Tuesday 11 January 2011

Evaluation of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

Alfred Hitchcock's 'Rear Window' is a Classic Thriller that is based around voyeurism. The protagonist character 'Jeff' has been made temporarily immobile from an accedent that occured whilst he was photographing for his work. As he cannot leave the house he becomes obssessive with observing his neighbors through his window and is convinced that one his neighbors has murdered somebody and is trying to undercover it, putting himself and others in danger in the process.

Conventions:


Voyeurism is a convention of classic thriller films, where by a character witnesses something they shouldn't, in 'Rear Window' Jeff witnesses his fellow neighbors perform their daily business, something which shouldn't usually be observed by onlookers outside the home. For instance when the camera is panning round the flats from the window, to resemble the man spying on the neighbours. It point of view shots momentarily pauses to watch a lady in a window brushing her hair then later on in the clip, the camera again looks in the woman's window, to show her making her breakfast, however she is portrayed as a sex object as she is shown making her breakfast in minimal clothing an with her leg stretched on the worktop. Also when she enters the room her top comes off and she bends over to retrieve it, again objectifying the female character, as the man spying in the window is looking at her body, she is shown in the kitchen, this is a typical representation of gender. A second convention of thriller films is that the protagonist is fallible and often has an 'Achilles heel' that is exploited by the antagonist. In 'Rear window' L.B.Jefferies (Jeff) is portrayed as helpless as he lays sweating in the heat in his wheelchair, he has a broken leg, this could lead to clues in the narrative, furthermore on his cast written words read  'Here lie the broken bones of L.B.Jefferies' this death reference could relate to the later narrative as well, it also shows an element of humour in the film. Additionally the film conforms to the convention that there is an everyday situation in which something extraordinary happens, for example, in this film, the narrative is set in an ordinary town setting.The protagonist is fallible and has an 'Achilles heel' that is exploited by the antagonist.

Micro-Elements:

Sound: 
Soundtrack: the soundtrack is quite fast and consists of a minor keys which are played by string instruments with loud random drum beats. The soundtrack is quite light and creates an atmospherical image of a person tip-toeing, to be unseen; like the main character who is spying on his neighbors through the window unseen.
The music lowers and a radio show hosts voice dominates over the scene until a man fiddles with the radio and static is heard which fades into a similar piece of music as to what was playing before.
Sound Effects include: a cat's 'meow', an alarm clock, kids laughter, passing cars and birds.

Camera Work: the opening begins with an establishing shot of three windows opening which hints at the theme of the thriller. It then goes on to another establishing long shot that is slowly tracking a cat as it walks up the steps where the camera then lifts up and pans across the building scanning through various windows, almost like a point of view from the main character. The speed and movement of the shots are quite slow.

Editing: The titles fade in and out over the first establishing shot and the words dissolve into eachother. continuity editing is being used with simple cuts for transitions.

Mise-En-Scene:  
Location: the opening scene is of apartments.
Costume: the costumes show that the weather is very hot as the characters are wearing little for example a woman in her apartment wearing shorts and a bra, the children in the streets playing are in their swimwear and Jeff, the main character has his pj shirt un-buttoned. The costumes also show that it's morning because their are people in pj's and an early milkman in his uniform.

Props: The alarm clock that goes off that is tied to the balcony indicates it's the morning as well as curtains being opened and morning tasks are being carried out such as shaving, eating and listening to the radio. The thermometer reads at 94*F showing it's really hot. There is evidence that the main character's profession is photography with the various props around his apartment such as the large photographs on the wall, several camera's including a broken one that indicates his accident evolved around his work and a negative of a picture that appears on a cover of a magazine that is placed on the table.
Body Language/Positioning: Jeff is very slumped and reclined as he is wheelchair bound and he is clearly unhappy about it, beads of sweat are on his forehead which help show the audience it's hot.

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