I have … Rear Window study guide contains a biography of Alfred Hitchcock, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Introduction Protagonist: L.B. (00:44:36) In order to control Jeff's world, Hitchcock commissioned the largest set ever built. Grace Kelly turned down the lead in On the Waterfront to star in Rear Window. L.B. 1) "Nothing has caused the human race so much trouble as intelligence." Rear Window’s A-Plot is a harrowing mystery thriller that we watch unfold with a systematic unraveling that’s unnerving in part because Hitchcock has orchestrated it all in a limited space. Hitchcock, as usual, was concerned with every detail to authenticate his characters, story, and setting. By simply using POV shots, clever editing, and camera work, the director transformed his audience from mere spectators into active participants of the voyeuristic exploits of Rear Window's main character. For Rear Window, he personally supervised the construction of 31 full-scale apartments on the biggest set ever constructed at Paramount. Rear Window A tight suspense show is offered in "Rear Window," one of Alfred Hitchcock's better thrillers. And again, the most important neighbors, the Thorwalds, are having their world disrupted, too. Having a broken leg, Jeff has nothing better to do than watch his neighbors. “Jeff” Jefferies and his girlfriend Lisa Freemont. He looks in different windows like we change the channel. A dishwasher on the fritz, the nagging wife, the day to day grind; he says all of this as the Thorwalds act it out right in front of him. OP. B. Music In "Rear Window" the music is used in scenes to show how calming and reparitive music can be A woman in one of the apaprtments was going to kill herself but heard the music coming from the piano man's apartment and she stopped what she 2) "Did you kill him because he liked you? Tap to unmute. Jefferies gradually becomes more and more engrossed with this activity of his, and soon brings his girlfriend, Lisa, in on the thrill of his voyeurism. Re-setting your glass can be intimidating, but in truth it’s not very complicated if you have the right materials. Vocals 3. In an interview Hitchcock states that If you bring somebody into a kitchen and the jump up onto the table and scream, That’s shocking. Part I – Setting. Rear Window Analysis. 1) Lisa: "Pay attention to me." Jefferies. With the twist of a key, I can open and close the rear window from outside the vehicle. But it’s not just feelings that are reinforced, it’s their situations, too. And as he watches them, we realize that each of them is a mini-movie screen that represents a fear Jeff has within himself about his apprehension about submitting to Lisa’s wish for marriage. A bomb under a table goes off, and that's surprise. It turns out no one is coming, and she is just practicing, which is pretty weird, but whatever. He basically had them create a huge playground/canvas on which he could play, and he shows it was worth every penny by how he orchestrated the production. When most people think of Hitchcock, it’s the screeching violins from Psycho that first come to mind. Change ). Freud argued that we try to fulfill our unconscious wishes in a dream state, and since movies are sometimes rooted in dreams or in the dream state, maybe we could safely say that when Jeff looks across his courtyard, he’s wanting what he can’t have or justifying what he thinks is true. Posts: 613. Oil Can Mechanic. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. What does this suggest about both society and Jeff as a character? Thelma Ritter, Wendell Corey, Raymond Burr, Won: 1955 New York Film Critics Circle Awards - Best Actress (Grace Kelly), 1954 National Board of Review - Best Actress (Grace Kelly); Nominated: 1955 Academy Awards for Best Director (Alfred Hitchcock), Best Screenplay (John Michael Hayes), Best Cinematography, Color (Robert Burks), Best Sound Recording (Loren L. Ryder), 1955 BAFTA Awards, Best Film. Beginnings: Alfred Hitchcock frequently began his movies with a scene that introduces the viewer to both character and setting in an understated, economical way. Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film Rear Window is an adaptation of Cornell Woolrich’s 1942 short suspense story “It Had to Be Murder.” Woolrich’s stories have been adapted into over 30 films, but there is no doubt that Rear Window is the most well-known of all of them. Whilst he is indeed known for his hair-curling thrillers, Jeff has battles with his conscience regarding what he’s looking at. Jefferies is the film's protagonist, and Hitchcock relies on Jeff's subjective perspective for much of the film. One day, he believes he witnesses evidence of a murder and tries to find proof. This is an understatement because Jeff is not asking Doyle to break "a couple of house rules", he is asking him to search Thorwald's apartment without a warrant, which is a violation of the New York State Penal Code and could cost Doyle his badge. Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window is the story of a photographer named L.B. He goes out again, with the suitcase filled with something. I'm replacing the rear window on my 29 coupe. Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. This is an allusion to the actual Wall Street crash that occurred on October 24, 1929 and marked the start of the Great Depression. ( Log Out / The composer comes home, drunk, near 2:00 am and starts to smash things in his apartment. Windows are usually a metaphor for freedom, but in Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954) they expose privacy, they symbolize confinement, and they allude to suspenseful plot devices. This is a paradox because intelligence is what sets human beings apart from other mammals, but Stella cites it as the source of all of our problems (which wouldn't exist if we weren't intelligent beings). She’s doing it in the safety of her own home. This level of danger and suspense is so far elevated above the cheap thrills of the modern slasher films that "Rear Window," intended as entertainment in 1954, is now revealed as art. Hitchcock really wants to put us in his protagonist's shoes, and the camera never leaves his apartment because Jeff can't, which limits the film to one room and the view out of his rear window. Throughout his film, Hitchcock makes reference to the different gender roles, isolation, privacy and voyeuristic tendencies that are highly present in the post … The neighbors are only there to reinforce the way Lisa and Jeff feel or are feeling about each other at a given time. Next time I’ll break down the main characters in Rear Window. Mr. Thorwald arrives home from his work as a salesman to be greeted by Mrs. Thorwald, an invalid who seems…less than pleasant. There’s also a newlywed couple can’t stay out of the bedroom, a composer who provides that music that, at times, acts as the score for the film. Jeff doesn't want to get married, and Lisa spends the film trying to prove to him that she would be a good wife. An so he played off the norm to create suspense. Copy link. In Rear Window, Jimmy Stewart's character is a photographer who's confined to his apartment by a broken leg. 2) "She's too perfect. Jefferies; Antagonist: Lars Thorwald. Rear Window is set in Greenwich Village, Lower Manhattan, New York, and the entire film takes place in Jeff’s apartment from where he sits in his wheelchair and curiously observes the various goings on of his neighbours. Bare_Feet. As Jeff brags about his photographic talent and ability to go anywhere and shoot anything, we see Miss Torso, dancing freely in her underwear, living a carefree and apparently single life. At one point, he asks, "How did we ever stand each other in that plane for three years during the war?" While his nurse, Stella, is giving him a massage, he speaks of Miss Torso, saying “She surely is the eat, drink, and be merry girl.” Stella, without missing a beat, delivers a great line, saying “Yeah, she’ll wind up fat, alcoholic, and miserable.”. "We had 12 of those apartments fully furnished," he later commented. IMDB has it rated as the 40th best film of all time, with an average rating of 8.5 out of 10. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Many of the characters in Rear Window feel lonely over the course of the film, often in their most private moments. The tone of the film is condemnatory; Hitchcock ultimately punishes Jeff for his voyeurism. Rear Window is ranked the 48th best film of all time according to the American Film Institute’s list of 100 Greatest Movies of All Time, where they also place it third on their Top 10 Mystery List, behind Polanski’s Chinatown at #2 and Vertigo at #1, another one of Hitchcock’s. What's Up With the Ending? After Lisa and Jeff have their first argument about Jeff leaving behind the action-packed globe-trotting photographic assignments he holds so dear in exchange for a studio in New York City, and more portrait work than he would know what to do with, Lisa storms off. Hitchcock comments that … “Rear Window,” originally published in 1942 in Dime Detective Magazine under the title “It Had to Be Murder,” is a short story by Cornell Woolrich. Hitch knew they would not only beef up the story and running time of the movie, and give Jeff something else to look at besides the murder going on, but that they could act as mirrors, or extensions, of the main characters. resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. The couple sleeping on the fire escape get caught in the rain, having to move inside. The Question and Answer section for Rear Window is a great "We could never have gotten them properly lit in a real location." screen upon which his own desires are projected. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. Jefferies. 1) Stella claims to have predicted a stock market crash because she was caring for a General Motors director who had a kidney ailment. However, the woman on the fire escape uses the paradox to show her neighbors that her dog was friendly to everyone while the human beings living around the courtyard are generally detached; yet, the dog is the one who is murdered. GM set their glass in the 60’s and early 70’s using a sealant bead (Thiokol) and dam to keep the bead from squeezing into the passenger compartment and creating an unattractive edge that would be visible from the outside. We know the bomb is under the table but not when it will go off, and that's suspense. She's too beautiful. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock. The original window was held in position by 1/4" X 1/2" bent hardwood which was nailed against the rubber gasket. ( Log Out / Much to their chagrin, Doyle shoots down all of their supposed “evidence” that Thorwald is a killer. Jeff: "Well, I'm not exactly on the other side of the room." She's too talented. Jefferies, or Jeff, and his girlfriend Lisa, take on the investigation themselves, with dangerous consequences and plenty of nail-biting moments. In order to control Jeff's world, Hitchcock commissioned the largest set ever built. Set in Greenwich Village of 1954, Rear Window displays a dense apartment block, a microcosm of New York City, where the audience is confined down to the space of one window, seen through the eyes of protagonist, J.B Jefferies. But if the kitchen looks like doctor Caligurey’s cabinet you expect somebody to jump up on the table and scream. Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954) builds a distinct view of the world and how, in the director’s opinion, men and women fit in it.In his suspense masterpiece, Hitchcock utilizes all of his favorite gender roles for his male and female characters. The set of Rear Window gives the impression of a innocent and average neighbourhood. In the hands of a lesser director, this might not have made for a terribly gripping film, but Hitchcock turned out a masterpiece, because he was always … In addition, Hitchcock eschewed the common practice of using a film score and instead chose to only use diegetic sound. Costumes, essential in every film, are particularly notable in the works of Alfred Hitchcock. Setting. The plot moves forward only after we know all we need to know about our main characters. Jeff receives a phone call from his boss in the first scene, and the conversation they have and the themes within are reinforced and represented by Jeff looking at each of his neighbors in turn. Rear Window essays are academic essays for citation. … When Jeff voices his discontent at being stuck in an apartment for six weeks, we see the composer, frustrated at his lack of musical inspiration. While John Michael Hayes wrote the screenplay, as well as a few others of Hitchcocks’ classics, and even though they weren’t overly warm about their relationship by the time it ended, Hayes is the first to disclose that the addition and depth of the neighbors were Hitchcock’s idea. Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window is the story of a photographer named L.B. 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