A Technical Marvel

Rating: 9/10 (14 February 2018)

Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window is a fantastic example of his ingenuity and vision when creating films. While of course this movie has a great story with meaningful dialogue, the way Hitchcock tells the story is what truly is impressive. The movie starts with a panning shot around the main character's apartment, which reveals that he is a photographer who has broken his leg and is now wheelchair bound. Because of this the entire movie is shot from the perspective of the apartment. The camera never leaves. As a result, many important film techniques were necessary to create a complex story with multiple characters only looking from one spot.
Hitchcock is restricted to using only a few camera angles because the entire movie is shot from in perspective, for example eye-level for shots in the apartment, and then long shots and a few close-ups for things outside the apartment. But even with so few types of camera angles, Hitchcock uses the camera angles to advance the story. For example, every shot from the apartment is a long shot in the beginning, the same way anyone in the apartment would see. These long shots show the basis of what is happening in the scene, but it is difficult to see the details from this angle. but when the main character grabs a pair of binoculars to investigate further, a close is used, showing the viewer exactly what the character would see, and giving them the same amount of detail.
Another technical piece of film that Hitchcock incorporates into the story is the use of light and dark. Early in the film the main character is spying on his suspicious neighbor, and he realizes he can be seen through his window, so he backs into his unlit apartment to stay hidden. This action of hiding in the dark is repeated throughout the film, until the neighbor eventually notices him and make's it to the apartment. Since the main character is crippled, he obviously can't fight. So, he uses the light and dark to his advantage. He turns all the lights off and uses flash bulbs to blind his attacker. Hitchcock uses light and dark as a weapon for the main character, as it's the only way he can defend himself with his condition.
While Hitchcock uses camera tricks to create suspense and intrigue in the film, he mostly uses mise en scene to carefully create every scene and put everything exactly where it should be to perfectly tell the story. Many of the "mysteries" created in the film are crated purely out of the perspective of the main characters. For example, the suspicious neighbor is yelling at his wife, but the shade is down in their window, so neither the characters or the viewers know what's really going on. Or when the neighbor moves his wife's purse form the bedroom to another room, a wall perfectly blocks the neighbor from the main characters point of view. Every object in each scene, and every wall or blockage of something is carefully planned out by Hitchcock to create a sense of suspense and mystery, while just sitting in one spot, away from all the action.
Hitchcock's Rear Window is truly a test of his creativity when directing a film. To be able to tell an interesting and well written story from the perspective of one person who doesn't move the whole movie really shows how good of a director Alfred Hitchcock is. He perfectly incorporates many technical pieces of film such as specific camera angles, right, and placement of subjects within a scene for giving the viewer a similar perspective to the main character, and creating an interesting and well-developed world just from the view of one rear window