Alfred Hitchcock is rightly considered as one of the most important and innovative filmmakers of the 20th century. Hitchcock believed in making full use of the camera, sets and music to achieve the desired effect in his films. He was always trying to create something different for his audience and many of his films are classics. 'Rear Window' is one of these classics.
THE STORY
In itself the premise of the plot is unusual and quite daring in that is features a small cast and almost all the action takes place in one room with the hero stuck in a wheelchair throughout the film.
Hitchcock regular James Stewart plays L.B. Jeffries (Jeff) a photographer who on his last assignment had an accident and broke his leg. Seven weeks on in his recovery and he is getting bored confined as he is to his wheelchair in his apartment. Usually a man of action Jeff is frustrated with his disability and with only his fiancée Lisa (Grace Kelly) and his nurse (Thelma Ritter) for occasional company he resorts to passing the time by watching the goings on of his neighbours across the way from the rear window of his Greenwich Village apartment complex. From his apartment he can see in to all the window and thus the 'lives' of the apartments facing him and in his own imagination he slowly gets to know the people making up names and stories for what their lives are like. He gradually becomes fascinated with on particular apartment where a middle aged couple live and soon he realises that a murder
has been committed. No one believes him but slowly a chain of events is set in motion that put his life and that of Lisa in danger.
THE OPINION
Hitchcock in many if not all his films put the camera and thus us the audience in the position of Voyeur, in this film he does most directly, we share Jeff fascination for prying into his neighbours lives Hitchcock taps into that part of all of us that is interested in what is going on next door whether it is a half heard muffled conversation through thin walls that we are not supposed to hear or a fleeting glimpse through a lit window at night of an event that we are not supposed to see. Hitchcock goes one step further in that he sets up the whole film on this one premise and achieves this by using a single stage set constructed for this purpose.
In Rear Window Hitchcock plays with our emotions at first what Jeff is doing makes us feel uncomfortable, he is after all invading people's privacy, this is clearly wrong but we the audience are complicit in this activity we are also looking though Jeff's eye through his zoom lens and soon our curiosity overrides our sense of shame over being a 'peeping tom'.
With such a claustrophobic setting and a small principle cast Hitchcock has to be careful not to end up making a 'stage play' rather than a cinematographic event. He achieves this by clever use of the camera and by the use of the zoom when we observe the scenes unfolding in the apartment opposite Jeff's. He expertly builds and maintains the tension as the story unfolds and Lisa and Jeff are placed in greater danger. There are some sublime moments in this film which really show off Hitchcock supreme ability to manipulate the audience and keep them fully engrossed.
The performances of his principle actors are outstanding. James Stewart who had already starred in another Hitchcock classic Rope a few years earlier and was to star in tow further films 'The Man Who Knew Too Much' and 'Vertigo' a few years later, is superbly cast as the exasperated and bad tempered Jeff. Grace Kelly as his somewhat younger fiancée Lisa is simply beautiful. At this time she was a Hitchcock favourite, he was famously partial to blonde leading ladies in his films and she was at the height of her Stardom. She had classic refined good looks and poise that made her distinct from the other sex symbols of her age like Marilyn Monroe. She possessed the attractive innocence of the girl next door but at the same time there were hints that there might be a more passionate soul underneath. Grace Kelly was part of Hollywood royalty and of course a few year after this film was made she became real life royalty by marrying possibly the most eligible bachelor in the world Prince Ranieri of Monaco. Kelly's part in this films requires her to be a foil for Jeff, while he is getting angry and frustrated she has to remain cool and level headed whilst being feisty and standing up to him and his moaning. For the film to work we have to believe in their relationship we have to accept that these two quite different people in terms of age and character could love each other and it is down to Kelly's portrayal of Lisa that this is made possible.
The support cast although not very large is also excellent. Jeff's nurse played by veteran character actress Thelma Ritter is perfect, her acerbic comebacks putting the grumpy Jeff in his place. Special mention has to go to Raymond Burr (better know in later years as Perry Mason and detective Ironside) as the creepy baddie. He doesn't say very much in the whole film but manages to exude an evil presence on the proceedings.
The real star of the film though is the wonderful set. From Jeff's window we are presented with colourful moving tableaux of all the window of the opposite apartment block alive with people each engaged in their own activities, each window telling a story. Technically this must have been difficult to set up and it takes a great artist to come up with the idea in the first place.
Overall this must ranks amongst Hitchcock best films, it ticks all the Hitchcockian boxes, it has great central performances, a fascinating if unusual storyline, and it is very suspenseful and contains a lot of dark humour.
THE DVD
Disappointingly the DVD I have doesn't include any special features whatsoever. There is a choice of several subtitle languages (German, English, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, and Finnish) and a chapter menu but nothing else. The picture quality is very good and looks like it has been restored to its original quality for sound as well. For a film such as this which has so many interesting aspects that can be discussed it seems a waste that there are no featurette or commentaries included, but despite this and for the price this DVD is still worth having.
Production Year: 2002 - Thriller - Director: Bharat Nalluri, Rob Bailey, Andy Wilson - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Matthew MacFadyen, Keeley Hawes, David Oyelowo, Peter Firth, Jenny Agutter, Lisa Faulkner
Thriller - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Timothy West, Neil Morrissey, Tara Fitzgerald, Annette Crosbie, Pauline Quirke, Rob Brydon, Denise Van Outen, John Thomson, Kevin Whately, David Suchet
Oh...this is an excellent movie..I absolutely loved it...well reviewed as well..I really like your opinion about Kelly's character awesome..thanks very much..:)
Advantages: A good idea for reworking "Rear Window"... Disadvantages: ...but it had a poor script and lost a lot of what made the original plot so good
Collingwood21 13.09.2009 ·
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