Rear Window
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Rear Window | |
|---|---|
 Movie Poster |
|
| Directed by | Alfred Hitchcock |
| Produced by | Uncredited: Alfred Hitchcock |
| Written by | Short story: Cornell Woolrich "It Had to Be Murder" Screenplay John Michael Hayes |
| Starring | James Stewart Grace Kelly Thelma Ritter Wendell Corey Raymond Burr Judith Evelyn |
| Music by | Franz Waxman |
| Cinematography | Robert Burks |
| Editing by | George Tomasini |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures (1954-83) Universal Studios (since 1983) USA Films (2000 re-release) |
| Release date(s) |  August 1, 1954 |
| Running time | 112 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US$ 1,000,000 |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Rear Window (1954) is a motion picture directed by Alfred Hitchcock, based on Cornell Woolrich's short story "It Had to Be Murder" (1942) (ISBN 0-14-026977-0). It is considered by many filmgoers, critics and scholars to be one of Hitchcock's best and most thrilling pictures.
Contents |
[edit] Film description
L.B. "Jeff" Jefferies (James Stewart) is a professional photographer who has been confined to his Greenwich Village apartment after an accident has left him with his leg in a cast.
Suffering from boredom, he takes to spying on his neighbors through the rear window. His view of the back of several apartment buildings, their inner courtyard, and the persons dwelling within at first have a strongly Norman Rockwell feel about them. Over time, however, Jeff comes to believe that a murder has taken place in the building across the courtyard, though his friends, his nurse Stella (Thelma Ritter), and his girlfriend, Lisa Carol Fremont (Grace Kelly) initially think his beliefs are imagined due to his idle behavior.
Almost the entire movie is filmed from inside Jeff's bedroom, and most of the point of view (POV) shots are Jeff's. However, at key points in the movie this rule is broken (usually as a dual or triple POV shot, but also the single POV shots of Doyle, Stella, and Lisa).
Furthermore, there is at least one moment when the viewer sees something while Jeff is asleep, and in two key sequences, characters are seen from angles not possible from Jeff's window. This trend increases throughout the film until the final sequence, when Jefferies' POV is nearly subverted.
The character of Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr) is not seen in close-up and cannot be heard speaking clearly until the climax of the movie. At this point, he appears in Jeff's room. This scene features a sequence shown from Thorwald's point of view as he attempts to proceed towards Jeff, but is repeatedly stopped as Jeff blinds him with his camera flash.
[edit] Analysis
Hitchcock fans and film scholars have taken particular interest in the way the relationship between Jeff and Lisa can be compared to the lives of the neighbors they are spying upon. Many of these points are considered in Tania Modleski's feminist theory book, The Women Who Knew Too Much. (ISBN 0-415-97362-7)[1]
- Thorwald and his wife are a reversal of Jeff and Lisa (Thorwald looks after his invalid wife just as Lisa looks after the invalid Jeff). However, Thorwald's hatred of his nagging wife mirrors Jeff's arguments with Lisa.
- The newlywed couple initially seem perfect for each other (they spend nearly the entire movie in their bedroom with the blinds drawn), but at the end we see that their marriage is in trouble and the wife begins to nag the husband. Similarly, Jeff is afraid of being 'tied down' by marriage to Lisa.
- The middle-aged couple with the dog seem content living at home. They have the kind of uneventful lifestyle that horrifies Jeff.
- The music composer and Miss Lonelyhearts, the depressed spinster, lead frustrating lives, and at the end of the movie find comfort in each other (the composer's new tune draws Miss Lonelyhearts away from suicide, and the composer thus finds value in his work). There is a subtle hint in this tale that Lisa and Jeff are meant for each other, despite his stubbornness. The piece the composer creates is called "Lisa's Theme" in the credits.
The movie invites speculation as to which of these paths Jefferies and Lisa will follow.
The characters themselves verbally point out a similarity between Lisa and Miss Torso (played by Georgine Darcy) - the scantily-clad ballet dancer who has all-male parties.
Other analysis centers on the relationship between Jeff and the other side of the apartment block, seeing it as a symbolic relationship between spectator and screen. Film theorist Mary Ann Doane has made the argument that Jeff, representing the audience, becomes obsessed with the screen, where a collection of storylines are played out. This line of analysis has often followed a feminist approach to interpreting the film. It is Doane who, using Freudian analysis to claim women spectators of a film become "masculinized," pays close attention to Jeff's rather passive attitude to romance with the elegant Lisa, that is, until she crosses over from the spectator side to the screen, seeking out the wedding ring of Thorwald's murdered wife. It is only then that Jeff shows real passion for Lisa. In the climax, when he is pushed through the window (the screen), he has been forced to become part of the show.
Further analysis into Jefferies' character could also be interpreted as somewhat of a voyeur. Because of Jeff's sexual frustration with Lisa, he may look to other sources to fulfill his sexual need.
[edit] Legacy
Brian De Palma paid homage to Rear Window with his movie Body Double (which also added touches of Hitchcock's Vertigo). Rear Window was remade as a TV movie in 1998 starring Christopher Reeve. Marcos Bernstein's The Other Side of The Street (2004) also makes a reference to Rear Window, albeit with a Brazilian twist. Another film based on Rear Window was the 2007 film Disturbia, starring Shia LaBeouf. Animated series such as The Simpsons, Tiny Toon Adventures, Rocket Power, The Venture Bros., and Home Movies have all paid homage to Rear Window. That 70's Show also spoofed the film in the episode "Too Old to Trick or Treat, Too Young to Die" along with other Hitchcock works. Robert Zemeckis' What Lies Beneath is another film that pays tribute to this film and other Hitchcock features. Woody Allen's Manhattan Murder Mystery, in which Allen and his wife suspect a elderly neighbour of murdering his wife and are forced to investigate for themselves when no one else takes their concerns seriously, could also be said to owe a debt to Rear Window.
This movie has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. The film was restored by the team of Robert A. Harris and James C. Katz for its 1999 limited theatrical re-release and the Collector's Edition DVD release.
Ownership of the copyright in Woolrich's original story was eventually litigated before the United States Supreme Court in Stewart v. Abend, 495 U.S. 207 (1990). The film was copyrighted in 1954 by Patron Inc. — a production company set up by Hitchcock and Stewart. As a result, Stewart and Hitchcock's estate became involved in the Supreme Court case.
The film was shot entirely at Paramount studios, including an enormous set on one of the soundstages, and employed the Technicolor process in use at the time. There was also careful use of sound, including natural sounds and music drifting across the apartment building courtyard to James Stewart's apartment. At one point, the voice of Bing Crosby can be heard singing "To See You Is to Love You" originally from the Paramount release Road to Bali (1952).
Hitchcock used famed designer Edith Head to design costumes in all of his Paramount films. (She continued to design costumes for his films when Hitchcock moved to MGM in 1959 and then to Universal in 1960 until the end of his career.) With Hitchcock's encouragement, Head designed especially romantic dresses for Grace Kelly.[2]
[edit] Academy Award nominations (1955)
- Best Director (Alfred Hitchcock)
- Best Screenplay (John Michael Hayes)
- Best Cinematography, Color (Robert Burks)
- Best Sound Recording (Loren L. Ryder, Paramount Pictures)
[edit] Trivia
- Alfred Hitchcock's cameo is a signature occurrence in most of his films. In Rear Window he can be seen (26 minutes into the film) in the composer's apartment winding a clock.
- In her book, The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World, Kati Marton stated that Hitchcock was inspired to use Jeff as a war photographer and Lisa as a fashion model while filming Ingrid Bergman in Notorious (1946). At the time of filming Notorious, Ingrid Bergman was having an affair with Robert Capa, the great combat photographer.
- The music composer was played by Ross Bagdasarian, a real songwriter who recorded under the names Alfi & Harry (itself an homage to Hitchcock and the movie The Trouble with Harry which was also the name of a novelty song recorded under the Alfi & Harry name) and, more successfully, David Seville of The Chipmunks fame.
- This film is one of several directed by Hitchcock originally released by Paramount Pictures, that were acquired by Universal Studios in later years.
- The film Disturbia is a modern day retelling of Hitchcock's classic.
- Rear Window was loosely parodied in an episode of The Simpsons.
- Club House Detectives is also a modern day retelling of Hitchcock's classic, where a young boy sees his neighbor kill a student of his and buries her in his floor boards.
- In a That 70's Show parody, Too Old to Trick or Treat, Too Young to Die, Fez, confined to a wheel chair after his accident, tries to pass the time by watching the happenings in Donna's house through a telescope. More accurately, Fez hopes to see Donna's mother Midge naked. After noticing Midge is missing for quite some time, Fez suspects Bob killed her.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Modleski, Tania, The Women Who Knew Too Much: Hitchcock and Feminist Theory (New York: Routledge, Chapman & Hall, Inc., 1989)
- ^ Review by Robert E. Nylund
[edit] External links
- Rear Window (1954) at the Internet Movie Database
- Rear Window (1998 remake) at the Internet Movie Database
- Brief Analysis of Rear Window screenplay
- Rear Window at Box Office Mojo
- skyjude - movie legends
- DVD Review of Rear Window
- Rear Window (1954) at Alfred Hitchcock Fans Online
