Topic > Review of Hitchcock's Rear Windows

The film “Rear Window” by cinematography legend Alfred Hitchcock is a masterpiece. Alfred Hitchcock is known for his experimental style of filmmaking and using many different filmmaking techniques and the film "Rear Window" is no exception and is full of amazing techniques. Also through this film Alfred Hitchcock sees the human nature of voyeurism with irony. Voyeurism is the pleasure of spying on people, observing their private life. I will describe three wonderful elements of "Rear Window" that make this film one of the best films of all time: telling a story without dialogue, shooting the film on location, and the impact of voyeurism. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay First, telling a story by showing details without saying anything has a great effect on the audience. According to the book “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind” by Al Ries and Jeck Trout (2001), people perceive visual images better than words. The first scene of “Rear Window” is a great example of how to tell the story without words. At first we see a man in a wheelchair, then his broken leg and his name written in chalk. Next, we see his broken camera and photos of the explosion, from the car race, up close. From these shots we can understand that the man's name is Jeff, he is a photographer and broke his leg while making a photo reportage. Other examples of visual storytelling include footage of Jeff's neighbors' lives. We see a man with a piano in his room and imagine that he is a musician. A woman dancing ballet while preparing breakfast. She is a dancer. Throughout the film, we can tell each character's story just by observing some details or actions they perform. We make assumptions using our imagination and this makes us more interested in what happens on the screen. Visual storytelling draws the audience into a story and guesses what the film is about. Alfred Hitchcock once said, “If it's a good movie, the sound could be turned off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of ​​what was going on.” So telling a story without words is a brilliant technique that engages the audience. One of Hitchcock's greatest achievements in this film is how he puts the audience into Jeffries' perspective. No camera moves from Jeff's apartment, which is why the audience feels like they are seeing everything from Jeff's eyes. Furthermore, it makes us feel and think like the main character. We don't know any more than Jeff does, which puts us on edge and creates intrigue. For example, the scene of the conversation between Jeff and Detective Doyle, when Doyle states that Mr. Thorwald did not kill his wife. He provides logical arguments and Jeff begins to doubt his accusation. Like Jeff, we think that perhaps it is Jeff's imagination and that Mrs. Thorwald is not dead. This shows the power of shooting technique. Hitchcock uses Doyle's perspective to show Thorwald sitting in his apartment by the window and calmly smoking. We look at Doyle from a bird's eye view as Jeff sees him, which makes Doyle bigger and more important than Jeff. At the end of the scene the camera follows Doyle and we understand that he has won this debate. In this case we feel disoriented: what will happen in the end? Is Jeff right or wrong? Filming in one place is very difficult to establish, but it creates the ability to use amazing techniques such as the “Kulishov” effect. In “Rear Window” we see a central shot of Jeff with a neutral face, then a shot with the bride and groom and finally a shot with Jeff/