Rear Window

 This film is about a photographer, Jeff, who is bound to a wheel chair and confined to his apartment while he recovers. He is very bored and spends his time watching his neighbor’s lives though binoculars from the rear window of his apartment. The only interaction he has during the day is from his caretaker Stella and his female friend Lisa. One of the families Jeff watches is always arguing, and he believes he the husband kills his wife. Jeff tries to prove it to the authorities, but they don’t want to just take his word for it. Lisa, who tries to prove that she can be adventurous, and Stella help him gather evidence  to convict the man. Eventually the man finds out that Jeff knows he killed his wife, and confronts Jeff in his apartment. In a scuffle between the men, Jeff is dropped out of his window and breaks his other leg, and the man is apprehended by the police.

I really liked Hitchcock’s camera work in the film. You actually feel like you are sitting in the apartment looking across the street and into the other apartments. The main character is doing what the audience is doing, looking into the lives of strangers. Hichcock uses “The Gaze” in this film very well with the main character. Hitchcock also uses an early form montage in the film as he camera looks through the life of all of the people in the apartments. I thought that the set design was perfect for the story. The courtyard below and the large apartment windows were perfect.

Hitchcock succeded at creating a great movie. One of the elements that really helped the movie was the use of almost exclusive diegetic sound. Hitchcock meticulously created where all the sounds of the apartment complex came from, all the sounds helped to create a very believable environment.  Also, he did a good job at created the families that Jeff was watching, and comparing their lives to Jeff, all the families represented something Jeff either wanted or didn’t want, and they eventually appear to be not as they seem.