Often described as one of the greatest films ever made, Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window is a master class in cinematography. To attempt to list or describe all the techniques used in design, camera and lighting would be impossible. Described below are a sample of techniques that may be helpful in writing essays about the film.

Design

 

The film is all about spaces, the action takes pace in one of two spaces, inside Jeff’s apartment and outside. Between the spaces is ‘the rear window’. The long opening shot establishes two main spaces; there is the outside world in the courtyard where everyone else lives in their own apartment, and there is the space behind Jeff, his own apartment with his furniture, photography, and people he knows. The outside is also divided in to a series of smaller spaces, the courtyard and the various apartments.

When the blinds are withdrawn in the opening credits it is reminiscent of a curtain raising in a film theatre or play. As Shakespeare wrote, ‘All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players’. In this way, Jeff amuses himself from within his space watching the others. When the investigation into Thorwald stalls and Lisa closes the blinds she announces, ‘Show’s over’.

 

 

Camera

Hitchcock is renowned for his deliberate and sophisticated use of the camera. Rear Window is no exception as it highlights the camera as an extension of the audience’s own eyes to create a sense of voyeurism. The point of view shots that slowly pan across the scene are a critical reflection of what the viewers might do in a similar situation to observe ongoing events. This creates a unique sense of shared voyeurism for both the viewer and Jeff himself. At times, after an extended pan that precisely mimics the head movement in a gazing motion, it is revealed that Jeff is not watching the window leaving the viewer to feel as they themselves were the sole voyeur.

As well as the gently panning shots that represent a casual glance, Hitchcock increases the intensity of the voyeurism with close-ups including ‘photographic vignetting’. This vignetting is shown with a fade in clarity and colour towards the sides of a frame, and this can look like a circular shadow, indicating that we are seeing something through a telescope or a long-focus lens. This elevates the looking into something more sinister or intense as it becomes a form of prying or spying.

The panning and close-ups of the neighbours are essentially ‘point of view’ (POV) shots revealing what a certain character can see. POV is essential to the voyeur theme of Rear Window; almost every shot of the courtyard is shot from the hero’s point of view. However, the POV is rarely used inside Jeff’s apartment. The two notable instances of POV interiors are this scene when Lisa kisses a sleeping Jeff with a shadow falling over his face and the climax at the end when the murderer comes into the apartment to kill Jeff. This is one of the ways in which this love scene foreshadows the attempted murder at the end.

Close-ups of Jeff, Stella and Lisa are not point of view but are used to reveal the facial expression, overt or subtle, that reveal the emotion of the characters. Included in these close-ups are examples of the Kuleshov effect. The Kuleshov effect is an editing technique whereby a sequence of two shots is used to convey information more effectively than just a single shot. Specifically, the cross-cut shifts from a shot of a person to a second shot of something that this person is watching. We see this often, particularly when Jeff is responding to events in the courtyard. Hitchcock uses this cross-cut to immediately show us what has caused Jeff’s response. This visual cue indicates to viewers that we are seeing what Jeff is seeing, and is one of the few ways that Hitchcock helps audiences assume Jeff’s point-of-view in key moments.

As well as camera movement the camera angle is still traditionally used. exemplified in the shots of Jeff and Lisa where, despite his being impotent in a chair, the camera angle over his shoulder looking down and, in return, over Lisa’s shoulder looking up bestow on him the power in this relationship.

 

 

 

Lighting

In this film, Hitchcock employs the use of light in an unusual way. Light and dark, bright and shadows have often been used to signify good and evil. Rear Window blurs these conventions inviting us to question the morality of most characters. While Thorwald, the suspected murderer, is typically seen in a darkened apartment with only the glow of a cigarette to reveal his whereabouts, like a dragon in a cave, Lisa, Stella and Jeff are also often seen retreating into the shadows of Jeff’s apartment in order to remain unseen. In one scene, a shadow slowly covers Jeff as he rolls his wheelchair away from the window to remain incognito. Adding to this is the mysterious way Hitchcock presents Lisa. In her first appearance, she foreshadows the end of the film when Thorwald will enter Jeff’s apartment to attack him as her entry, and the kissing scene is filmed more like a murder.

Through the use of lighting, audiences are persuaded to be fearful, to be anxious, and to be scared.  For Jeff, looking through the windows of his neighbour’s requires a necessary amount of light to be certain of what actions occur. When the rooms are dark, or the curtains are drawn, Jeff and the audience are unclear on what is happening. It is then that the audience joins Jeff, Lisa and Stella in simply guessing, or worrying, adding to the suspense of the film.

Light itself is manipulated by the characters. Lisa systematically turns on lamps highlighting her glamourous and stage like appearance as she announces her name: ‘Reading from top to bottom, Lisa Carol Fremont’. Characters turn off lights when they need to be hidden. Ultimately, it is the light, in the form of a flash, that Jeff uses as a weapon.