Thursday 26 May 2011

Rear Window-film review

‘Rear Window’ is a suspense film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1954.James Stewart plays a freelance photographer, Jeff, who is holed up to his apartment after breaking his leg during a dangerous assignment. He is trapped and impotent. The only two people that visit him is his nurse, Ritter, and his fashion-model girlfriend, Grace Kelly. As he is not able to leave the flat , he spends his days by watching and observing the rest of the people, who live in the courtyard.
 After a while he notices that the man of a neighbor-couple, Thorwald, makes repeated late-night walks carrying a large case. His wife disappears and then
Jeff sees Thorwald cleaning a large knife. He is convinced that has murdered his wife.
  Jeff is trapped in a restricted space and forced to sit and watching other people’s lives from a distance, as it is the only satisfaction he can get. So even when he is sure that Thorwald killed his wife he cannot really do anything about it. He cannot help or prove that he is guilty. That generates an intensely suspenseful and fascinating situation.
 The setup is amazing, as we are given peeks into the rooms of many of Jeff’s neighbors. The camera stays with him most of the time, trapped in the confines of his room, and almost all the scene in the movie is presented from within Jeff ‘s apartment. All the elements are great, script, camerawork, music, direction and acting, witch was a really difficult and impressive role for James Stewart, because of the limited space and movement.

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