Wonderful, Skillfully made movie

Rating: 10/10 (5 February 2018)

The movie uses exemplary framing and composition. The film has a great feeling throughout. Each window in the alley is a whole different possible story, a love story, a slice of life story about a marriage, or a story of mystery and intrigue. The only reason this movie is about that latter option is because that is what L.B. Jeffries happened to notice randomly one night. In the movie, you yourself don't know whether or not Mr. Thorwald did it throughout the movie, similar to the cast of characters in the story. You are in a state of slow increasing suspense throughout the movie. To create this feeling and the rest of the emotional gambit the movie goes through the movie does many different amazing tricks and tools.
The framing of the movie was astounding. The movie mimicked L.B. Jeffries' sight outside his window or in his room. The camera was always either exactly where he is looking or very close to the side or back of his head, showing the movie from the character's point of view. As a viewer you are seeing the world through Jeffries' eyes. This point of view extends to the usage of lenses and filters used over the footage. Although old fashioned from current movie effects for when Jeffries was looking through his binoculars or lenses were good for the time, and still accurately portray what they need. Especially the effects of the flashes at the end of the movie, having the dark screen and suddenly lighting up the screen blinded me s a view the first time, due to me watching the movie in a dark room. The framing and effects of the movie were extremely well done.
The movie has excellent usage of light and dark/day and night to show the danger and suspicion in the movie. When going through the movie, during the initial day, the feeling is upbeat and has a slice of life feel. Though, as day turned to night, the first clues of something being amiss came out. This pattern continues, through the days the movie is set through. During the day Jeffries is told that he is wrong and that nothing has happened and that everything is peachy. The day represents safety and the naivete of the characters in the movie. Alternatively, during the night, odd, suspicious things happen even Lisa begins to believe the story as it is becoming night. This all comes to a climax near the end of the movie when the final confrontation happens in near total darkness and the suspicions are proven true. The night represents danger and suspicion. During the night, the wife is murdered. during the night the dog is murdered. During the night Jeffries is almost murdered. After the resolution and everything is back to normal it becomes day again and everything is upbeat again. The usage of lighting, and especially the usage of night and day add a whole new aspect to the movie.
The camera's distance from the characters and scenes helps the character's feeling and the scene's feelings be better expressed. The reaction shots of James Stewart's face after he looks out the window are close to his face and are used to endear us to his character. The distance from Thorwald's apartment and the other apartments in the alley, are used to distance us from the characters. We can see the stories in the other apartments, we hope their stories end happily, though we do not feel as strongly about them as we do our main characters and stories.
Over all, Rear Window was an cinematographic masterpiece. Using all avenues of camera work and lighting to make the movie, which consists mostly of calm conversations in a small apartment into extremely interesting murder mystery. I personally have not watched any Hitchcock movies, excluding this one. Although, after watching this one I feel like I must watch the rest of his works as soon as possible.