Rear Window

 Dir: Alfred Hitchcock/USA/1954/112 mins

Lps: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter, Raymond Burr

James Stewart plays an adventurous wheelchair-bound news photographer who occupies his time, to avoid discussing marriage with his girlfriend (Grace Kelly), by observing his neighbours across the courtyard. Hitchcock's film magic makes us wonder who's watching us, watching Stewart and Kelly, watching their neighbours!

Stewart's maid, played by Thelma Ritter, is our conscience, explaining how "We've become a race of peeping toms." Yet, when she leaves at the end of each day, we continue to peep through Stewart's binoculars at each apartment, seemingly set up like a television showroom, with all 40 sets switched on to a different channel. Hitchcock uses Rear Window to define voyeurism and to make us ponder the morality of looking in on other peoples' lives. Yet, we don't really do this until we (Stewart and the audience) see something that we're not supposed to see. Our task then becomes to prove that a murder has taken place, without anyone finding out that we have seen it all through a pair of binoculars. Hitchcock builds up the suspense by making us feel as if he's watching us, watching Stewart, watching his neighbours across the way.

Critic Robin Wood stated that "Rear Window is perhaps the first of Hitchcock's films to which the term 'masterpiece' can reasonably be applied, and at the time of writing no copy of the film is available in this country..." Twenty years have passed since his article, and we're finally able to project it onto the big screen; so come and take a look. 

GLF

Some language related to disability has changed since this was written.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mona Lisa

Image
  Dir: Neil Jordan/GB/1986/104 mins LPs: Bob Hoskins, Cathy Tyson, Michael Caine, Robbie Coltrane In many respects,  Mona Lisa  could be called a love story. It's about an older man, who falls hopelessly for a younger woman. But, considering that director Neil Jordan's last film was  Company of Wolves , it is no surprise that, whilst it is certainly about love, in the words of the song, it's every love but true love.  After a stretch in prison, middle-aged cockney lad George played by Bob Hoskins (who else?) emerges into eighties London, estranged from his wife and amazed by a  world where computer technology and high-class porn are now big business. Given the job of chauffeuring a sophisticated call girl, Simone (Cathy Tyson), he comes to respect her and agrees to scour the porn-clubs of London for a young prostitute whom she knew in her early days as a streetwalker.  The film opens light-heartedly enough, no more than a sharp satirical comedy, but th...
Read more

Jagged Edge

  Dir: Richard Marquand/USA/1985/109 mins/Dolby stereo Lps: Glenn Close, Jeff Bridges, Peter Coyote, Robert Loggia A tense courtroom thriller, with newspaper editor Jack Forrester (Jeff Bridges) on trial for the murder of his rich wife, found knifed to death along with her maid in what appears to be a ritual killing. Glenn Close is Teddy Barnes, the defence attorney who reluctantly takes on the case, and, against her better judgement, becomes emotionally involved with her client. Jagged Edge moves rapidly along, playing with expectations and assumptions. The court scenes, whilst dominating a considerable part of the film, are as exciting and dramatic as the most physical of thrillers, interspersed with Teddy's developing relationship with Jack and her doubts and insecurities about her job. As the story reaches its powerful, tantalising conclusion, the suspense becomes unbearable, the real identity of the murderer remaining undisclosed until the last few seconds of the film. And thr...
Read more

A Room with a View

Image
Dir: James Ivory/GB/1985/117 mins/Dolby stereo Lps: Maggie Smith, Helena Bonham-Carter, Julian Sands, Daniel Day Lewis If you hated A Passage to India forgive E.M. Forster immediately, for the second of his books to be made into a film is a great success. The scene is Florence, 1907. Miss Lucy Honeychurch, with her aunt and chaperone Charlotte, arrive at their hotel and unfortunately find their room unsatisfactory (no view). The problem is solved by the socially inept Mr Emerson and his son George who offer to swap. The story becomes more complicated as love, Victorian social values and interfering relatives make their appearance. The photography throughout is beautiful (definitely a film to make you want to go on holiday) and the acting is superb. The two main actors, Helena Bonham-Carter and Julian Sands, have difficult jobs in not making their characters too stereotypical. Luckily, Lucy and George are just whimsical enough to enjoy without without becoming pathetic. Especially watc...
Read more