Rear Window (1954)

 Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window"

Often called the 'Master of Suspense,' Alfred Hitchcock was a master at creating tension and anxiety within his audiences. By the 1950s, he had perfected his craft and reached the pinnacle of his success. His 1954 classic "Rear Window" is no exception. Going into this film, I knew it was a classic and considered one of his best. Even so, the film far surpassed my expectations. 

It stars Jimmy Stewart as L.B. Jeffries, a professional photographer who is confined to a wheelchair in his apartment in Greenwich Village, Manhattan after suffering a broken leg. He is visited daily by Stella, his nurse, and Lisa, his socialite girlfriend, played by Grace Kelly. L.B. often finds himself emotionally distant from Lisa, as he feels they live two separate lives. He continues to push her away, despite her wanting to spend her life with him. During his days cooped up in his apartment, he has nothing to do but look out his rear window at the courtyard and in others' apartments. He watches the various lives of his neighbors play out. One night, he notices the wife of one of his neighbors has mysterious disappeared. After piecing together separate clues, he begins to suspect that a murder has taken place. 

As I was watching the film, I noticed myself echoing L.B.'s sentiments and his growing obsession with the lives of his neighbors. Hitchcock has never utilized voyeurism more so than in this film. He is able to demonstrate how singularly focused and obsessed you can become. When watching the neighbors, he uses his camera in a tight close-up, allowing the viewer a singular image to focus on. It could be said that this mirrors that act of watching a film itself. L.B. is a passive participant in the act of observing, as he is confined to his wheelchair and can do nothing to act in the lives of his neighbors. He can only observe. Like L.B., we too can only observe when we watch films. And yet, we become entranced by them, watching the lives of others very closely - never becoming involved. The fact that L.B. becomes so obsessed with this notion indicates a lack of presence in his own life. Throughout the film, he has a hard time connecting emotionally with his girlfriend Lisa. He is so obsessed with the lives of others, that he forgets to be an active participant in his own life. As his nurse Stella advises earlier in the film, "What people ought to do is get outside their own house and look in for a change." So, it seems that L.B.'s confinement to his wheelchair alludes to his own disability in being active and engaged with his life. He is confined both physically and psychologically. We as audience members and spectators spend so much time consuming content that we start to become psychologically confined, unable to engage with our own life.

"Rear Window" not only demonstrates a thematic examination of voyeurism, the act of observing, and the rabbit hole of obsession that you could fall in to, it also makes for an exhilarating suspense piece. Hitchcock once explained that the most effective form of fear is suspense, rather than shock and surprise. He used an analogy involving a bomb under a table. If you are watching a scene in a film in which characters are sitting at a table and suddenly a bomb goes off, you are shocked and surprised. Like most modern horror films, this is their bread and butter - jump scares and 'shocking' the audience. However, if instead you show the viewer the bomb under the table and then watch as the people at the table carry on with conversation, knowing full well that the bomb could go off at any moment, THAT is suspense. To Hitchcock, this is a far more effective tool than straight shock. (However, he would utilize and even master the art of shock later with his 1960 masterpiece, "Psycho.") Hitchcock believed that the foreplay of suspense provided a greater sense of satisfaction than the quickly dissipated satisfaction of being suddenly surprised. In "Rear Window," we are often on the edge of our seat because we know something is about to happen and are dreading when it does happen. An example of this is when Lisa breaks into the suspected killer's apartment to retrieve evidence. Just then, we see the killer returning home, unbeknownst to Lisa. Like L.B., we are only passive observers and cannot affect the situation we are seeing, we can only watch in dread and horror of what is to come. Throughout the film, I found myself dramatically raising my hands to my face, or my head, or even gasping at the suspense-infused scenes I was watching. Hitchcock certainly proved his prowess in this film. 

Other aspects of the film worth noting are the designs. Both the production design and the sonic design of the film prove to be incredibly impressive. To replicate a Greenwich Village courtyard, Hitchcock had an entire indoor set built, complete with actual apartment rooms. It was an incredibly complex and detailed set, and was considered the largest set ever constructed by Paramount. It even included a drainage system so that water could drain during rain sequences. It also had a highly nuanced lighting system to simulate both the daytime and nighttime sequences, which produced natural looking lighting. As far as the sound goes, the entire film's sounds are diegetic. Each sound you hear arises from the normal life of the characters. Even the music is music that can be heard playing from other characters' apartments. 

"Rear Window" is a triumph for Hitchcock and it expertly captures voyeurism and our obsession with spectacle. Like the protagonist, we become enraptured in the intrigue of a possible murder, as well as sensational happenings of other people. For instance, in one scene, a woman we've been watching throughout the whole film, simply referred to as "Miss Lonelyhearts," lays out a deadly amount of pills, leading us to believe that she may kill herself. Night after night of lonely conversations with a fake date in her apartment, and even an unsuccessful real-life date with a scumbag, it seems as though she has reached her breaking point and is about to commit suicide. However, just as she's about to, our attention is pulled away back to the suspected murderer, forgetting all about Miss Lonelyhearts. Our attention seems to go to the highest bidder. That is to say: Our attention goes to the most sensational spectacle that we can find. Because of this obsession, we forgo paying attention to things that matter. As a viewer of the film, I noticed a parallel to my own life. Constantly watching movies, I feel myself like L.B.: confined to a chair watching the intricate lives of other people play out in front of me. This obsession with voyeurism, spectacle, and passive observation have left me more disengaged from my own life. The film not only examines the lives of the characters in the story, but it examines YOU at the same time. We are constantly in a state of observation, looking out at the people around us, looking at images on a screen, or on your phone. We spend so much time examining other things besides ourselves. Maybe what people ought to do is get outside their own house and look in for a change.