Relationships in Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” I believe that Hitchcock’s film “Rear Window” is mostly about relationships rather than voyeurism. The entire movie is made up of the personalities and traits that Jefferies has assigned each tenant that he watches. With each new deed he sees them perform, and every assumption that goes along with it, he builds his relationship with the other character. I do think that some of the relationships in “Rear Window” emerge through voyeurism. For example, at the beginning of this movie, Jefferies relationship with Ms.Torso is one of attraction. Even though he is involved with Lisa he admires Ms.Torso from his window when he sees her dance about in her apartment. Ms.Torso may not be aware of their relationship,
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
AWe’re a race of Peeping Toms. People ought to get out of their homes and look at themselves.’
The mise-en-scene of this shot hints at important information about Jeffries, his neighbors, and the neighborhood in general. But what the camera does tells us something much stronger: Rear Window is a film about voyeurism, and a commentary on audiences watching drama on a screen.
Rear Window is compelling, clever, and utterly original. Hitchcock helps us share this obsessive curiosity, and draw our conclusions directly parallel to the characters in the film. The unique montage of imagery helps define our characters, and expose their vulnerability, their identity, and their own self-discovery
In Alfred Hitchcock’s famous film Rear Window, a photographer named L.B. Jefferies is forced to spend the entirety of his time in his apartment after an accident has left him stuck in a wheelchair. To pass the hours of free time he now has, he decides to spend it all looking out his window, overlooking his neighbors and peeking into their business. Throughout the movie, Jefferies takes interests in a large array of characters ranging from a newly-wed couple in their new home, to a bachelor musician who is always having parties, to anything in between. None, however, catch the attention of Jefferies quite as much as man across the way known as Lars Thorwald.
In Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, L.B. Jeffries, played by Jimmy Stewart, becomes completely obsessed with spending all of his waking hours watching his neighbors from his wheelchair. He even uses a camera to better his view and thus enhances his role as both a spectator and a voyeur. This contributes to the creation of a movie being played right outside Jeffries’ window. In this “movie within the movie” his neighbors’ lives become the subject for the plot. Each window represents a different film screen, each which is focused upon only when Jeffries directs his attention to it. He witnesses both the anxieties associated with the beginning of a marriage and the heartache of relationships ending. The
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.
In the movie, Rear Window, Alfred Hitchcock uses the story of a cripple free lance photographer, Jeff Jeffries, to explain the twisted sense of society in the 1950’s. Hitchcock uses clever things from the way the apartments are being filmed to the dialogue between Jeffries, Lisa, and Stella to show societies interest in pain, tragedy, and discomfort, and in the end you see how tragedy is what makes everyone happy.
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:
Alfred Hitchcock’s mystery film Rear Window based on the Cornell Woolrich short story introduces the characters of L.B. Jeffries, and Lisa Freemont. L.B. Jeffries is an adventurous photographer who takes action shots. Lisa Freemont is a high class woman who is a fashion designer and very prim and proper. What Hitchcock shows in this film is that men and women will take drastic measures to change when seeking approval from a love interest. Lisa’s initial beliefs are that she wants to get married to Jeffries and have him be a fashion photographer.
Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film “Rear Window” demonstrated a suspenseful and terrifying storyline, which captured the attention of a variety of audiences. The film focuses on James Stuart (Jeff) and ultimately his neighbors who live around him. Stuart is crippled from the beginning of the movie and is unable to leave his apartment. Due to his immobility, he remains confined in his home with a broken leg and begins to watch his neighbor’s particular behaviors and routines. The film progresses into drama and suspense that is seen through music, lighting, film editing processing and extensive detail to the neighborhood being watched. Rear Window exhibits these details in the scene where Grace Kelly who plays the role of Lisa, attempts to
Rear Window is a 1954 film that explores the theme of voyeurism. In this film, the main character Jeff who is a photographer gets enamored with observing his neighbors while sitting on his chair with his legs cast. He develops a keen interest in observing his neighbors that he watches them day and night preferring to sleep on his chair than on his bed. One of the interesting and thought provoking aspect about the movie is the element of distance and closeness between him and his neighbors. His apartment is relatively far from his neighbors.
However, while being in a relationship with Lisa, Jeff gazes out of the window viewing his neighbor’s lives. He continuously watches Miss Torso dancing throughout her apartment in a voyeuristic and sexual manner. Perhaps he does not want his relationship with Lisa to go any deeper because of his sexual fantasy and desire as a male. Howe states that “Jeff is a voyeur who privileges himself as a subject in opposition to those whom he
Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock starts out with the introduction of everyone who lives in an apartment complex in New York. Looking out of the main character Jeff’s window we see a newly married couple, a ballerina, a musician, a salesman with a bedridden wife, and a woman they call Ms. Lonely Hearts, pretending to be on a date. As Jeff battles with relationship problems with his girlfriend Lisa and being confined to a wheelchair he begins to observe out his window and watch the people in his apartment complex. During the night, a scream can be heard throughout the complex, and Jeff begins to become suspicious of the salesman who left at an unusual hour with his suitcase. Then, the viewer sees the salesmen, Mr. Thorwald, leaving with
The opening images of Rear Window introduces the audience to J.B. Jefferies apartment with the window curtains rising. The camera is facing outside the window which reveals the small courtyard. After the camera gives the audience a tour of the courtyard, it then shows us Jeff sleeping on his wheel chair. From this, the audience should be able to perceive there is no privacy at all for the neighbors. What one does, everyone is able to see (only if they are observing). The music in the beginning sets the mood, the audience should feel safe and mellow as if nothing bad is going to happen. There is not one suspicion which tells the audience there will be a murder case throughout this film. With that in mind, the theme is portrayed through Jeff’s perspective from his observation of the neighbors. He observes the love life of his neighbors while he is questioning his own