Rear Window – Arty (Recommendation)

Year: 1954

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Starring: Grace Kelly, James Stewart, Thelma Ritter, Raymond Burr, Wendell Corey, Georgine Darcy, Ross Bagdasarian Sr, Judith Evelyn, Sara Berner, Frank Cady, Jesslyn Fax, Irene Winston, Havis Davenport

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m01YktiEZCw 

 

Rear Window is a beautifully artistic, thoughtful, and inspiring piece of film, which is set entirely from the confines of protagonist, L.B. Jefferies (James Stewart), a photographer who is left restless and wheelchair bound because of a broken leg. To pass the time, Jefferies take up people watching from his rear window, passing judgements and accidentally seeing something he shouldn’t have. Jefferies enlists the help of his girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly) and Nurse Stella (Thelma Ritter) to investigate the suspected murderer, before he realises the group are on to him.

 

Alfred Hitchcock was an incredibly poetic and metaphorical auteur, which has made is films iconic classics. In Rear Window, we see his love of film and theatre literally portrayed through the characters and Mise-en-scène (everything you see on screen), each window Jefferies looks out on, boarders his neighbours, creating a stage for them to perform on for the injured photographer. Additionally, said residents are key in emphasising the theme of relationships, many representing the differing aspects and transitional phases that occur when we become a couple. Miss Lonelyhearts signifies single life, whereas the honeymooners and the bickering couple represent the two sides of the same coin, depicting the relationship life cycle.

 

Rear Window was not only beautiful, but revolutionary. In 1954, it would be hard to find a film that portrayed a frail man, made obsolete from his injuries. Meanwhile, it is Lisa who becomes the action hero of the narrative; jumping into danger, and proving that Jefferies’s and Hollywood’s misconceptions were and are wrong.

 

Hitchcock made this self-aware cinematic masterpiece as it is a wonderful tribute to his first love, the theatre. Every time I watch Rear Window, I find another ingenious way that Hitchcock created layers of meaning to this story. I would class this as a Hollywood art film that will appeal to the artist within, especially as it is incredibly meta: we are ultimately watching a film about a man watching his neighbours, and the implications of them watching him back! At the end of the day, this film should be on everyone’s movie bucket list, so lets all get watching…