Are Silent Film storytelling techniques outdated?

Rating: 9/10 (5 February 2018)

Rear Window is a formalist movie as seen by Alfred Hitchcock's deep focus on theme and style. This movie focuses on relationships and provides contrasting examples throughout the story. From the newlywed couple next door to the lonely heart across the neighborhood, Hitchcock uses these relationships to develop the plot and tell the story of a murder. Rear Window is successful in engaging viewers, delivering a coherent story and building effective suspense using thoughtful movie techniques. Alfred Hitchcock merges silent storytelling with a simple storyline, a good selection of shots, and a masterful control over the frame. These techniques are apparent to the viewer as they build the stage where the story plays out.
When discussing storytelling, Dialogue is the first thing that comes to mind. How else could someone explain a convoluted plot with multiple twists and story elements? One answer is to keep the story simple and fill in the gap with better storytelling. Rear Window benefits from this rule by sticking to a linear story with no more than six important characters and using visuals to enhance storytelling by involving viewers in the investigation of the murder. There are various times where a character will convey a stance or message through facial expressions as opposed to dialogue. One example being the detective debating with Jeffries on whether the information about Ana Thorwald is trustworthy or not. The detective states his point about everybody not telling their landlord everything by staring at Lisa Fremont's dress. He proved his point without having to explicitly tell Jeffries that he didn't communicate Lisa's stay at his apartment to his landlord.
The main plot of Rear Window is basic and involves a bitter relationship between Lars Thorwald and his wife, which leads to him murdering her and attempting to get away with it. Despite this plot seeming boring and overused, Hitchcock is able to engage the viewer by using clever camera movements, thoughtful shots and suspense.
Alfred Hitchcock is successful in controlling the frame throughout the movie. His three-part POV shot, mixed with expressive close-ups, was the main force pushing viewer engagement. This technique focused on doing a close up on Stewart, then panning over to what he was seeing, and finally focusing back on Stewart to catch his reaction. This combination of shots engages the viewer in the story and builds a connection between the audience and the main character. This connection is reinforced by the dominant middle screen shots where the main focus is Stewart's reactions. Viewers are able to feel the emotion of scenes by a combination of close ups on Stewart's face and Stewart's great acting performance.
Another way that Hitchcock portrays his control of the frame is through well-chosen angles. He uses medium shots during the three-part POV to complement Jeffries' point of view by staying eye level with Jeffries. Then uses high angle and low angle shots in the final confrontation between Lars Thorwald and Jeffries. Hitchcock portrays Lars as a sinister figure using a low angle shot and dark lighting, this angle made Lars look more dominating and threatening to the viewer. Hitchcock then portrays Jeffries using a high angle shot which enhances the idea of Jeffries being trapped and vulnerable. Adding to these angles which enhance the feelings of current scenes, Hitchcock uses tightly framed shots to complement the feeling of confinement as Jeffries spends the whole movie in his small apartment. These different shots and angles all are part of Hitchcock's expressive editing which screams for viewer attention.
Rear View is a good example of a movie which is not afraid of mixing visual storytelling with other important editing techniques in order to catch the viewers' attention. In this movie Hitchcock proves that visual storytelling is just as important as dialogue, which can be easily forgotten and results in viewer disengagement.