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Rear window alfred hitchcock analysis
Rear window alfred hitchcock analysis
Psycho alfred hitchcock film analysis
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People like to watch other people and are often quick to make judgments of what they see. This is what L.B. “Jeff” Jeffries does Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window”. Jeff is a wheelchair-bound photographer who is used to an active lifestyle. Because of his boredom, Jeff spends his time looking out his window and watching his neighbors go about their life. However, Jeff does more than watch, because he at the same time he is also making judgments about who his neighbors are and what they must be like. This leads to Jeff becoming obsessed with the disappearance of the wife of his neighbor Mr. Thorwald, because he believed that he murdered her. Although Jeff was correct in his suspicion that Mr. Thorwald murdered his wife, most of his assumptions …show more content…
“Rear Window” is a film the presents a singular point-of-view of the outside world that tackles concepts like, gender roles, judging other people, and serves as a reflection of the suspicion and fear that gripped postwar America.
Hitchcock’s film is presented to the viewer from the point-of-view of L.B. “Jeff” Jeffries the hero in “Rear Window” who is unable to move around much, because he is trapped in a wheelchair. It is through the hero’s limited movement that dictates what he sees that the moviegoers see the movie. Essentially, the film is about “a man who does on the screen what we do in the audience--look through a lens at the private lives of strangers” (Ebert). Jeff, the central character in “Rear Window” is a wheelchair bound photographer who has to live a life of relative isolation because of an accident. All he can do is look outside and witness the events unfolding outside his apartment complex. Much like the audience, Jeffries is more content to watch others, than to look inside himself. This would have been the perfect time, because Jeff is a very busy man whose work entails looking at others, what they are doing, and taking pictures. So it can be assumed that he has very little time to think
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It is evident that the relationship with Jeff and Lisa is filled with tension. In the much of the film, it even seems that “their relationship is going to break down completely” (Condon and Sangster 191). The key to understanding this is that era in which the film was released was a time when society still valued male and female gender roles. One way of looking at the situation is that men and women were expected to act in certain ways. Women were supposed to be feminine, while men were supposed to be masculine. Jeff and Lisa are opposite sides of the stereotype, so to speak. Lisa is very feminine, while Jeff is ultra-masculine. This is where the tension between the two lay. Jeff is afraid of committing, because he feels that Lisa is too feminine for someone like him. Of course, Lisa is not as feminine as Jeff thinks, she is. In fact, in the relationship, it is she who takes control. Indeed, it is Lisa, who keeps the relationship together by exerting effort. She visits Jeff, often feeding him and talking to him to ease his loneliness. Jeff on the other hand is too caught up with what happened to him, and how it has kept him from doing the job that he loves most. Of course, adding to his distraction is his newfound hobby of spying on his neighbors and their private lives. To make the relationship work, aside from showing interest in Jeff’s obsession with what happened
Rear Window directed by Alfred Hitchcock was an exceptional movie with a jaw- dropping 8.6 rating on IMDb’s website. The movie is about L. B. Jefferies (protagonist), who is a well-known photographer in a wheelchair.The lack of entertainment and extreme boredom caused Jeff (Jefferies) to stare out the rear window day and night. He eyed his neighbors through this window 24/7 and revolved his wheelchair season around their personal lives. As the movie goes on Jeff feels as if Lars Thorwald (antagonist) has murdered his sick wife. He knew they were an unhappy married couple already and had some unmistakable clues. In this series of events Jeff’s girlfriend who he thought to be too perfect for him and epicene turns out be a risk-taker and brave.
Rear Window effectively demonstrates Hitchcock’s strong qualities as an author. The writer for Rear Window is not Hitchcock, and yet there are clearly many motifs and themes present which are well known for being used by Hitchcock. He is not merely following instructions on how to make the movie; he is providing his own creative adjustments. Now we will address a few of these from the film. First, drawing parallels between characters with a difference, usually a negative one, is a repeated concept in Hitchcock films.
Rear Window and the works of Hopper are both required with confinement. Disregarding its blended utilize land setting, Early Sunday Morning does not pass on a warm, fluffy feeling of group. In like manner, in Rear Window, the inhabitants of the lofts are confined from each other. Apartment Houses is additionally for the most part viewed as another antecedent to Rear Window. Large portions of Hopper's night settings portray scenes from New York City and Night Windows is no special case. The lady in this work of art is totally unconscious of the stage she is on and the front line situate its eyewitness involves. Its semi-sexual story is resounded in Rear Window, and it catches strikingly the experience of living in New York: the a large number
He uses the point of view shot a lot in Rear Window, most of the film we are looking from the perspective of L.B. Jefferies view outside of his window. Everything he sees, the audience sees through his view. This seems to really create an honest relationship with the audience and the character. For example, when L.B. Jefferies sees Lars Thorwald putting his knives away. We see everything that L.B. Jefferies sees and essentially feel the same way that he does. When Hitchcock adds in a shot following the POV of L.B. Jefferies reaction to what he saw Lars Thorwald just do, that is Hitchcock using the Kuleshov effect. Used in almost every Hitchcock film, the audience gets a sense of reality and the reaction to that reality from the character. In Hitchcock’s The Birds for example, the Kuleshov effect is used extremely. In the scene where the man gets knocked down by the bird at the gas station and gas spills down the roadway. We see this through alternating shots of POV from Melanie Daniels view and her facial expression as the gas trail leads to man who is about to light a cigarette. We see the fear and drastic change in emotion in the close up shots showing her reaction to what she saw. In the end, the audience feels psychologically involved and connected with the
In the film Rear Window directed by Alfred Hitchcock, a significant shift of power is portrayed. This shift occurs between the protagonist of the film, L.B Jeffries and his romantic partner, Lisa Freemont. This shift also aids in outlining the main theme of the film, which is marriage, as all aspects of marriage are observed and taken into account by Jeffries. The change of dominance within Lisa and Jeffries relationship can be broken down into three stages, which develop and change throughout the film. At the beginning of the film Jeffries is shown to have the power within the relationship as he dictates the parameters of the relationship, however he is also intimidated by Lisa 's social standing. Towards the middle of the film the possession
The women in both films gave the men something to look at. For example, in the opening scene of Rear Window, the audience sees Jefferies looking from his window over to Miss Torso who is dancing and stretching as she gets ready for her day. As in the film Disturbia, the audience sees Kale looking through
There are several parallels between Jeff’s relationship with Lisa and the scenarios he observes voyeuristically. These parallels are especially striking between Jeff, Lisa and the Thorwalds, but in this case we can observe that the gender roles are reversed. Mr. Thorwald and Lisa are always active and dominantly standing over their counterparts, while Mrs. Thorwald and Jeff are immobilized in one space and passive. When Mr. Thorwald brings his wife a rose, he shows a desire for a loving relationship, but Mrs. Thorwald laughs at him. Lisa, on the other hand, isn’t even able to get Jeff’s attention by smothering him with affection while sitting on his lap. Laura Mulvey argues in Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema that in virtually every visual
Rowe, Lawrence. "Through the Looking Glass: Reflexivity, Reciprocality, and Defenestration in Hitchcock's"Rear Window"." College Literature 35.1 (2008): 16-37.
An inner courtyard becomes a large stage that serves the director to show a portrait of human relationships. Angles and perspectives put the audience in a place where it is not normally found. Hitchcock with his camera can get in someone's personal life and invade their privacy. With Rear Window it makes the public more aware of itself as an observer. This displaces and transforms the public into a player into the action since across his look, the observer assumes the responsibility of the characters and believes an experience different from any other film of their
Stam, Robert & Pearson, Robertson., ‘Hitchcock’s Rear Window: Refluxivity and the Critique of Voyeurism’ in Deutelbaum, Marshall & Poague, Leland A. ed., A Hitchcock Reader (John Wiley & Sons: 2009).
The Alfred Hitchcock film; Vertigo is a narrative film that is a perfect example of a Hollywood Classical Film. I will be examining the following characteristics of the film Vertigo: 1)individual characters who act as casual agents, the main characters in Vertigo, 2)desire to reach to goals, 3)conflicts, 4)appointments, 5)deadlines, 6)James Stewart’s focus shifts and 7)Kim Novak’s characters drives the action in the film. Most of the film is viewed in the 3rd person, except for the reaction shots (point of view shot) which are seen through the eyes of the main character.(1st person) The film has a strong closure and uses continuity editing(180 degree rule). The stylistic (technical) film form of Vertigo makes the film much more enjoyable. The stylistic film form includes camera movements, editing, sound, mise-en-scene and props.
minds of a new day, people waking up on a summer morning. We know it
This left Hitchcock films as some of her mother’s favorites. Pemberton, went to a Hitchcock festival as an adult, this time watching Rear Window, which she had not seen since she was a child with an objective examination, she found a scene that would shift both her and her mother’s perspective of this movie. As Jimmy Stewart’s character, Jefferies, realizes he is in danger, telephones his friend Wendell Corey, who was not at home, but he spoke with the baby-sitter who did not appear on screen, but was portrayed in a voice that would convey imagery of a “familiar black image.” Asking the inspiration for this essay “Do he have your number, Mr.
Hitchcock has a way of throwing clues in the face of the spectator, yet still allows some room for the spectator to find their own less obvious details. In the same museum scene, Hitchcock shows the viewer exactly what he wants them to see. In a sense, Hitchcock can be very manipulative with the camera. The audience sees the picture containing the women with a curl in her hair holding flowers, and then the direct connection is made by the camera, by showing the curl in Madeline’s hair, and the flowers sitting next to her. The spectator is led to believe that they have solved the mystery and she is truly possessed by the women in the picture. However, Hitchcock does this on purpose to lead the audience away from the truth that she is only acting. It is for these reasons that Hitchcock’s work at an auteur adds a level of depth and intrigue.
We crash constantly. We crash into the cultures and lives of those that surround us in our society. We judge because we do not know or unwilling to understand the differences that surround us. The director wants the audience to make an unfair judgment on Officer Ryan because of he inappropriately searches Christine, however, as the movie progresses our judgments crashes as we begin to identify with Officer Ryan. When Graham states ?We are always behind metal and glass,? it is not the metal and glass we are behind, but the fear of understanding and trusting someone that is different from us. This fear is where our preconceived notions and racist habits come from. It is the fear of trusting that in which can cause us to crash.