‫) מה משמעותו של הסוף? האם באמת מתרחש שינוי? אם כן מדוע המרחק הפיסי בין בני הזוג? מדוע היא‬1
‫ערה במיטה והוא ישן בכורסא? מדוע היא עושה עצמה קוראת ספר רציני בעוד היא קוראת עיתון אופנה? לכל‬
‫ והיחסים ביניהם ישארו לא‬,‫ יציץ ג'ף מבעד לחלונו‬,‫ אנו יכולים לצפות כי מחר שוב‬,‫אלה תשובה פשוטה‬
.‫ממומשים‬
‫הזרה ופירוק הגוף בחלון אחורי‬
‫ ביתור הגופה‬,‫ הרגל‬,‫ העין‬,‫טורסו‬
1) Hitchcock's Rear Window
The Well-Made Film
John Fawell
November 2001
192 pages | 9 illus. | 6 x 9
ISBN 0-8093-2400-8, $35.00s cloth
Film Studies
Also of interest
Evergreen: Victor Saville in His Own Words
“John Fawell builds his study on the previous research of other scholars, but he also questions some of
their assumptions and criticisms about Hitchcock and his films in a most lively fashion. . . . His study is a
solid and substantial analysis.”
—Gene Phillips, editor of Stanley Kubrick: Interviews and author of Alfred Hitchcock
In the process of providing the most extensive analysis of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window to date, John
Fawell also dismantles many myths and clich‫י‬s about Hitchcock, particularly in regard to his attitude
toward women .
Although Rear Window masquerades quite successfully as a piece of light entertainment, Fawell
demonstrates just how complex the film really is. It is a film in which Hitchcock, the consummate
virtuoso, was in full command of his technique. One of Hitchcock’s favorite films, Rear Window offered
the ideal venue for the great director to fully use the tricks and ideas he acquired over his previous three
decades of filmmaking. Yet technique alone did not make this classic film great; one of Hitchcock’s most
personal films, Rear Window is characterized by great depth of feeling. It offers glimpses of a sensibility
at odds with the image Hitchcock created for himself—that of the grand ghoul of cinema who mocks his
audience with a slick and sadistic style.
Though Hitchcock is often labeled a misanthrope and misogynist, Fawell finds evidence in Rear Window
of a sympathy for the loneliness that leads to voyeurism and crime, as well as an empathy for the film’s
women. Fawell emphasizes a more feeling, humane spirit than either Hitchcock’s critics have granted him
or Hitchcock himself admitted to, and does so in a manner of interest to film scholars and general readers
alike.
John Fawell is an associate professor in the Department of Humanities at the College of General Studies,
Boston University. He writes widely on film and literature, covering everything from classical literature
to filmmakers such as Hitchcock, Jacques Tati, Eric Rohmer, and Blake Edwards.
3) This film is held for one of the best films ever directed by Alfred Hitchcock (it was nominated for an
Academy Award) and it's undoubtely the most famous and possibly the one where the "suspense feeling"
gets to the maximal expression; the reduced scenario build (the whole camera's perspective is limited to
the room and what is to be seen from its window) has its own specific weight on creating an atmosphere
full of tension. Besides, it's one of the few movies where the commited crime does not get clear until the
end of the film, something strange in Hitchcock's filmography.
Because of this, Hitchcock makes the viewer arrive to a personal opinion of what has really happened;
this is caused due to the different opinions on the subject matter held by Jeffries, his girl-friend, the nurse
and Tom.
Another evident classical stroke in this movie is Hitchcock's attempt to equalize movie's run- time with
real life-time: in this case, the movie's action takes about 3 days until the crime is uncovered; this
strengthens the film's argumental dynamism and therefore suspense.
By the way, the movie analyses an important aspect of human psychology: voyeurism. This psychological
analysis is another important threed of Hitchcock's filmography, following the same line observed in
'Rope' (though much better realized) and 6 years before the excellent 'Psycho'.
4) English 273: Intermediate Film Studies--Directors, Genres, Themes
Midterm Exam Guide
Midterm Date: Tuesday, March 7th.
The exam will cover the first 6 films (Psycho, Halloween, Rear Window, Vertigo, Near Dark, and
Desperately Seeking Susan). For each film, you should know the name of the director, the year of its
release, as well as the names of major characters and the names of the actors who played them. You
should be familiar enough with the films to recall relatively specific plot details and also be able to
generalize intelligently about the significant stylistic and/or narrative aspects of each film. For example,
important aspects of Near Dark include its blending of elements from the genres of vampire/horror film
and the Western; its extensive nighttime cinematography; and its (radical? traditional?) gender politics.
Sample questions and answers
1) How did Jefferies break his leg, and what is the thematic significance of the cause?
Jefferies' leg was broken as he was photographing a race car accident. He is an action-loving photojournalist, and considers his exciting way of life imcompatible with Lisa's job as a fashion maven. Also,
his job as photographer motivates his obsession with looking and spying throughout the film.
2) What is Marion doing right before she gets into the shower, and what is the significance of her actions?
Marion is sitting at a desk calculating how much money she will have to replace to return the entire
$40,000 she has stolen. It shows that although she has decided to "do the right thing" after talking with
Norman, it is too late for her. This suggests that her decision to steal the money in the first place has
sealed her fate.
The exam will also cover the following readings from the course packet:
On Halloween and the Stalker Film
Vera Dika, "The Stalker Film, 1978-1981."
Carol J. Clover, "Her Body, Himself."
On Rear Window
David Bordwell, "Believing and Seeing."
Tania Modeleski, "The Master's Dollhouse: Rear Window."
On Near Dark
Auerbach, Nina. "Vampires Die." (The analysis of the film on pp. 211-214 of the packet)
On Desperately Seeking Susan
Lucy Fischer, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly."
You should be familiar enough with the arguments these writers make to answer questions about their
overall take on the films they are discussing. For example, you should know whether or not Carol Clover
argues that the stalker genre offers a radical and sustained critique of gender-based theories of viewer
identification. (By the way, she doesn't. Her claim is much more equivocal and reserved than the terms
"radical and sustained" suggest.)
Sample questions and answers
1) Name three of the distinguishing characteristics of the stalker film discussed by Vera Dika.
1--A high level of replication from film to film--stalker films tend to be very formulaic.
2--A highly depersonalized killer.
3--An "outgroup" of incompentent or impotent adults--traditional authority figures who have lost their
power and are unable to protect the Group of Young People from the killer.
2) How does Auerback interpret the final image of Near Dark?
She argues that Caleb's embrace of Mae represents the return of patriarchal power and control, restoring
the kind of gender stereotypes that seem to be dismantled in the story as a whole.
In addition to short answer questions like these samples, the exam will likely include some multiple
choice questions that will require you to make subtle distinctions between three or four relatively similar
choices. I will ask not for the "right" answer (more than one of the answers may be more or less "true" or
"right" in a general sense) but for the "best" answer. An example:
1) In "Believing and Seeing," David Bordwell's main argument is that:
a) Vertigo frustrates the viewer's desire for narrative closure. (Obviously wrong, because Bordwell is
discussing Rear Window.)
b) the final scene is ambiguous with regards to whether or not Lisa has truly bridged the gap between her
world and Jeff's. (Bordwell does make this claim, but it is not his "main argument." It is a minor point in
Bordwell's analysis.)
c) Rear Window continually presents the viewerr with visual details that allow us to make certain
hypothesis, and then confirms or disconfirms those hypothoses by verbal comment. (Although it's
arguable whether this is the best restatement of Bordwell's thesis, it certainly comes closer than the other
two option, and is therefore the correct response.)
5) Hitchcock uses the opening scene in Rear Window to introduce the viewer to the characters and the
variety of sounds that are encountered throughout the film. Hitchcock uses a sound bridge to combine the
first two images of L.B. Jeffries and the composer. This technique of sound bridge is used throughout the
film especially during the opening scene. We hear the sound before we see where it is coming from. We
hear a song and assume that is non-diagetic. Then we see the composer change the song on the radio. It
is only now that we realize that this is a diagetic sound coming from within the story. The sound bridge is
used to illustrate how the sound capture Jeffries auditory attention and then his visual attention is focused
upon the objects. Sound links Jeffries to the people he is watching. As the camera pans the courtyard we
are slowly introduced into the lives of the characters living in the same apartments as L.B. Jeffries.
Throughout the film the sounds we hear are overlapped with one another. Except for the attack scene
when the sounds are minimal. While we hear the ever present music we also hear the noise coming from
the tenants, and the street noise of kids playing in the streets and automobiles honking. Hitchcock allows
the viewer to hear all of the background noise to develop the background for the visual elements. We are
always aware of the many sounds occurring. This is because there are always many actions occurring at
the same time. And Jeffries is trying to view all of these actions as we view his.
Analysis of a song
The composer is constantly working on a song. This song is an important element throughout
the film. The tenants lives revolve around this song whether they realize it or not. The song
seems to be the background and theme song for the entire film. The name of the song is Lisa.
Lisa feels that it is an enchanting song. She feels that it was written for her and Jeffries. Jeffries
says that must be why he is having so much trouble with it. The composer is having trouble with
the song just like L.B. is having commitment problems. The song progresses throughout the film
as does the relationship between Lisa and Jeffries. The composer's struggle with completing his
song parallels with Lisa and Jeffries struggle for an equally fulfilling relationship. The song
always seems to be playing when Lisa is over at Jeffries. The composer is having a party the
same night that Ms. Lonely hearts has a date over and the same night that Lisa spends the night
with Jeffries. This night was a first for everyone. Ms. Lonleyhearts had not had a date in a long
time, and LIsa had not spent the night over at Jeffries before. The composer's party reflected the
excitement of something new for eveyone. The music affects Lisa and L.B. because it is there
song. The song also affects Ms. Lonely hearts life. When she is about to over dose on pills she
hears the song coming from the composers room and for some reason the song makes her not
want to commit suicide. Stella notices that "the music stopped her." At the end of the movie we
see Ms. Lonely hearts and the composer listening to the song together. This is because the song
represents an important part of their lives. We hear the Lisa song for the last time as we see Lisa
and L.B. relaxing in his apartment.
Sound: attack scene
The rich variety of sounds that overlap continue throughout the film. The only time we
experience silence or one sound at a time is when Thorwald pays Jeffries a visit. When
compared to the rest of the film, this change in sound is a reflection of Jeffries voyeuristic
tendencies being revealed to Thorwald, the person being watched. Throughout the film Jeffries
is focused on his neighbors and their lives. During the attack scene Jeffries is only focused on
his apartment and his well being. The relationship between viewer and viewed had changed.
We are no longer watching with Jeffries, now we are watching him and Thorwald. It would be
as if a character in a movie jumped of the screen and watched us. The role of viewing would
change. Jeffries has been focusing on Thorwald at a distance now he is focusing on him at an
extremely close distance. All of these changes in viewing are reflected by the change in sounds.
The sounds we hear reflect what Jeffries is focused on. The phone rings, its Thorwald. A door
slams, its Thorwald. Footsteps, it's... All the sounds in this scene are either Thorwald or Jeffries.
The footsteps get louder the closer Thorwald gets to the apartment. We occasionally hear a
distant car horn to remind us that people are out there. possibly on the way to help. The door
opens and the viewer experiences their first note of silence. This silence has not previously
existed. The silence accomplishes an increasing rate of nail biting suspense. Finally Thorwald
speaks, "What do you want from me?" As Thorwald approaches all we hear are the near
blinding flash bulbs. Footsteps, flash, footsteps, flash. Jeffries scream is heard across the
courtyard by police. Thorwald and Jeffries tumble about the apartment. The viewer still does
not hear many sounds except the ones coming from Jeffries and Thorwald. Jeffries body hangs
from the window sill. As soon as it hits the ground all of the sounds come flooding back to the
scene. The neighbors and police are all chatting and moving about. The sounds of automobiles
return to the scene. Once again there are a rich variety of sounds all overlapping one another.
6)
To many viewers, Rear Window (1954) is Hitchcock at his best. The movie is indeed
another fine example of pure cinema.
A wheelchair bound photographer watches his neighbors from his apartment window and
becomes convinced that one of them has committed a murder.
The film presents a disturbingly entertaining vision of human curiosity and voyeurism. Most all
of the camera shots are from the protagonist's perspective, forcing the film viewers to see the
adventure from his point of view and making us share in his voyeuristic pleasure.
The Apartment
Rear Window finds a photographer, L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries, looking outside his New York apartment
into a courtyard, its apartments, and their tenants. Jeff is bound to a wheelchair because of an
accident on one of his adventurous journeys. His girlfriend, Lisa, is less accomplished at tying
Jeff down than the wheelchair, unsuccessful as she is in persuading him to marry her and settle
down.
Also visiting Jeff's apartment is Stella, his nurse.
The Courtyard Universe
With nothing better to do, Jeff is looking outside his apartment window
and views his neighbors and their lives. So he sees...
...the Newlyweds...
...the Sculptress...
...the Composer (with guest)...
...Miss Lonelyhearts...
...the Old Couple and their dog...
... and Miss Torso.
These are the protagonists of Rear Window's universe.
Oh, one more, a man and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Thorwald.
Suspicion
One day, Jeff notices that Mr. Thorwald is constantly leaving
and returning to his apartment with a small suitcase.
Mrs. Thorwald, meanwhile, is no longer to be seen.
Jeff begins to suspect Thorwald has murdered
his wife and begins a surveillance.
"We've become a race of Peeping Toms,"
Stella remarks, "What people ought to do is get outside
their own house and look in for a change."
Jeff's suspicion mounts when the next day the Old Couple's dog is found dead in the courtyard,
killed after it had sniffed at a flower bed...
...because it knew too much?
The Conspiracy
Out to proof Thorwald's guilt, Jeff calls in the assistance of Lisa and Stella,
who are now all too eager to help.
First they trick Thorwald to leave his apartment ().
Then, Lisa goes inside Thorwald's place, looking for his wife's ring,
a ring she would not have left behind had she gone on a
family visit as Thorwald claims. Lisa finds the ring.
But Thorwald sees her and also him who is behind all of this.
7) THE GEOMETRY OF TERROR
- space, look and narrative in Alfred Hitchcock"s Rear Window
"Hitchcock ... is so emotional that he pretends to be thinking only of the money."
Fran‫ח‬ois Truffaut
THE MATHEMATICS OF THE STAGE
Developing as it does with the precision of mathematical thought, the Rear Window is probably
Alfred Hitchcock"s most perfectly constructed film. It takes place during four days, from
Wednesday to Saturday, and the events are filmed from the window of one apartment and mostly
through the eyes of one person - the magazine photographer L.B. Jeffries (James Stewart),
confined to a wheelchair with his leg in plaster.
Everything takes place in a block of apartments at 125 West 9th Street, Greenwich Village, at the
south end of Manhattan, or more precisely within the buildings surrounding the courtyard. The
address is made up as in reality this part of the street has no such number, because it changes into
Christopher Street before reaching number 125. The fictional address is due to American law
which requires that a film murder shall not take place at a real address. However, No. 125
Christopher Street was the address of the film murderer before the name was changed and in
actual fact the model for the apartment block in the film was an actual building located at this
address.
Most of the buildings around the courtyard are typical American tenements built in the grim
"Federal brick" style. On the extreme right is a multi-storey plastered building, in front a fourstorey brick house, directly in front a small, two storey building to the left of which is an alley
leading to the street, and on the extreme left another red brick building that is so high that the
upper storeys never appear in the film. The partly paved and planted courtyard is at different
levels, and at the rear to the right is a part jutting out with a roof terrace joined to a glass fronted
studio flat.
L.B. Jeffries"s home is a two-room apartment. The film takes place in the living room which has
a kitchenette separated by cupboards. It contains a bay window overlooking the yard, a fireplace,
a door to the bedroom, and a front door three steps up from the floor. The bedroom door is
opened only once when the protagonist"s girlfriend Lisa goes in to change into her nightgown.
This mysterious room, which is never shown to the audience, is a familiar Hitchcockian
psychological theme - there is a locked room in the film Rebecca, for instance, the door of which
is never opened. During the period of Jeff"s convalescence, a high bed has been moved into the
bay, and the other furnishings have been moved to allow for his immobility and treatment.
"In my opinion the most fascinating films are those where everything happens in one single
place, such as Hitchcock"s Rope or Rear Window, Marcel Carn‫"י‬s Le Jour Se L‫י‬ve and Michael
Snow"s Wavelength,"2 said the American film director and researcher Peter Wollen in his
lecture at the first Film and Architecture seminar in Helsinki in October 1996.
The extreme spatial restrictions of Rear Window - the film is seen from the perspective of a
person bound to one spot and everything takes place within one huge set - was a stimulating
challenge for Hitchcock: "It was a possibility of doing a purely cinematic film. You have an
immobilised man looking out. That"s one part of the film. The second part shows what he sees
and the third part shows how he reacts. This is actually the purest expression of a cinematic
idea."3
THE CHARACTERS IN THE FILM
Walter Benjamin"s description of the theatrical character of the townscape of Naples is an exact
picture of the combined stage and auditorium in Rear Window: "Buildings are used as a popular
stage. They are all divided into innumerable, simultaneously animated theatres. Balcony,
courtyard, window, gateway, staircase, roof are at the same time stage and boxes."
The tenants observed through the windows of their apartments are like a collection of butterflies
in glass-covered cases - the director even puts this idea into the mouth of the photographer, "they
can ... watch me like a bug under glass, if they want to." The tenants form a cross section of New
York"s colourful populace: a song writer composer, a young dancer keeping her figure in trim, a
sculptress, a middle-aged spinster longing for male company, the passionate newlyweds, a
childless couple doting over their little dog, a salesman and his invalid nagging wife, and the
film"s protagonist, the magazine photographer L.B. Jeffries, Jeff, and his wealthy, fashionconscious girlfriend - Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly) who lives in the high rent district of Park
Avenue and 63rd Street "and never wears the same dress twice". There"s a heat wave going on,
everybody keeps their windows open, and to wile away the time the convalescent photographer
in his wheelchair begins to observe what"s happening in the courtyard.
"The field of vision has always seemed to me comparable to the ground of archeological
excavation,"5 writes Paul Virilio. Despite being so contrived and restricted, the apartment block
in the film is a rich excavation of city life in which the layers are only gradually exposed. The
tenants form a closed community for whom the outside world appears distant; it is only seen in
the film as a painted silhouette and a narrow view of the street. "What you see across the way is a
group of little stories that ... mirror a small universe,"6 as Hitchcock said about the world in his
movie. Lower middle class life was in any case familiar to him from his own childhood in the
suburbs of London.
The tenants never encounter each other, except for a brief exchange of words between the
sculptress and the salesman at the beginning of the film which he crudely terminates: "Why
don"t you shut up." Although the tenants have outside friends, they remain strangers to each
other. "You don"t know the meaning of the word neighbour," says the strangled dog"s owner
about her neighbours at this most dramatic scene in the film. Not until the scream following the
discovery of the strangled dog do they come into the courtyard space and look down upon the
centre of attention; the darkened windows reveal the dog strangler and wife murderer withdrawn
from the group. He can be seen smoking a glowing cigarette in his darkened apartment. The
darkness of this scene is undoubtedly one of the finest of its type in the history of the cinema. In
this scene the camera moves temporarily and unnoticed into the courtyard to view the characters
from below, as a single wide frame shot, from the perspective of the strangled dog. This
deviation brings about one of the most dramatic scenes in the film. "The size of the image is used
for dramatic purposes,"7 says Hitchcock about his cinematic dramaturgy.
THE LOGIC OF TERROR
The suspense in the film is based on the irrefutable logic of terror. Hitchcock slowly awakens in
the audience a stream of suspense which he dams until the final cataractous release. Hitchcock
planned his film so precisely that after it had been edited, only a few dozen metres of film
remained on the cutting room floor.
As is usual with an artistic masterpiece, Rear Window weaves innumerable details into a
faultless fabric in which allusions and hints criss-cross unendingly in all directions. Every
episode or line appears to contain meanings and allusions. Miss Torso (Georgine Darcy), the
nickname given to the shapely dancer, intimates mutilation, the central theme of the film. The
little dog is killed because "it knew too much", a natural allusion to the film Hitchcock directed
twice (The Man Who Knew Too Much, 1934 and 1956). Hitchcock even wrote an enigmatic
article about his wife Alma entitled "The Woman Who Knew Too Much".8 Even the words of
the songs heard in the background always relate ambiguously to the scene. Colours, too, contain
meanings: for example, Miss Lonelyhearts (Judith Evelyn) is coded in green; her dresses are
always different shades of emerald green and there are no other green clothes in the film.
Rear Window is truly a masterpiece of artistic abridgement: its richness and logic are only
revealed after seeing it several times. But great works always contain a great number of
redundances, depths and levels. The narrative logic of the film, its architectural messages, role
characterisations, atmospheres and secret hints, camera angles and shot compositions, space and
image details, and words and music constitute a mosaic that builds up the suspense with the
infallibility of the geometrist. The film ends like a geometrical exercise at school, q.e.d. - which
was to be demonstrated. "Clarity, clarity, clarity, you cannot have blurred thinking in suspense,"9
as Hitchcock says.
THE SITUATIONALITY OF MEANING
Hitchcock stresses the importance of pictorial and material expression, to which he totally
subjects the narrative dialogue: "Dialogue should simply be a sound among other sounds, just
something that comes out of the mouths of people whose eyes tell the story in visual terms."10
Hitchcock"s interest is not so much in the stories in his films but "in the way they are told."
"The impact of the image is of the first importance in a medium that directs the concentration of
the eye so that it cannot stray. In the theatre, the eye wanders, while the word commands. In the
cinema, the audience is led wherever the director wishes."11
Hitchcock"s ability to reveal the hidden feelings and moods of the characters by a simple
gesture, rhythm or camera angle frees the dialogue for its contrapunctual purpose. On top of an
everyday pictorial narrative, lines are spoken that have quite surprising or absurd dimensions,
like the insurance nurse-therapist Stella"s (Thelma Ritter) story of how she foresaw the Great
Crash of "29 from the number of times her patient, the boss of General Motors, visited the toilet:
"When General Motors has to go to the bathroom ten times a day, soon the whole nation is ready
to let go," she remarks.
THE EXTRANEOUS AND THE CONTRADICTORY
The extraneousness of the events, their intermingling and occasional triviality - like the
meaningless helicopter flying over the buildings at the beginning of the film, which hovers to
gawk at the bathing beauties on the flat roof -increases the credibility and irrevocability of the
main story, in much the same way as the mundane and incidental details in the epic works of the
great painters of history. Tizian"s monumental painting Presentation of the Virgin brings a touch
of ordinary life through irrelevant episodes: the countrywoman selling eggs, the boy playing with
a dog and the mother with a child in her lap talking to a monk. A story achieves the aura of real
life when it does not proceed too linearly and obviously; the individual will of the narrator and
director controlling the events appears to simultaneously submit to the overriding power of
destiny.
Fear and love are contradictory and mutually exclusive emotions. In Rear Window suspense and
fear often develop alongside the love affairs; the scenes where Lisa and Jeff are kissing, the
intimacy of the newlyweds behind the drawn blinds, the men fawning over Miss Torso, and the
lovelorn Miss Lonelyhearts. Even the murderer is having an illicit love affair.
Alongside the yearning and problematics of love, there are powerful erotic and sexual
suggestions and symbols, such as Lisa"s pining for love and Miss Torso"s erotic teasing, and on
the other hand Jeff"s rebuffing of Lisa"s approaches compared to his obvious interest in
observing the intimate life of the dancer from a distance. As regards Jeff, he has both phallic
symbols (the telephoto camera) and manifestations of frigidity and impotency (a leg in plaster
and immobility). Jeff"s rebuffing of Lisa and occasional rudeness is not explained by the
difference in class or customs, as he would have it.
The events in the lives of the tenants develop independently of the main story, but occasionally
the climaxes of these separate stories are connected, as for example Miss Lonelyhearts"
preparations for suicide at the same time as Lisa faces a dangerous situation in the murderer"s
apartment. Hitchcock creates a feeling of terror through well chosen scenes just when the mind is
most receptive, such as when a bloodcurdling scream from the yard interrupts Lisa displaying
her enticing lingerie, the murderer cleaning the butcher"s knife and little saw against the sound
of children playing, or when Lisa is kissing Jeff whilst his mind is preoccupied with the
significance of the murder weapons. The murderer"s gardening hobby also belongs to this series
of contradictions. The occasional background sound of a soprano practicing simultaneously lulls
the audience into a benign sense of security as well as a premonition of fear from the higher
notes. "Emotion is an essential ingredient of suspense,"12 writes Hitchcock.
SPECTACLE
The lives of the tenants in Rear Window can be observed in the lit rooms behind uncurtained
windows like separate films or TV programmes. Peeping into the apartments through the
photographer"s long focus lens and binoculars is a bit like channel-swapping with a remote13;
Lisa Fremont"s metaphors; "It"s opening night of the last depressing week of L.B. Jeffries in a
cast", "I bought the whole house", and "The show"s over for tonight", as she pulls down the
shades of the windows facing the courtyard in front of Jeff"s curious eyes, all indicate a show.
"Preview of coming attractions," says Lisa as she flashes the overnight bag containing her
nightgown, is also a reference to the cinema-like structure of the story. The transfer of the action
from one window to another - as if moving from one screen to another - creates a comical effect,
but also brings to mind Ren‫ י‬Magritte"s conceptual painting L"evidence ‫י‬ternelle, 1930, of a
woman"s body painted in parts on five separate, superimposed canvases or the landscape
variation of the same theme in Les profondeurs de la terre, 1930.
Actually, Jeff appears to create the story of the film in his own mind, as he interprets the
meanings of the unrelated events he observes and almost directs how they will develop. The
whole story might just be a dream or an illusion brought on by his immobility. He also cuts the
film into montages by transferring his view (= camera"s view = spectator"s view) from one
window and episode to the next and in selecting the image frames and distances with his own
eyes through the alternative optics of the telephoto camera and binoculars. Jeff is thus
simultaneously both the film"s director and spectator and Rear Window in its entirety is a
metaphor and study in making and viewing a film.
THE REALISM OF THE SET
The apartments are like stages stacked one upon the other, like urn recesses in a columbarium,
with no access to the normal anatomy of an apartment block, to staircases and corridors; only the
flats of the salesman and Miss Lonelyhearts are connected to a corridor. The young man in the
just rented flat on the left reopens the front door in order to carry his bride over the threshold, but
where the door leads to remains unclear. The block of apartments in the film is like a tree lifted
from its roots without access to the ground water.
Neither are the plans of the apartments "real", as they have been flattened against their facades so
everything can be seen through the camera in Jeff"s room. For example, the flats of the
Thorwalds and Miss Lonelyhearts are unorthodoxly approached through a kitchen. And where is
the murderer"s (Raymond Burr) bathroom located, the walls of which he is shown to be
washing?
The apartment block in Hitchcock"s film appears to have been built by man into a mountain, a
canyon, the excavated flats of which apparently lack another side, despite the fact that the
audience is shown a narrow view of a rear street and a restaurant located at the opening between
the buildings. The courtyard and the apartments facing it form a huge stage surrounded by what
appears to be a hidden back stage in the darkness of which the occupants move from the street to
their flats.
8) Marriage & Voyeurism in Rear Window
MARRIAGE
All of the characters in Rear Window are described at one point or another in terms of their
marital status and in terms of their relationships with the opposite sex. This represents a central
theme in the film. The crime on which the plot pivots is the result of a failed marriage. The hero
of the film, L.B. Jefferies, tosses the proposal of marriage around throughout the film despite his
opposition to commitment.
Like other Hitchcock movies, this one gives a gray light to marriage. The viewer sees Jeff's
hesitance to get married for no real reason, as well as Thorwald1s miserable marriage to a wife
who laughs at him after he brings her dinner in bed with a rose. From the Thorwalds, the
institution of marriage looks like entrapment. Even the newlyweds have problems at the end of
the movie. The wife says "I wouldn1t have married you if I had known you would quit your job,"
which seems like the beginning of trouble. Thus, the outlook of marriage is very negative.
Examining this theme further, we can look at individual couples and examine the many parallels
the film offers. To begin with, there are striking similarities between Jeff and Lisa's relationship
and the Thorwalds. However, gender roles are reversed. Lisa and Lars strive for a peaceful and
loving relationship with their partner, and are active and mobile. On the other hand, Jeff and Mrs.
Thorwald are constant complainers confined to one place. The viewer is forced to question why
Jeff and Lisa won1t end up just like the Thornwalds.
Despite the parallels, there are differences. When Lisa climbs into Thorwald's apartment we
finally see her do something significantly opposed by Jefferies, but this is when he is really
turned on by her spunk and spontaneity. It is the turning point of the movie for their relationship.
When caught by both Thorwald and the police, she offers a wedding ring on her finger to Jeff1s
admiring gaze.
She has solved the murder, found the key clue, and symbolically become wed (to Jeff, of course).
There may still be trouble in paradise, though. The above-mentioned Newlyweds are now
perhaps parallel to Jeff and Lisa. As he sleeps, still symbolically "unable to perform," Lisa
literally "wears the pants" in the family and refuses to give up her fashion magazines. The battle
of wills must continue.
A final pairing to consider is that of Jefferies and Miss Lonelyhearts. Both of these characters
seem to have voids in their lives and at the end they both find happiness. It is Lisa, not Jeff, who
empathizes with Miss Lonelyhearts. Her feminine intuition (which serves her so well in cracking
the case) also helps her to appreciate what the "spinster" is going through. The best Jeff can do is
avert his eyes in embarrassment when Miss L. has a harrowing encounter. Even though it is
Lisa's female intuition which defines her, here it is Jeff who is identified as a stay-at-home,
chronically unmarried, loner. That brings us right back to Mrs. Thorwald!
In short, the parallels in this film make marriage a questionable goal and confuse gender roles in
complicated ways. We are conditioned by Classical Hollywood Cinema to identify with a male
protagonist and Jeff is surely the "hero." But he is associated with the female characters he spies
on even as he takes on the stereotypical role of "male gazer."
VOYEURISM
It is very interesting that the audience views almost all of Rear Window from the voyeur's eyes.
Because of the many eyeline matches and point of view shots, our gaze becomes closely allied
with Jeff1s. Like Jeff, most of us will admit that--regardless of circumstances--9 out of 10 times
we are going to continue looking, too. Hitchcock shoots the film with such a high level of
perceptual subjectivity to prove that to us. In some ways, the audience of voyeurs is in a
"director's chair." Like a director, Jeff sits in a chair, watches through lenses, and communicates
stories based on the pictures viewed.
However, Jeff1s desire to spy on his neighbors is not fully endorsed by the film. At the start of
Rear Window, for example, both Stella and Lisa chastise Jeff for his habits. Lisa and Stella are
very witty, insightful, and admirable. Both exemplify intellect. Furthermore, both are mobile and
active. Therefore, their condemnation of Jeff should not be ignored. They, too, will eventually
get swept up in Jeff1s desire to spy, but early in the film, they identify his hobby as a crime.
Jeff1s habit does eventually cause trouble. In one of the great moments of this (or any!) film, the
killer stares directly at Jeff and at us. Thus, we are implicated in both Jeff1s and the director1s
crime of voyeurism.
Although Hitchcock gets us to thinking that Jeff is going to pay for his wandering eyes, the
movie does not end that way. In the end, Jeff is left an invalid, but he will likely continue his
peeping ways. Furthermore, is it coincidence that not only Jeff but Lisa and Stella also get
wrapped up in the spying? It seems that there isn't one character in the movie--confined to a
wheelchair or not--who can keep her or his sights out of the courtyard. Even Tom Doyle, the
police officer, will eventually be convinced that the "peeping tom" has the right idea. (He does,
after all, base an entire investigation on Jeff's stories plus some "stolen" information: the
incriminating wedding ring.) Perhaps Hitchcock is expressing his views on what makes a
director great. Crime or not, it is human nature to "spy on thy neighbor," something directors and
viewers must come to terms with.
Jeff, the audience, and the director treat staring at the women differently than at the men. Jeff
calls one woman "Miss Lonelyhearts," another "Miss Torso." Both are identified by their
sexuality. We can contrast this with Lars Thorwald (identified by his profession and crime) or
"the composer." Thus, we quickly come to see women in a different light. Men stare at women
and see sexual objects; men stare at men and see colleagues. Still, Hitchcock makes Lisa a
protagonist. This is odd since the male is often the only one to be the hero. Lisa doesn't fit our
idea of "dumb blondes." Instead she is cultured, clever, and talented. However, she does not
become of interest to Jeff until she begins believing his story. Her most exciting role is as object
of Jeff1s gaze. When she breaks into Thorwald1s apartment she is at her most brave and
impressive. Ironically, when she is the object of a man1s gaze, she is in some ways most
stereotypically masculine.
It is the audience that is put in the role of an unpunished criminal (a voyeur) and of symbolic
impotence (stuck in a chair while Lisa does her thing). If we are all directors then Hitchcock is
offering a trenchant criticism of his own profession. At the very least, he is calling attention to
what every movie relies on, for whenever we watch a film, we are voyeurs confined to a chair!
10) Rent this movie in videotape form from your local outlet. There is a moratorium on sales,
and you will only find copies of the tape or videodisc to buy only if you are lucky enough to find
remainders in some undersold inventory. Maybe MCA will reissue the video before the next
millenium.
Paramount Pictures
113 minutes
Technicolor
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Cast Principals
James Stewart (L.B. "Jeff" Jefferies)
Grace Kelly (Lisa Carol Fremont)
Thelma Ritter (Stella)
Raymond Burr (Lars Thorwald)
Wendell Corey (Thomas J. Doyle)
Writers
Story (1942) by Cornell Woolrich ("William Irish")
Screenplay by John Michael Hayes
Etc.
Cinematography by Robert Burks
Music by Ranz Waxman, Friedrich von Flotow
Costumes by Edith Head
Editing by George Tomasini
Links
Artists and Models (1955)
La Mariee etait en noir (1967)
Sisters (1973)
Someone's Watching Me! (1978) (TV)
Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993)
Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy (1996)
Foul Play (1978) --spoof
Quotes
Stella: "Intelligence. Nothing has caused the human race so much trouble as intelligence."
Lisa: "Jeff, you know if someone came in here, they wouldn't believe what they'd see? You and
me with long faces plunged into despair because we find out a a man didn't kill his wife. We're
two of te most frightening ghouls I've ever known."
Lisa: "Tell me exactly what you saw and what you think it means."
Lisa: "A murderer would never parade his crime in front of an open window."
Stella: "We've become a race of Peeping Toms. What people ought to do is get outside their own
house and look in for a change. Yes sir. How's that for a bit of homespun philosophy?"
Stella notes that the punishment for peeping toms used to be putting their eyes out with a red hot
poker. Cf. later scene with flashbulbs.
When discussing the dog's death, Stella makes a reference to an earlier Hitchcock film when she
speculates if it was "The dog who knew too much."
Insights
Stewart is the alter-ego for the director (stuck in chair, uses lens to frame scenes)
Window is a metaphor for movies in general, but all possible scripts have been "ended" and
arranged as a prism.
The camera work develops further the practice of using the camera as a voyeur by emphasizing
pans and optical metaphors. Continuous uncut shots are common and are used to build tension as
well as to treat the visual as an equally available "surface" that can be brought nearer through
technology.
Facts
The set (125 W. Ninth Street is Thorwald's apartment) contained 32 apartments. They were all
built at Paramount, because real apartments couldn't be lit properly.
The premiere was held at New York's Rivoli Theater and was a benefit for the American-Korean
foundation (August 4). There was a big crowd.
Hayes won an award for the screenplay, but Hitchcock only received a nomination for direction,
dispite the film's clear financial success.
The Hayes script follows the standard formula for plot development. 45 minutes are spent for an
establishing scene; rather long, but divided into 16 min. to establish Jeffries' condition and 29
minutes to develop his relationship to Lisa. The first plot point occurs when Lisa begins to take
Jefferies' theory about the murder seriously. Also, it involves a scene where Thorwald is seen
tying up a trunk with rope, a Hitchcock signature. The development sequence takes 52 minutes.
The second plot point occurs when Lisa climbs up the fire-escape into the apartment at 97.10
into the film. After this, it takes 14 minutes to finish the film: seven minutes to free Lisa and
seven minutes after Thorwald shows up at Jeffries' apartment (the "cyclops scene"). The threepart form reads as 45/52/14 (approximate timings; fractions add up to the official 113 minutes).
Boundary points
The set is the key.
The window is equivalent to a picture plane, a screen, a lens.
Others have compared the apartment fa‫ח‬ade as a screen, and the window to a lens.
The interior courtyard is an "inversion" of normative space that, like the later paintings of
Mondrian, provide a vent into the private interior of the residents, whose lives are presented
kaleidoscopically or panoramically.
The courtyard is "panoptical" in the sense that Jeffries has idealized, almost unrestricted access.
The single passage to the outside is a slit, an enfiladed entry.
Compare the set to the cyclops cave (Odyssey), also to enfiladed enclosures of the Iron and
Bronze Ages.
The courtyard collects and merges the sounds from various apartments (cf. John Cheever's "The
Giant Radio").
The courtyard functions as an anthology.
Obvious poch‫ י‬references
"Rear window" (prohibited visuality)
Interior courtyard
Exposed apartment scenes (like sections through a building)
Obvious vent references
Vision works as a vent, also information about private lives
Sound mixes in the courtyard space
Plot points hinge on vent functions: (1) first plot point centers around the possibility that
Thorwald has murdered his wife and disposed of her body; (2) the second plot point begins when
Lisa climbs into Thorwald's window.
Jeffries' window is a vent as long as no one knows he's watching; clue: they don't treat their own
windows as windows by exposing so much of their interior lives. The windows "have to stay
open" because of the heat, i.e. they have to work as vents rather than windows.
Spencer Brown references
Ring and wife work reciprocally [a converts to (b)]
Thorwald's apartment is an echelon (wife 'a' in rear).
There is a (b) vent when Thorwald makes the long distance call to his accomplice.
(B) comes to represent the ring of the dead wife.
(AC) versus ((B)C) stands for the alternatives of the mystery.
A is Jeffries, C is Thorwald; the courtyard (B) separates them.
The insertion of a double vent (empty) is the sign Lisa gives Jeff "cancelling" the anonymity of
the courtyard.
C can then migrate to A (Lars attacks Jeff) and Lars pushes Jeff into the courtyard; this
demonstrates Jeff's dyadic relation to the courtyard : A = (B).
Return to echelon: "empty vent" left after C is taken off. New paint, new dog, new husband for
Torso, new song ("Lisa").
Echelon Action
(AC) : man and wife (Lars and Anna Thorwald)
(A)B)C) : a rival separates A and C. Connect with phone call in living room.
A converts to (b) : wife is murdered. (B) also stands for ring, which becomes marked as soon as
it is found without a wife attached.
( ( ((B)) B) C) : converted to (B), a double vent appears everywhere: empty bedroom, empty
purse, empty garden, "empty" trunk, empty suitcases.
((BB)C) : wife and accomplice can't be distinguished at first, then just the ring, (B), figures in:
((B) C).
Lisa crawls in window: double vent inserted into echelon.
Thorwald enters both rooms, outside exit blocked.
Ring must have been found; the transformed echelon has (b) in both expressions.
From (AC)((B)C), Thorwald goes to the door when the police arrive.
C "leaves behind" an open vent : Lisa signals to Jeff.
The open vent disappears : Thorwald sees the sign, fingers Jeff.
Echelon re-established.
More Echelon Action
A (Jeff) and C (Lars) are similar (both travel) : (AC)
But, a courtyard (vent) separates them : (((A) B) C)
Lars digs a grave in the courtyard, but it's empty : (((A) ((B)) C)
Jeff and the Courtyard are oppositional (off/on) : A = (B).
Thorwald gets to Jeff's apartment (AC) and inside the grave (?) ((B)C) ; or, he attempts to kill
Jeff by throwing him out the window into the courtyard.
The two calls are, as elsewhere, used as sequential scenes.
Two calls used as sequential scenes or possibilities
Either Anna's in the country or Lars killed her.
Lars enters Jeff's apartment and throws him out the window.
When Lisa sneaks into the apartment, (AC) is the backroom struggle and ((B)C) is the scene with
the ring.
B-Cross Roles
Ring
Coutryard
Dead wife
Living room
Lars' call to accomplice
Difficult: Jeff's broken leg (works like the stone blocking the cyclops' cave)
Binoculars (double bound)
A Roles
Wife
Jeff
Bedroom
Voyeur-correlate (Jeff / Courtyard alternate)
Cyclops' episode references
Hospitality test: neighbor rebuked for garden advice.
Single eye: alley to street.
A becomes (B) (Odysseus can be imprisoned but the Cyclops has freedom of movement.
Red hot poker reference (Stella).
Single eye = echelon of rooms.
Jewel = ring is "proof."
Blindness motif in final scene.
Sheep disguise? Voyeur's cover.
Character roles
Jefferies is Odysseus in the sense of being a prisoner of the cyclops' cave, but he is a form of
cyclops himself because of his monocular role. One leg, one eye. (But, classical heros usually
have a limp.)
Lisa Fremont is virginal by default, but sexy by nature: a Diana.
Stella is the model crone and fate figure (she foretells the future).
Thorwald is cyclops in his own cave; dragon/maiden motif.