Brilliance of Nosy Neighbors

Rating: 10/10 (6 February 2018)

After watching this classic 50's film in the year 2018, I feel a bit disappointed in myself for not having seen it earlier. The fact that I'm only 22 could justify the fact that it took me decades to watch this, but I am also a true lover of film, so I should have seen this sooner. Anyways, this film does an incredible job of utilizing the different camera views and movements to truly make the audience feel like they are Jeffries himself. The slow pannings, the out-of-focus shots on the apartment from across the street, and the close-ups of the main character's personal relationships like his female caretaker and girlfriend Lisa all give make us feel like we are sitting in a wheelchair with a cast on our leg. The audience feels like we have been trapped in the chair for weeks and are just itching to be free. Another incredible tactic that this film incorporates is the use of "mise en scene." Mise en scene is the arrangement of scenery and stage in a play or film. Hitchcock does a great job of playing with this technique as Jeffries spys on his neighbors. For example, when he looks into the Lonely Woman's apartment as she is "rehearsing" or pretending to act out a scene where a man joins her for dinner and a conversation. The camera freezes on her as she begins to transform from a happy and heart woman into a sad and lonely one. The audience sees her sitting alone at a dinner table that is set for two and her head is hanging low and her body language changes to show feeling of sadness. Another scene that picked up on some suspense with this technique occurred when Jeffries and his caretaker were looking out the window into the suspected killer's open window right when he begins to notice that he is being watched. Immediately, Jeffries wheels himself back out of view and into the darkness of an overcasted shadow as he urges his confused caretaker to do the same. In that moment, the camera moves in closer on Jeffries and his caretaker and we are able to see the frightened and intense emotions on their faces as they evade being seen by the suspected killer.
One of my favorite parts of the film is the moment where Lisa finally sees what Jeffries has been seeing all along from his spot in his apartment. The moment where Lisa begins to realize that something mysterious is indeed happening across the street in the Thorwald apartment. Hitchcock decides to use dramatic visuals in order to get the audience to feel that something special has just taken place. The camera gets close on Lisa's face as we begin to read and analyze the expression on her face. The frame changes from a rectangle to a circle as it encompasses Lisa's face and the rest of the frame goes completely dark as if a spotlight had been placed on nothing but her head. It is in this moment that Lisa goes from critiquing and arguing with Jeffries to actually agreeing, understanding, and seeing everything that he's been experiencing. Another great element in this film is suspense and it is used multiple times throughout the story. In one scene, while Jeffries and Lisa are talking, we hear a loud, blood curdling scream from a woman that comes from across the street. At that moment, not only do Jeffries and Lisa go to the window to investigate, but so do the other surrounding neighbors! Every single person within close proximity of the scream comes quickly to the scene of the scream, as they attempt to figure out why someone is screaming. Hitchcock does a great job of getting the audience to feel anxious and nervous during this scene, as well as a feeling of deep sadness as we find out that the reason for the scream was due to the death of the screaming woman's dog down below in the corridor. The use of the death of an animal is almost always going to upset the audience in some type of way. Hitchcock's Rear Window is a masterpiece for generations and generations to come. This is what today's filmmakers need to remind themselves about in terms of simplicity of plot and camera filming techniques.