A Review on Rear Window

Rating: 10/10 (14 February 2018)

Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 film, Rear Window, features a shocking neighborhood murder, only to be uncovered by a peeping wheelchair-bound photographer, L.B Jefferies, and his cover girl girlfriend Lisa Fremont. How we know such details from each character is due to Hitchcock's panning and fantastic sense of mise en scène. At the opening of the film, what is first seen is the window the main character L.B. Jefferies spends his days looking out of. From there, the camera's motion moves as if it were to float about the neighborhood, catching the neighbors, sleeping Jefferies, his shattered camera and a magazine with his girlfriend on it. Without getting too into it, Hitchcock had already planted important information into the viewer's mind without having to achieve the same thing through an extensive amount of dialogue. Very aware of what and how people and objects are placed, he knew precisely what he was doing.
One of the first things the viewer learns about the photographer is that he seems unhappy to be in a relationship with a 'perfect woman', he finds him and Lisa to be incompatible due the fact that the two come from different worlds. Each neighbor featured in a way relates to Jeffries's relationship situation or relationships in general. For example, there was a moment where the shot was focused on Miss Lonelyhearts raising her glass to nobody, and Jefferies did the same. This could because
Not to mention the most obvious aspect of the film, the one vantage point. Hitchcock creatively chose to limit the motion of the camera to the motion of the main character. Doing this, it is impressive how he envisioned and conveyed what he wanted using other camera techniques. For example, he used close ups on several neighbors to shift the focus onto them. In addition, there were several closeups of both Jeffries and Lisa individually and together. The proximity in these shots along with the eye leveled position of the camera play a role in how intimate the viewer gets to the character, including their feelings and emotions. This, I believe creates a more intense feeling when suspense is reached towards the end of the film.
The use of light is also intriguing. Its symbol of clarity and when not present, obscurity. Having this in mind, it is important to mention that whenever the characters had to hide from the gaze of Mr.Thorwald, they would retreat into the darkness. In addition, whenever Lisa came over to talk to Jeffries about the potential murder, she would turn the lights on, begging for him to stop scaring her and talking nonsense. However, when she began to believe him, she stood in the darkness alongside him. Lights were also turned off when Mr. Thorwald found Lisa with his wife's jewelry, right before he attacked her. Not to mention that light was also used to fend away the big angry Thorwald from strangling Jefferies sooner. Besides that, where the film stands in the beginning, is drastically different to what it becomes later in the film. A man with relationship problems quickly turns to a gang attempting to catch a neighborhood murderer. However, this change is not remotely noticed, which makes it important to note.
The suspense portrayed was incredible. The unsafe and dangerous measures that Lisa went through to invade the Thorwald apartment was only the beginning of a very hair-raising, intense ending. There were very sudden moments in between cuts where Lisa would be shown and the terrifying responses from Jefferies and Stella would also be shown right after. Meaning that there were moments where we couldn't see when Thorwald was coming or not. The film was an overall great thriller to experience.