Hitchcock Does it Again

Rating: 10/10 (6 February 2018)

Rear Window is at its core is about a man stuck in a wheelchair who witnesses a murder outside his window. However, we learn so much more about the story and the characters throughout this film. Alfred Hitchcock uses various cinematic techniques to advance the plot, develop characters and tell the story in an interesting way.
One interesting thing Hitchcock did was he gave the main character L.B. Jefferies a restriction. He couldn't leave his apartment due to his leg so he was bound to a wheelchair and also bound to that one room. This handicap not only handicaps the character but also the way the story can be told. Throughout the movie the camera never leaves the room and the whole story has to be told from in Jefferies' apartment. However the story was told so well, and interestingly that the story feels so much bigger than one room. It feels like it's also told elsewhere when in reality it isn't. Not only are we stuck in this room, we are stuck with the obstructions of the room. We can never clearly see what is going on in surrounding apartments and when a neighbor plays music loudly, we the viewer lose our hearing as well. This realistic storytelling made for a very interesting and suspenseful movie. As much as we wanted to see outside the room, we were always stuck with L.B Jefferies . It added a whole new layer to this movie that made it quite interesting.
Another technique used by Hitchcock was the Mise en Scene or the arrangement of scenery. The shots in this movie were perfectly laid out. During scenes where you would be looking into the windows across the way, we only saw through the windows and in doing so there was a level of confusion that we shared with Jefferies and a level of suspense in some instances. This technique really paid off because it made the viewer feel more invested in the story. Jefferies and us are both trying to figure out what's going on.
This movie was also cinematically very pleasing. One scene in particular really jumped out at me. It was the scene where Jefferies is questioning everything, from what he had been seeing out that window to the morality of him carefully watching out his window. For the first time in the movie we see the room from a new angle too. Not only is Jeffries looking at the situation differently but we are looking at Jefferies differently. It makes us the viewer also see things from a new perspective and and it makes us also ask the same questions he is asking himself. This attention to detail makes the movie very easy and intriguing to watch.
Besides cinematic techniques, this movie is also very good because of its actors. They had a very real and authentic script that made it feel like a real conversation when they talked. The characters were witty and it seemed like they knew and genuinely liked each other. This helped the movie flow really well between plot points and scenes.
All in all this is a very good movie and I would recommend it to anyone that is looking for something good to watch. This movie further shows why Alfred Hitchcock is one of the best directors and that's why I'm giving it a 10/10.