newcritics - Latest Comments in Wednesday Night at the Movies: Rear Window

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Rear Window

PS3 — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:10:10 -0000

yep, I remember it all right and I saw it during the 83 re-release as well. I run into a number of different explanations but they all have to do with Hitchcock's estate. The movie had been hard to see for at least a decade I think.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Rear Window

baliinc — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 23:43:21 -0000

I think it's true, The character's *name* is pathetic

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Rear Window

dewaji — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 13:16:57 -0000

Sounds like you all had fun here. This makes me think about the great open-window shots of movies.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Rear Window

cinetrix — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 17:48:32 -0000

Siren: Thanks so much for convening this discussion of one of my favorite films to teach. I'm just sorry I missed out on the fun in real time. There's so much to talk about.

wwolfe, you're quite right about the curtains-up quality of the film, Midway through, they're brought down by Lisa, who's intent on an intermission from the drama across the courtyard, but they quickly come back up in response to the scream that announces the death of the dog. [As in classical drama, the deaths occur "off."] Also, every sequence of the film begins/ends with a fade, which only adds to the theatrical feel.

But about that dog. I think it's quite right to presume the couple is childless. They're so sexless! We're shown as much as the camera makes its first investigation of the neighboring apartments in the morning, when an alarm clock prompts them to sit up from their improvised bed on the fire escape. Not only are they sleeping in the public eye, they're sleeping head to toe, two decisions that seem to rule out acts of a generative nature, shall we say.

But not everyone in the film is childless. In the second counter-clockwise investigatory pan, at dusk, the camera just barely glimpses a father and daughter, I believe. The gender may be off, but we do see a parent and a child out on a balcony, way up at the top of the frame in the right-hand corner of the courtyard, past the musician's enviable apartment but before the camera reveals that amazing sunset sky over Miss Torso's. And there are shrieking children playing in the opening between buildings on the left.

The Siren also mentioned our complicity with Jeff's subjectivity and his rear window ethics or lack thereof. We are implicated, but the camera doesn't always maintain Jeff's p.o.v. For example, those circular surveys I mentioned [there are three in all] seem to occur while Jeff is sleeping: at daybreak, just before The Kiss, and as the composer's "Lisa" plays on the soundtrack and we see the resolutions of all the little dramas, ending with Jeff and Lisa's own. It's as though the camera goes walkabout to help whet/sate the viewer's curiosity at key moments, rendering us just as guilty of peeping as Jeff is.

Which brings me back to the dog. These close-ups of the neighbors that the Siren mentions also can't be Jeff's p.o.v.--he's too far away and there's no masking to suggest that we're looking through binoculars or a suggestively long lens, as is present at other moments when we're brought closer to the action than is physically possible. More interesting to me is how these rapid close-ups of the women--Miss Torso, Miss Lonelyhearts--are punctuated by and linked to shots of Lisa looking out the window. Which would mean that the camera is positioned outside the window looking in, and the framing and the distance in her shots mirrors that of the other women's shots. It's such an interesting choice to collapse visual/spatial distance at the moment that draws everybody to their windows. For a brief moment, they become people, not players, just like Lisa. And we're encouraged to really look at them.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Rear Window

noelbotevera — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 05:13:52 -0000

Ah no, make the case against Psycho (though I would argue Norman Bates is Lars Thorwald as a lonely adolescent, and hence indispensable, and his perversely tentative, perversely tender time with Marion Crane an underrated Hitchcock 'romance' (or at least encounter)), but please, not The Birds--it's the one Hitchcock where he gives no definitive rational explanation, no happy ending, no word or image or scrap of comfort. It's his most epic film, and most mysterious, and it reveals Hitchcock's views on man's precise position in the scheme of things (fragile, and lower than he thinks).

As for Rear Window--yep, can't think of another city where the story is possible in just this way. Manila's buildings aren't that crowded together, the neighbors are too openly curious, and it's so much noisier and more crowded. And children everywhere--can't think of an apartment building in the city that's entirely without kids.

There is a Filipino film about voyeurism, though: Scorpio Nights, where a college student lives above a young housewife's apartment, and peeks at her through a hole in the floor. Every night when the woman's husband comes home, she's asleep; the husband kicks off his shoes, eats a meal already prepared for him at a table beside the bed (it's a studio), climbs into bed, and makes love to her. One day the student notices that the woman's door is unlocked; exactly like the husband he walks in, kicks off his shoes, eats the prepared meal, climbs into bed with her.

And so it goes. Unlikely, but it actually plays better than it probably sounds on paper, a kind of erotic allegory on the political oppression happening at the time (the husband, a night shift security guard, represents the Marcos regime). I think the two films would make an interesting double bill.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Rear Window

Vico — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 03:23:58 -0000

Late to the party, and reply isn't working, so two replies in this comment:
Burr's hair dyed and styled to look like Hitchcock's former ball-and-chain, David O. Selznick. The glasses and cigar, as well.

And Notorious begins in Miami, not New York City.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Rear Window

tarzanne — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:43:21 -0000

As a teenager, I first watched Rear Window at home on a black and white TV. The scene where Thorwald looks up and realizes for the first time that someone is watching him scared the life out of me at the time. Raymond Burr's expression in that scene literally caused my heart to start beating wildly for a moment (such that I can still remember the sensation). I am not a fan of the usual blood and gore horror films and have always admired Hitchcock's ability to create suspense and evoke emotion subtly. And maybe it's something to do with black and white presentation, but the other memorable experience I've had with Hitchcock films came from watching The Birds on TV late at night with a bunch of friends in a college freshman dorm. The horror was contagious!

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Rear Window

wwolfe — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:40:55 -0000

Two comments. First, Stewart watching the other apartments has always seemed much more like the theatrical experience - it practically feels as though each apartment's window serves as a proscenium arch - than like a moviegoing experience. Second, a comment above notes the absence of children in the building, but I wonder if in a sense Stewart's character can be seen in some ways as a child. He makes his living doing something that seems like a boy's hobby - perhaps that seemed even more so in the era of the Man in the Grey Flannel Suit? - and, without getting too Greek and/or Freudian, I think to some extent he allows Kelly to act as a mother figure, at least while he's convalescing: it's as if he's a kid who's home sick from school, and he's changing channels on TV when he moves his gaze from one apartment to another, while "mom" checks on him to see how he's doing. I don't want to add an unecessary ick factor, but I've always got a strong feeling of "I don't want to grow up" from Stewart's character. This contrasts with some of his other personality traits, such as the sophisticated man about town and the globe-trotting adventurer - although these, too, can be seen perhaps as a "Boys Life" idea of being a grown-up.

The set fascinated me when I first saw the movie (I'm another who got to see it during its early '80s re-release). The sense of near-total exposure (no pun intended) for all the apartment dwellers unnerved me a little. I recall thinking that I'd want to buy some tinted windowpanes, fast.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Rear Window

tomwatson — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 07:25:14 -0000

Yeah, Vertigo - it has its problems. The Stewart character is a chump, Novak has no soul, and basically it's hard to believe the scheme...but i love the SanFran locations.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Rear Window

Vanwall — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:53:24 -0000

I came to "Rear Window" in a backward fashion, at least for my generation and the following ones - I'm a big Cornell Woolrich fan, with lots of his books and short stories, so I had read the story it was based on before I saw the film. I was a little confused at first by all the extra additions Hitchcock added to pad it out in length, but he was very, very good at keeping Woolrich's suspense element, altho Jeffries was a much more "Woolrichian" creation in the book - a rather hollow, tabula rasa sort of loner. Stewart's was a much richer character, even more flawed. It's interesting the film is more camera oriented, as well as sexually charged - in effect more adult, with visual and line input from the ladies rather than the story's relentlessly male viewpoint, where Jeffries' sorta-Watson was Sam, his black houseworker. Woolrich wrote "filmable" stories and novels - just look how many films and TV episodes have been made from his work - and this one was tailor-made for looking out of the barrel of a Technicolor camera - maybe Woolrich had a movie in mind, I always seem to get that impression with his stuff. Hitchcock took what was essentially a critique of the anomie Woolrich saw in people that hid in the shadows and watched, and made it much more personal a journey for Jeffries.

As for homages and lawsuits, I understand RW was already the subject of a precedent-setting copywrite case - it seems to attract litigation.

Thelma Ritter was the best thing about this film, IMHO - she was what the written story lacked, altho Sam was kinda Thelma-like. Kelly seemed to be there just for hanging clothes on, but I can't say I wouldn't've missed her - she gave Stewart's kinda creepy on and off-ness a bite.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Rear Window

cebm — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:43:11 -0000

Delurking because Rear Window is an all time favorite. I always thought wonderful Thelma Ritters' character was the ethical heart. The others were more willing to stretch for smaller reasons, but she only acted when she knew it was morally necessary. I totally agree about Frenzy. It was one of the few Hitchcock movies I had never seen, and I was really amazed at how intentionally nasty it was . I loved all the wonderful character actors in The Trouble With Harry. You wouldn't have lived in that place, as beautiful as it was, unless you were just a little ...odd. Family Plot is really not worthy of Hitchcock and you have to wonder about his health etc...when making it. I know this is weird but Veritigo is not on my favorites list. I didn't like the characters much, I know that was intentional ,but still. The make-up on Jimmy Stewart (and really, on everyone) is so distracting, I spend half the movie looking at his oh so strange eyebrows as they change from scene to scene.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Rear Window

Brad — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:39:21 -0000

Bagdasarian also did a song called, "The Trouble With Harry." Wasn't used in the movie though...

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Rear Window

LanceManion — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:35:22 -0000

Charles, the party never really ends. People will be dropping in and out for a couple of days. Please add to any of the threads. And don't forget, there's next week's feature. Sweet Smell of Success!

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Rear Window

LanceManion — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:30:55 -0000

For the record, I was really just expressing my Grace Kelly love. My real favorites are Eva Marie Saint in NBNW and Bergman in Notorious. I haven't seen Shadow of Doubt.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Rear Window

LanceManion — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:26:12 -0000

This is a good point to bring up Hitchcock's use of Jimmy Stewart. In Rear Window he borders on unlikable, in Vertigo he actually is unlikable. The characters I mean, not Stewart. Stewart makes these guys sympathetic, but not likeable. He wasn't exactly warm in Rope either. And in The Man Who Knew Too Much he's almost a dope. Hitchcock didn't do that with other stars---I'm not counting Grant's role in Suspicion or Ray Milland in Dial M, since they're villains. It just seems that only when he worked with Stewart did he go out of his way to push us towards disliking the hero. Am I imagining that?

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Rear Window

Charles — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:23:24 -0000

Dang, missed the whole party.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Rear Window

Campaspe — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:21:39 -0000

All right guys, time for me to skedaddle. I will check back in tomorrow. Cheers!

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Rear Window

Campaspe — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:20:06 -0000

It's actually a skylight, but one of my all-time favorites is the shot where the camera seems to swoop through glass in Citizen Kane, to descend to the nightclub where Susan Alexander is eking out a living.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Rear Window

LanceManion — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:17:26 -0000

You know I wanted to see Dressed to Kill when it came out but two things stopped me.

A friend blurted out who the killer was.

And I learned that it wasn't really Angie Dickinson in the shower.

Angie, I hear, was disappointed to learn that too.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Rear Window

larry aydlette — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:12:28 -0000

This makes me think about the great open-window shots of movies. The peek inside the building windows in King Kong. The shot in The Crowd.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Rear Window

Campaspe — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:07:26 -0000

Dressed to Kill, definitely.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Rear Window

LanceManion — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:05:24 -0000

I'm not enough of a De Palma afficianado to have a cap. All I've got is a beanie. To me he's the director of one pretty good cops and robbers movie, The Untouchables, and one great Vietnam movie, Casualties of War. The whole Hitchcock disciple side of his career is a mystery to me. What do I need to watch?

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Rear Window

Campaspe — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 22:58:32 -0000

I love Jeff's line, when he says he never saw Thorwald ask his wife for advice: "She OFFERED plenty."

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Rear Window

Campaspe — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 22:55:18 -0000

Yes, I concentrated on the "rear window ethics" of New Yorkers in my post and if anyone wants to chime in on that I'm all ears.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Rear Window

Campaspe — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 22:48:48 -0000

I remember some Psycho jokes on The Dick Van Dyke show. Hitchcock really permeates the culture. He's one of the few classic filmmakers you can use as a reference and stand a good chance that a large majority of your audience will spot it.