Window stands as one of Hitchcock's lesser-known films, despite its still overly positive reception from critics and audiences alike, which I feel is unfair, as the film contains much of the same cultivated and innovative directing Hitchcock was known for. For example, every cast member in the apartments facing Jefferies' window wore an earpiece through which they could receive directions, allowing for lengthy extracts where Jefferies observes others as their gestures and body language reveal what is occurring in their lives behind closed doors. Furthermore, Hitchcock cleverly uses cuts to imply things about Jefferies' neighbours and himself. For instance, when Jefferies is discussing his potential future with Lisa, specifically if he should propose to her, we follow his perspective as he observes a newlywed couple before his eyes turn to another apartment where another couple's marriage has become distant and lifeless. Similar to much of Hitchcock's filmography, Rear Window also possesses underlying themes of voyeurism, repeatedly questioning Jefferies' actions as he snoops on the private affairs of those around him, valiant intentions or not.
The late central cast of James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter, Wendell Corey and Raymond Burr are all fantastic. The protagonist, L.B. 'Jeff' Jefferies, is portrayed with such snark and conviction by Stewart, relishing his life of risk, reward and travel with no plans to settle down anytime soon. Equally, Kelly as Lisa Fremont perfectly embodies beauty and elegance in contrast to Jefferies' ruggedness, yet is still capable in her own right, eager to disprove Jefferies' assumption that she could never fit into his world, hoping he will someday propose to her. After taking notice of Jefferies' obsessive behaviour with his neighbour across the courtyard, however, Lisa agrees to put aside their relationship issues to assist in his investigation, along with Jefferies' transient nurse, Stella, whom Ritter lends an excellent sense of intellect and dry wit via her performance.
Shot entirely on one set, which required months of planning and construction, the apartment courtyard set measured ninety-eight feet wide, one hundred eighty-five feet long and forty feet high, consisting of thirty-one apartments, eight of which were completely furnished. As a result, the cinematography by the late Robert Burks permits an array of creative and distance-spanning shots that move from apartment to apartment with ease, noticeably in the film's rightly celebrated opening shot, a prolonged and sinuous tracking shot that sweeps across the whole courtyard, spending a moment in each of the six featured apartments before pulling back into Jefferies' apartment to find him dozing in his wheelchair. Additionally, the lighting throughout Rear Window is remarkable for a film shot in a studio, with around one thousand arc lights being used to simulate sunlight. And, thanks to the extensive pre-lighting of the set, the crew could impressively change the lighting from day to night in under forty-five minutes.
Moving from the visuals to the audio, all of the sound in Rear Window is diegetic, meaning that all of the music, speech and other noises come from within the world of the film, excluding the non-diegetic original score heard in the opening scene by the late Franz Waxman, the most prominent piece of which is the orchestral track; Prelude, a jazzy, relatively lively track with a subtle aura of mystery.
On a more cynical note, whilst the foremost characters are well-defined and even have clear character arcs, not all of Jefferies' neighbours are written equal, with some members of the apartment courtyard, such as the "Hearing Aid Lady" (a nickname given by Jefferies as he doesn't know her real name), residing in one of the ground-floor apartments, receiving little to no development and only a single prominent action.
In summary, Rear Window is a captivating flick that, while perhaps not as iconic as some of Hitchcock's other work, is just as delightful. Meticulous, gripping and surprisingly humorous, Rear Window is just one of the many films that hit that mark with Hitchcock at the wheel, employing elements that couldn't be carried out in any art form other than film. And, true to his eclectic form, Hitchcock switched gears drastically for his next release, the 1955 romantic mystery; To Catch a Thief, proving he could lend his hand to almost any genre in cinema. Rating: 8/10.
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