Watching Films:
Alfred Hitchcock, Rear Window

Steven Shaviro
September 12, 2011

Rear Window (1954)

• The director: Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980)
• Early films in UK
• 1940s: move to US
• 1950: period of greatest success
• The stars
• James Stewart (L. B. Jeffries)
• Grace Kelly (Lisa Fremont)
• Thelma Ritter (Stella)
• Raymond Burr (Lars Thorwald)

An experiment in point of view

• Jeffries is a photographer
• Importance of camera placement
• Film shot almost entirely from within Jeffries’ apartment
• We see things he doesn’t (when he is asleep) -- but this is still only from his POV
• Shock at the end, when we see Jeffries (hanging down) and his apartment from outside, from the courtyard.

Film Spectatorship

• Camera pans over Jeffries' possessions at start of film
• Jeffries' action photos
• Photography: negative and positive of the picture of Lisa
• Venitian blinds like theater curtains
• "We've become a race of Peeping Toms" (Stella)

The Film Viewer

• Rear Window is an allegory of film viewing
• Jeffries is confined to his chair, just like someone in a movie theater
• Jeffries is emotionally involved with the drama he sees, but he cannot enter into it

The delights of voyeurism

• A sexual turn-on: the viewers’ faces light up when they see something juicy
• The windows across the courtyard are like a series of little movie screens, each with its own drama
• Involvement: the allure of playing detective, solving the mystery

Gender Trouble

• Jeffries and Lisa: battle of the sexes
• Lisa’s introduction ("Reading from top to bottom...")
• Jeffries as photographer, Lisa as model
• Active life vs. high society and domesticity
• Self-sufficiency vs. intimacy
• Looking vs. being looked at
• Gender role reversal: Lisa enters the picture, becomes active and adventurous

The Power of Looking

• Power of the gaze: to see without being seen in return
• Powerlessness of the gaze: what can Jeffries do?
• Transgression: Lisa goes from viewer to actor, when she breaks into Thorwald’s apartment
• When the object looks back: the shock when Thorwald sees that Jeffries is watching him

Rear Window: The Climax

• Thorwald stalks Jeffries
• A long wait, Jeffries unable to do anything
• Thorwald's eyes light up in the dark
• Blinded by the light: flashbulbs as Jeffries' defense
• Flash/fadeout (from both Jeffries' and Thorwald's POVs)

Concepts: Voyeurism

• Literally, a desire to gaze at other people without oneself being seen
• Usually involves sexual arousal derived from seeing others' nudity or sexual acts
• Metaphorically, we are "a race of Peeping Toms" because of our enjoyment of seeing into the lives of others...
• ... Or seeing representations of others' lives on the screen
• Invading privacy, abolishing privacy altogether
• Fascination with celebrities
• Narrative: solving the crime, penetrating into the mystery, bringing things to a logical and emotionally satisfying conclusion

Concepts: Exhibitionism

• Literally, a desire to expose one's body to others.
• Usually involves sexual arousal deriving from this display, and from others' shock at it
• Metaphorically, the delight in performance and display, in showing oneself to others, or to the camera
• The actor, dancer, or model attempts to fascinate, allure, or seduce the audience
• The cult of celebrities
• Spectacle: visual display for its own sake

Concepts: Polarities of the Gaze