Rear Window, directed by Alfred Hitchcock
was produced in 1954 and starred James Stewart and Grace Kelly among others.
James played a character named Jeff Jefferies who’s stuck at home in a
wheelchair due to a broken leg and finds himself spending his time spying on
neighbors. All of his spying has him convinced that a murder took place across
his street and he needs to find out what happened. This is when Grace, who
plays Lisa steps in and helps him find out the mystery. She ventures into his neighbor’s
house looking for clues and comes to a close call when he gets home and she isn’t
in a safe spot yet.
Hitchcock does a marvelous job with camera movement
throughout this film. He pans shots therefore the audience feels as if they are
actually in the movie and can see everything around them. Using this technique definitely
intrigues the audience and embraces them to want to see more. Certain scenes
are memorable that include the viewing of the apartments or when James spies on
his neighbors. It almost makes me want to know more about all the other
neighbors and their personal lives. Hitchcock also uses sound as an effect for
his work. In this film in particular, he uses the female scream a couple of
times. He uses a scream when Mrs. Thorwald gets murdered; however, we don’t see
where it is coming from. The audience can only hear the scream in the
background and the camera goes to James character so we see his reaction.
James uses his facial expressions exquisitely in
this film and it makes me believe every step of what is happening. Because of
the elements in the films such as sound and the editing including the great
acting, it made me want to know what was going to happen next in the sequence
of events. Hitchcock does an awesome job at making this film eerie in a sense
of where curiosity gets the best of us. I very much enjoyed this film due to
the character development and story line.
