Cinematic Techniques In Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

According to Baudry, the “cinematic apparatus” is the idea of how isolation from the outside world (darkened room, no outside noise, etc.) and being exposed to reproduced reality through a screen gives the viewer the notion that what they are seeing is real and they are experiencing it themselves, much like in a dream. Hitchcock’s Rear Window and Baudry’s “cinematic apparatus” theory hold hands in many different elements, but I will be discussing one of those elements, which is how Rear Window’s main character, Jeff, is a representation of this theory. In the movie, Jeff looks out his window and he can see his neighbors’ day-to-day life. Using the windows, the binoculars and the telephoto lens on his camera to spy on his neighbors, Jeff’s view is

The first one being that we only know these peoples stories based on the actions we see them do through this framed view, therefore both Jeff and the viewer only see what’s in front of them, much like the experience we have while watching a movie in the theater. Second, as viewers we are also confined to the same small space that Jeff is. When we are not looking out the window with Jeff we are inside his small apartment, we see what he does and we live it too. As a viewer, I personally felt as anxious and confined as he did, giving me the illusion of reality and also conveying the ideological reality of what being in that space felt like. When we go the movies, as spectators we know that what we see is a product of imagination but they still seem real, we are invested in what we see and it fulfills us. In Rear Window, Jeff is a spectator as well, not really knowing what is going on beyond the framing of his window (screen), and yet still he finds himself personally invested in everyone’s stories. Those stories that he perceives as real, from the perspective he has from his apartment, fulfill him and are sort of a cure for his case of cabin