Alfred Hitchcock in Control

Rating: 9/10 (5 February 2018)

Read Window by Alfred Hitchcock, was experimental in nature. Almost the whole movie was set inside of L.B. Jefferies' living room, this was not a common practice in the 50's because it usually is hard to keep the viewers attention without showing them new and bold sets. But Hitchcock made it work extraordinarily and I personally didn't even notice the whole movie was only set in one room until after I had finished watching the film. It was Hitchcock's use of Mise En Scene that didn't make it easy to realize you were trapped in one room for 2 hours.
Mise En Scene in Rear Window included the use of the camera, the shots used, the angles and distance at which it was filmed from. After looking back on the film it is very clear that the "camera" or the point of view that the viewer sees is actually lined up with where the main character L.B. Jefferies is looking. If he is watching the ally, the viewer is watching the ally, if he is watching the apartments, the viewer is watching the apartments. Hitchcock made the whole movie through L.B. Jefferies eyes and brought the viewers along for the ride, like they were spectators in another persons life. The only shots that aren't lined up with where Jefferies looks is the ones of himself, which show the viewer his reaction and emotion to what is happening outside of his apartment.
Another reason that this film could be seen as experimental is the fact that again in the 50's "amateur sleuth" movies were not popular. All the crime movies were about cops or detectives, but when Hitchcock made the main character of a crime mystery film a ordinary civilian, it gives the viewer more reason to sympathies with the characters who are similar to themselves as they go on this journey to solve a murder. On the other hand viewers have a hard time connecting with the characters of a cop/detective movie, unless they are cops or detectives, because their lives are so different from the ones being shown in the movie, but when it is about someone that represents an "average Joe" you can connect so much more with it.
Alfred Hitchcock did a tremendous job keeping this movie in a sense realistic. When viewing the salesmen and his wife in the beginning of the film, Jefferies isn't able to hear what they are talk and arguing about because his apartment is on the complete other side of the alley. It wouldn't be realistic to be able to hear every word that was spoken, and most of the times that would be frustrating for the viewer to be left out of the loop, but that was the point because Jefferies was also in a sense left out of the loop because we are hearing what he is hearing, making the whole movie through his eyes idea even more intriguing. Along with the sound, Hitchcock keeps the viewer and Jefferies guessing to what is happening in the house by only having a couple of windows open to the apartment, this gives room for the characters to do this outside of the viewers vision, making them think about what is happening behind that wall, what is that character doing that I can't see.
Alfred Hitchcock made a masterpiece with Rear Window it was a whole new experience to be in someones shoes, to be "in the movie" as a passive spectator. Even after 50+ years I enjoyed this movie and was interested the whole time, I wasn't ever thinking about when the movie was going to be over, I was there, entertained, and fully approbated this piece of art.