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Rear Window
Once I had watched the original “Psycho” I became something of a Hitchcock buff. As instructed by my dad at the time, I had to watch “The Birds” and “Rear Window” to get to know some of the directors other famous films.
Rear Window is a masterpiece in the
build-up and execution of mystery and suspense. It is based primarily at
the one location; a window. From this view, a wheel chair bound
photographer named L.B. “Jeff” Jeffries (James Stewart) kills his time
by gazing out from his room onto the adjoining apartments that also look
down onto the courtyard below them. Observantly, he gets to know all
about his neighbours and their daily routines. These include a dancer
Jeff calls “Miss Torso” who practices her moves by her open window for
all to see; a lonely woman he aptly calls “Miss Lonelyheart”; a
songwriter; several married couples (including a newlywed couple who
rarely leave their bedroom); a sculptor; and a man called Lars Thorwald –
a jeweler who takes care of his bed-ridden wife.
At first, Jeff appears as something of a
voyeur, as he tries to relinquish his intense boredom of being confined
to his room because of a broken leg. Armed with a pair of binoculars
and a camera with a telephoto lens, he watches his neighbours up close
and personal without their awareness. His surveillance of others is
filmed with such craft and clarity by Hitchcock that we the audience
become spies with him; seeing things from his point-of-view as he
surveys his fellow neighbours.
Occasionally, his girlfriend Lisa
(played by the beautiful Grace Kelly) pays him a visit to lift his
spirits, bring him lunch and listen to him go on about the movements of
his neighbours. These two actors have great chemistry and the dynamics
of their characters relationship is somewhat remnant of what is going on
in the lives of his neighbours.
One night, Jeff is asleep in his chair
by the open window on a hot, summer night. He hears a noise that wakes
him up and looks out his window. It appears as if all his neighbours are
in bed with the lights out… except for one of them. Directly across the
way, Jeff hears Thorwald have an argument with his wife, then watches
him proceed to clean a large knife, and make repeated trips in and out
of his apartment with a suitcase. Jeff instantly suspects that Thorwald
has murdered his wife, so with the aid of his girlfriend, personal carer
and a detective, he starts to unravel the clues.
After watching Rear Window my obsession
for the films of Alfred Hitchcock really kicked in. I followed this film
by watching “The Birds” and on and on it went. As I began watching his
other works, I was continued to be amazed at how sophisticated and ahead
of his time Hitchcock was. There is a sly confidence about all his
films, which can be seen in the performances of the actors. I got the
sense they played their parts with so much style and nuance because they
were safely in the hands of a master story teller. I imagined that
Hitchcock treated his actors like royalty, but later I came across a
quote the director once made “Actors should be treated like cattle”.
Hmm… so he only regarded them mildly? Still, he got the best out of
them, which demonstrates Sir Alfred Hitchcock really was a firs-rate
director and “The Master of Suspense”.
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