3-Minute Intro: Rear Window « Gateway Cinephiles

3-Minute Intro: Rear Window

Screened: June 4, 2008
Format: DVD - Universal (2001)
Selected By: Stephanie

With the release of his suspense masterpiece Rear Window in 1954, British-American director Alfred Hitchcock was arguably near the pinnacle of his film career. During his early work in Britainâ€”first in silent features and then talkiesâ€”Hitchcock settled comfortably into the thriller genre, where he used familiar conventions to innovate as a storyteller. After his move to Hollywood in 1940, his international recognition swelled, and by end of the 1950s he was one of the worldâ€™s most well-known and esteemed directors. That decade was arguably Hitchcockâ€™s finest period, boasting a laundry list of essential thrillers: Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest, culminating with Psycho in 1960. Rear Window stands as one of the directorâ€™s most exhilarating achievements–intricate, thoughtful, and stunningly written and shot.

The film was James Stewartâ€™s second collaboration with Hitchcock, following Rope. In 1954, Stewart was already an acclaimed actor with an imposing filmography and an envied independence from the studio system. However, Rear Window not only revealed unexpected dimensions to his talent, it made him the most popular movie star in America. Opposite Stewart is a luminous Grace Kelly, who had parleyed her success in the theater to a discriminating film career. Her previous work with Hitchcock, Dial M for Murder, garnered her significant attention, but Kelly is at the peak of her power here, in one of her juiciest and most demanding roles. Not to be overlooked is a pre-Perry Mason Raymond Burr, who delivers a menacing performance as the suspected sad-sack murderer, Thorwald.

The cunning of Rear Windowâ€™s story is easy to recognize: Stewart, as photojournalist L.B. Jeffries, is laid up in his sweltering New York apartment with a broken leg. While spying on his neighbors across the courtyard out of boredom, he sees strange events that he believes to be evidence of a murder. What Hitchcock does with this simple premise is breathtaking, crafting not only a brilliantly constructed and shot thriller, but a dense inquiry into sex, relationships, marriage, voyeurism, art, and filmmaking itself. This is Hitchockâ€™s genius: Rear Window transcends its significant technical virtues and emerges as one of the most potent films ever made about the act of watching.

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