Dichotomy In Rear Window

The Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock is a very interesting movie, once you start to watch the movie you are pulled into the curiosity of L.B. Jefferies’ voyeuristic antics as he spends the majority of the film watching his neighbor’s actions and everyday life at home. This emersion that we get drawn into with Jefferies antics, we almost feel guilty for watch him watch his neighbors which is the intended purpose. Voyeurism will has always had a social taboo feeling, throughout this movie Hitchcock portrays the curious nature of human voyeurism.

The most important of any story is the beginning, it's the hook to all movies, TV shows and books this is the way the author or director is setting the stage. In “Rear Window” and “Psycho” the beginning for both the books and movies are completely different. Psycho begins with Marion and her boyfriend Sam just sleeping together and she’s getting dress for work. Her and Sam have a talk about their future together; he tells her it's not very comfortable where he lives. He's in a lot of debt with the hardware store plus the alimony he’s forced to pay to his ex-wife and until he gets out of it, he chooses not to marry her. She goes to work at the real estate office and there's a high roller who comes to put a 40,000 down payment on a house for his daughter as a wedding present. She steals

To see what they see, and compare our own thoughts with the evolution of the characters and the story. The dexterity of the images, and the impact that each scene has in portraying this theme, guide the viewer throughout the film with little use of dialogue and action. Our central character “Jeff,” is struggling with his casted imprisonment, his need for adventure is apparent as he watches outside his window. Conflicted with his girlfriend and conflicted with his theories, his character becomes more palpable, we begin to realize what is going on not only on the outside of him, but the inside of him as well. The aspects of the outside courtyard and the visual isolation of each apartment, help depict the humanity of each individual and sympathy for even the darkest characters. Hitchcock uses his camera, just as our protagonist does, to focus with him. The camera angles are depicted in a way to which we react with the character, rather than at the character, and eventually expose the minor elements of the story that bring to fruition the suspense of the movie and the thrills of discovery.

The majority of the film deals with the events occurring within the Thorwald apartment. In many ways the Thorwalds’ marriage parallels Lisa and Jeffries’ relationship, except with a reversal in gender. Lisa and Lars Thorwald, both mobile and healthy, strive to make their respective relationships work. Thorwald brings his wife dinner in bed decorated with a rose. She only laughs at this gesture. On the other side, Lisa cannot even gain Jeffries attention by sitting in his lap. Mrs. Thorwald and Jeffries, who are both physically restrained, only complain to their partners. The Thorwald apartment becomes of particular interest when Jeffries begins to suspect murder. He believes that Thorwald finally became so tired of his nagging wife that he butchered her with a knife and saw. After some time he even convinces Lisa of his accusation, which in turn adds another gazer to the rear window. This makes her more important to Jeffries in that he can now discuss what is going on with someone who will listen. She still does not obtain his full attention until she crosses over into the plot within the Thorwald apartment. When Lisa becomes the subject of the gaze, then, and only then, is Jeffries attracted to her.

The film Rear Window, released in 1954, and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, portrays the shift of power in the relationship between the central characters of Lisa Freemont and L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries throughout the film. As the characters are introduced in the beginning of the film, Jeffries is shown to have control of the relationship between himself and Miss Freemont, the power later shifts to Lisa as the film progresses and she takes an interest in the suspected murder. However, the film ends with relative equality within the relationship, after Lisa's intelligence is discovered by her partner.

First off let’s discuss the voyeurism presented in both of the films. In the film Rear window Jeff is shown on numerous occasions was shown watching a woman from his window dancing and, changing in her underwear while smiling at the sight. This form of voyeurism is shown in Disturbia when kale is also shown watching his neighbor Ashley from his window on many occasions while she is swimming and changing clothes. Kale also was shown watching women in swim wear on his TV. The contrast of voyeurism in the films is that in Disturbia it is shown more. The theme of voyeurism is presented almost the exact same way between the two films.

     Hitchcock uses misery, tragedy, and death to show the emotions of his characters. At no point is this more obvious than the end of the movie. Hitchcock spends the entire movie building up to this point and in the end he makes it extremely clear how tragedy has changed the relationship of everyone. After the nagging husbands murder of his wife has been confessed you see

In Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 classic thriller Rear Window, Jimmy Stewart stars as L.B. Jeffries, a world traveling magazine photographer accustomed to living a fast pace active lifestyle. When Jefferies injures himself taking a risky picture he is immobilized, confined to a wheelchair inside his apartment for two months. Bored with his uneventful life he becomes completely obsessed with the lives of his neighbors spending the majority of his waking hours watching them from his window. To obtain a better view he begins using a telescopic lens from one of his cameras. By watching his neighbors through the camera he assumes the role of both a spectator and a voyeur. This contributes to

In this essay, I shall try to illustrate whether analysing the movie Rear Window as a classical example of the Freudian concept of voyeurism, is appropriate. Voyeurism is defined in The Penguin dictionary of psychology as:

Cinematic perception can be understood using the metaphor of cinema as a window and frame.  Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window is an concrete example of this metaphor from both a critical viewpoint as an audience member, and from the perspective of the protagonist, L.B. Jefferies.  Thomas Elsaesser believes that the cinema of the window offers a “special, ocular access to an event” and the screen is transformed from a two dimensional narrative into a three-dimensional environment within which the audience is absorbed (14). Because the plot contains an actual window and also involves L.B Jefferies looking through a window, Rear Window is an exemplary illustration of this metaphor. The two observation points are similar in that they are both ocular-specular,

Firstly, let’s discuss the theme voyeurism presented in both of the films. In the films women were shown half-dressed numerous times throughout the films. In the film Rear window Jeff is shown on numerous occasions watching a woman from his window while she was dancing and, changing in her underwear while he was smiling at the sight. This form of voyeurism is shown in Disturbia when kale is also shown watching his neighbor Ashley from his window on many occasions while she is swimming and changing clothes. Kale was also shown watching women in swimwear on his TV. The contrast of voyeurism in the films is that in Disturbia it is shown more throughout the film more blatantly than in Rear Window. The theme of voyeurism is presented almost the exact same way between the two films without little to no differences.

Hitchcock is known for the “meticulousness of his preproduction, shooting, and editing strategies” (Sterritt 9). An example of this is the filming technique Hitchcock used to illustrate Scottie’s Vertigo; to represent the sensation, the camera would physically move away from the subject while simultaneously zooming in on the subjects. Thus this specific shot was used whenever Scottie went through that experience, creating a specific motif for his reaction. Another strategy of Hitchcock is “his celebrated use of point-of-view shots”, which he employed to unite “physical and psychological identification between spectator and character” (Sterritt 11). This is exemplified in Rear Window, which is seen from almost entirely Jeff’s perspective, thus uniting audiences more with Jeff, and therefore the subjective narrative. This increases solidarity with Jeff, and makes it easier for the audience to adopt Jeff’s discoveries as the truth. Additionally point-of-view shots allow viewers to understand characters more, as seen through Judy’s point of view on her walk in the park with Scottie. Another camera angle favoured is the extreme high-angle shot, which in some cases marks a significant point in the plot; this shot is used to show Madeleine’s fall to her death in Vertigo, the point in the movie that serves as a climax that triggers the narrative

Hitchcock believes that in one form or another we are all voyeurs among society. He believes that we desire to view and witness events in the lives of the people around us, without having to be involved or participating. Hitchcock makes us recognise how Jeffries' and Lisa feel by exaggerating everyday things we may do in our lives, like watch people

Alfred Hitchcock also used cinematography in a uniquely stylizing way. Hitchcock not only uses the camera to create dramatic irony, but he also uses the camera to lie to the audience and create anxious suspense. For example, in his film Psycho, when Marion is in the shower Hitchcock frames the scenes very tightly. Marion is in a confined and very personal space. This makes her incredibly vulnerable. Then Hitchcock heightens the suspense by creating dramatic irony with the reveal of a shadowy figure closing in on Marion, unbeknownst to her. This creates a lot of anxiety for the audience, knowing the protagonist is vulnerable and in danger with no way of altering the inevitable. Hitchcock then manipulates the audience by “revealing” a brief silhouette of an old lady as our shower killer. Hitchcock uses this “reveal” to lie to the audience, he makes the audience think they have more inside knowledge confirming their already growing suspicions, when in reality the audience is misled entirely and the murderer was Norman all along. The way Hitchcock uses the camera to reveal both inside information and misleading information truly keeps the viewer engaged and not knowing what to believe until the truth is finally revealed. By using this unique technique of controlling the audience by only showing what he wants you to see, Hitchcock masterfully defies expectations and creates suspense.

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window is a voyeuristic point-of-view (POV) style of filming. The point-of-view captures the intimate details of the neighbors lives through the view of Jimmy Stewarts character L. B. Jefferies (Jeff). Hitchcock set the tone for movies of the POV style. There are many films today that have used the same POV techniques, such as 2007’s Disturbia, directed by D.J. Caruso, who was inspired by Rear Window. Although the setting are different, Disturbia gives the audience the view from the aspect of a teenager, Kale Brecht (Shia LaBeouf), who under house arrest starts spying on his neighbors. When one night he watches his neighbor dispose of what he thinks is body (Cooper, 2012). These two movies while similar, differ as well. Rear Window, I felt for its time was somewhat risqué for its time period. The suggestion of intimacy with many of the neighbor’s and a young woman baring her back while changing. Hitchcock did a remarkable job of capturing the emotions and mise en scéne surrounding the main character Jeff in what is small area, the courtyard atmosphere that the adjacent buildings abut too, along with views through each neighbor’s rear window.