3. z
Alfred Hitchcock: Who is he?
Alfred Hitchcock was a famous
film director from London born
in 1899.
Known as “The Master of
Suspense, he is the influence
of many thriller films we see
today.
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Alfred Hitchcock cont.
Hitchcock made over 40 films, but some of his most famous
works were Psycho, The Birds, Vertigo, and of course Rear
Window.
5. z
“Give them pleasure – the same pleasure they
have when they wake up from a nightmare”
–Alfred Hitchcock
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Rear Window: What is it?
Rear Window is a thriller mystery film from 1954 directed by Alfred
Hitchcock.
It’s based off of “It Had to Be Murder”, a short story by Cornell
Woolrich, which was originally featured in a 10 cent detective
magazine.
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Rear Window: What is it?
Rear Window is the story of Jeff, a young photographer in NYC.
He has a broken leg, forcing him to stay in his apartment finding
something to pass the time. He starts spying on the other
tenants in his apartment complex and thinks he witnesses his
neighbor, Mr. Thorwald, murder his wife. He asks the help of his
girlfriend, Lisa, and detective friend, but they find nothing. One
day Jeff finally convinces Lisa to sneak into Mr. Thorwald’s
apartment, but she gets caught. Mr. Thorwald goes over to Jeff’s
apartment, where he is thrown out of the window, but is caught
and Mr. Thorwald is taken away.
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Rear Window: Who is who?
Stella, the nurse (Thelma Ritter)
Detective Thomas Doyle (Wendell Corey)
Mr. Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr)
10. z
The relationship between Jeff and Lisa
Jeff is a mediocre nature photographer
that lives in Greenwich Village, the hub of
all artists in NYC. Lisa is a young,
beautiful Upper East Sider that works for
a fashion company. They are in love, but
they don’t have much in common. When
Jeff tells Lisa about his suspicions of Mr.
Thorwald murdering his wife, they finally
have something to bond over. It plays into
this idea of voyeurism and watching other
people. It might sound odd that something
so abstract could bring a couple closer
together.
12. z
Rear Window: Location
As I said before, Rear Window take place in
Greenwich Village, which is a very artsy
neighborhood in NYC. The buildings there are short
and close together, usually with a courtyard.
Another interesting detail is that during this film we
never leave the apartment, we might see into other
peoples apartments, but all from Jeff’s window or
binoculars. We judge Jeff for looking at other
people’s lives and getting enjoyment, but we are
doing the same exact thing by watching this film.
Hitchcock loved to take the audience, and teleport
us into his films.
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The characters across the courtyard and
what they represent.
The Newlyweds next to Jeff’s
apartment represent new love
that has finally been solidified
with through marriage. You can
see that this couple is still in the
honeymoon stage and they can’t
get enough of each other. They
represent naïve love.
14. z
The characters across the courtyard and
what they represent.
The older couple is what happens
when you’ve been with someone
else for a very long time. They
represent the stage of marriage
where it isn’t special anymore, but
you couldn’t imagine yourself
being with anyone else.
15. z
These two couples are very important because they also represent where Lisa
and Jeff are in their relationship. Even though they aren’t married, they have
been together long enough that they’re out of the honeymoon stage, but they
aren’t fed up with each other just yet. Lisa wants to get married but Jeff is still
holding out, until he sees her risk her life and sneak into Mr. Thorwald’s
apartment. I think this is the moment where Jeff truly realizes that Lisa is the
one for him
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The characters across the courtyard and
what they represent.
Miss Torso represents the
young, beautiful, single lady
that gets tons of men, but
can’t find the right one. Later
in the film it’s revealed that the
guy she chooses is a short,
plain looking guy. (Not what
you would expect her to go
with, but a little humerous
moment thrown in there by
Hitchcock) She also
represents vitality and
girlhood.
17. z
The characters across the courtyard and
what they represent.
Miss Lonelyhearts is the opposite of Miss
torso. She is an older, lonely lady who doesn’t
have any gentleman callers. She represents
this idea of loneliness and being isolated.
Later in the movie she gets so depressed that
she even tries to kill herself.
18. z
The characters across the courtyard and
what they represent.
The young musician represents
drive for perfection and success.
He has this never give up
mentality, which could also
symbolize a young Alfred
Hitchcock. This is also the scene
where Hitchcock makes his
cameo!
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Where’s Hitchcock?
Alfred Hitchcock always used to make small cameos all of
his films. It’s a fun thing for fans of his movies to look out
for and to always keep it interesting. It is now iconic.
The Birds To Catch a Thief
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Eyes
Alfred Hitchcock definitely had a thing for eyes. Close up shots
on the eye are a huge motif in Hitchcock films. This film is a little
different. Yes we get the shot of Mr. Thorwald’s creepy eyes
coming after jeff, but we also see through the characters eyes
through a majority of this film. It’s very interesting.
Vertigo Psycho
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POV
As I said before this film is super interesting because it
shows a lot of it from Jeff’s point of view. This is super
unique for a film from this time. Hitchcock used this
type of shot because he wanted to heighten the
suspense and pull the viewer into the film. He also shot
a lot of scenes as if we were looking through the
viewfinder of Jeff’s binoculars. We’ve seen this before
in Nightcrawler.
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Mood
This movie does take place in the middle
of NYC and Hitchcock added the perfect
amount of background noise. You hear
the constant buzz of cars driving by and it
really sets the mood that you are in NYC.
At night you hear people conversing and
music playing, really making you feel like
it’s a peaceful summer evening.
SOUND
23. z
Mood
You have to remember that you are on
a soundstage and not in a real
apartment complex. So making it look
like a real sunset can be challenging,
but Hitchcock nailed it. Hitchcock also
does a great job by creating suspense
and drama by dropping the light at the
perfect time.
LIGHTING
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Mood
This movie is the definition of Hollywood
lighting. What I mean by that is when someone
turns on a single lamp and the whole room
lights up. Not how it works in the real world, but
you have to remember it’s a movie.
Grace Kelly was a style icon in this time, so you
see this especially when she is on screen. She
walks into the room, turns on the lamp, and her
gorgeous dress is illuminated for all to see.
Beautiful!
LIGHTING
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In conclusion
American Film Institute ranked Rear Window # 42 on their 100
years…100 movies list, and it will forever go down as one of the
best mystery thriller films, but this film means so much more to
me. It was the first Hitchcock film I ever saw and it truly sparked
my interest into the horror/thriller genre. I am forever changed.
Thanks Al.
