Rear Window

“Nothing has caused the human race so much trouble as intelligence" The first Hitchcock film I watched was The 39 Steps, which I fell asleep in the middle of. Since then I haven’t seen a single Hitchcock film, even though so much of his work is considered classic and essential cinema. I had been meaning to get into Hitchcock more since my partial viewing of The 39 Steps, and I’m so glad I started with Rear Window, because oh my god it was good. Rear Window takes place in the single location of an apartment. From the apartment’s window, a courtyard, a few walls, the windows into some other apartments and a little sliver of alleyway and street are visible. We, as well as Jimmy Stewart’s immobilised character, are confined to this space, forced only to obverse. The set in Rear Window had such an almost cosy nature about it, and was so nice to look at. The location had to be done right, as the film never strays from this single room. Similar to other films set primarily in one location, such as 12 Angry Men, the film managed to be so riveting and engaging, even while confined to such a limited space. This limitation in terms of location could have resulted in the movie becoming somewhat stale and repetitive throughout its runtime. Rear Window script prevents this from happening. This film’s screenplay is one of the best I’ve personally ever seen, and is definitely up there in terms of my favourite scripts ever. Each character was so enjoyable to watch, with each one having so many fantastic lines. The dialogue and exchanges between the central characters was funny at times, heartfelt at others and always superbly written. The performances were also brilliant. James Stewart killed this role, and Grace Kelly gave such a phenomenal performance in my opinion. The visuals and music were also great. The colours in this movie looked beautiful, especially the eyes. The three main characters’ eyes were so ridiculously blue, it was kind of mesmerising honestly. The cinematography was very impressive as well, as it had to keep the same location looking interesting for almost two hours, which it certainly did. The soundtrack accompanied the lovely visuals of the film beautifully, elevating an already fantastic atmosphere.  The moral complexity of the film also interested me a lot. Should Jimmy Stewart’s character have been watching these people, was it really ethical? Because at the end of the day it wasn’t really any of his business, and if there was no murder committed, would there be a difference in morality? I found the almost voyeuristic nature of the film to be fascinating too. There are soooo much similarities between Rear Window and David Lynch’s Blue Velvet I found, which makes sense, as Rear Window was one of the director’s favourite films. In both films a character named Jeff somewhat unwillingly begin to uncover what is potentially a murder or crime. Both are set primarily in an apartment, involve a wife and husband to some degree, and the main characters are both morally questionable, with a female counterpart that is very obviously in love with them, while the protagonists both seemingly don’t feel the same. I really really loved Rear Window, and I will definitely have to get onto watching more Hitchcock films soon. A truly hypnotic and riveting experience.